require('soop') fails in the browser

[brianosaurus]

When I try to require soop in the browser (chrome) it fails (from the JS console):

require('bitcore') Object {Buffer: function, bignum: (...), base58: (...), bufferput: (...), buffertools: (...)…}

require('soop') TypeError: boolean is not a function

[ryanxcharles]

Soop isn't really designed for the browser. Bitcore has its own way of compiling soop for the browser. Are you writing a project that uses both soop and bitcore? Have you compiled them both separately for the browser?

[brianosaurus]

I was just going through the example on bitcore.io to listen for block, tx, and inv messages. It's the example that begins with:

var bitcore = require('bitcore');
var networks = bitcore.networks;
var Peer = bitcore.Peer;
var PeerManager = require('soop').load('bitcore/PeerManager', {
  network: networks.testnet
});

[matiu]

Please check:

https://github.com/bitpay/bitcore/blob/master/examples/example.html

[ryanxcharles]

You can only use PeerManager from node, not the browser.

[maraoz]

@brianosaurus You might need to create a little node service that connects to a bitcoind instance and relays messages via websockets to the browser. Check https://github.com/bitpay/insight-api/blob/master/lib/PeerSync.js for the p2p connection to bitcoind stuff, and https://github.com/bitpay/insight-api/blob/master/app/controllers/socket.js for a simple example of using socket.io to broadcast the messages to the browser

[maraoz]

I'll make some tests regarding using only the browser to connect to bitcoind, but I'm not sure it's possible :)

[maraoz]

OK, I created a html example using PeerManager and couldn't make it work. It runs, but the Peer never connects. https://github.com/maraoz/bitcore/blob/sample/PeerManager-browser/examples/PeerManager.html

After digging a little, I realized it seems that browserify cannot automatically convert the 'net' module. So for now, PeerManager is not usable in the browser. The only solution I see is trying to implement the 'net' module for the browser, but I don't know if that's even possible. There's seems to be someone attempting that already, but the repo is empty: https://github.com/jryans/net-browserify