Upgrade Notes

In most cases, v4 should serve as a drop-in replacement for v2 and v3. However, due to changes in the browser backend, various tweaks related to process handling (e.g., worker counts, and so on) may now have different effects than before.

Significant changes have been made to the API for using the server as a Node.js module. While a compatibility layer has been created to address this, it is recommended to transition to the new API described below. It is worth noting that the compatibility layer may be deprecated at some point in the future.

An important note is that the Export Server now requires Node.js v18.12.0 or a higher version.

Additionally, with the v3 release, we transitioned from HTTP to HTTPS for export.highcharts.com, so all requests sent to our public server now must use the HTTPS protocol.

Changelog

Breaking Changes:

Reordered the error and info arguments in the callback of the startExport function.
Renamed the environment variables for a better representation of their roles (refer to all envs in the README's Environment Variables section).
Renamed the HIGHCHARTS_MODULES environment variable to HIGHCHARTS_MODULE_SCRIPTS.
Renamed the HIGHCHARTS_INDICATORS environment variables to HIGHCHARTS_INDICATOR_SCRIPTS.
Renamed the POOL_LISTEN_TO_PROCESS_EXITS environment variable to OTHER_LISTEN_TO_PROCESS_EXITS.
Renamed the customCode section of the options config to the customLogic in order to avoid confusion with the existing customCode property within.
Renamed the scripts property in the highcharts section of the options config to the customScripts.
Renamed the initPool function to initExport in the main module.
Renamed the init function to initPool in the pool module.

New Features:

Implemented debug mode, including new environment variables, a config section, 'console' event listener, and npm script for debugging the headful Puppeteer browser.
Added the HIGHCHARTS_CACHE_PATH option available through .env to set a custom directory for the fetched files.
Added a moving average indicator for the exporting success rate ratio.

Enhancements:

Improved server-related error handling by introducing new centralized error middlewares.
Improved overall error handling by adding a main try-catch block to correctly capture and log errors occurring throughout the code.
Introduced two new types of custom errors: ExportError for functionality-related errors and HttpError for server-related errors.
Introduced a new error logging mechanism with stack tracing using new function called logWithStack.
Expanded some error logs with request IDs.
Set headless mode to 'shell' for better performance, utilizing an older yet more efficient headless instance.
Set the defaultViewport to null and optimized code to trigger setViewport only once, reducing performance impact during export.
Removed unnecessary initial page on browser launch using waitForInitialPage and the --no-startup-window Chrome flag.
Revised Chromium flags sent to the browser, now located in the args array within the config file.
Optimized code by reducing evaluate function calls to enhance performance and minimize jumping between NodeJS and browser processes.
Optimized and moved chart creation initialization scripts from the HTML template to a separate module named highcharts.js.
Optimized the clearPage function to ensure content cleaning is only performed once, during resource release.
Introduced the hardResetPage option for resetting the page's content (including Highcharts scripts) each time the page is released to the pool (defaulting to false).
Introduced the browserShellMode option for controlling the mode in which the browser runs (new or old, shell mode).
Optimized creating and acquiring pages from the pool.
Optimized adding and releasing additional JS and CSS resources.
Made corrections for gracefully shutting down resources, including running servers, ongoing intervals, browser instance, created pages, and workers pool.
Updated createImage and createPDF functions with faster execution options including optimizeForSpeed and quality.
Set waitUntil to 'domcontentloaded' for setContent and goto functions to improve performance.
Replaced browser's deprecated isConnected() with the connected property.
Added information on all available pool resources.
Numerous minor improvements for performance and stability.
Moved the listenToProcessExits from the pool to the other section of the options.
Replaced the temporary benchmark module with a simpler server benchmark for evaluating export time.
Removed unnecessary separate body-parser package (already implemented in Express v4.16+).
Added parsing of envs based on zod package.
Added unit tests for certain parts of the code.
Added the shutdownCleanUp function for resource release (ending intervals, closing servers, destroying the pool and browser) on shutdown. It will be called in the process exit handlers.
Added new environment variables (HIGHCHARTS_ADMIN_TOKEN, SERVER_BENCHMARKING, and OTHER_NODE_ENV) to the .env.sample file, along with their descriptions in the README.
Added a new section to the server configuration options, proxy, along with corresponding environment variables.
Added several new functions to the highcharts-export-server module, including initPool, logWithStack, setLogLevel, enableFileLogging, manualConfig, printLogo, and printUsage.
Added a new initLogging function where the setLogLevel and enableFileLogging logic are consolidated into one place.
Added a new utility function, isObjectEmpty.
Added a new logging level (5) for benchmarking logs.
Added legacy names of options to the defaultConfig and mapToNewConfig function in order to support the old, PhantomJS-based structure of options.
Added a new process event handler for the SIGHUP signal.
Added mapChart and ganttChart constructors in the exporting UI (#503).
Added the series-on-point module (#532).
Updates were made to the config.js file.
Updated the killPool function.
The uncaughtException handler now kills the pool, browser, and terminates the process with exit code 1, when enabled.
The browser instance should be correctly closed now when an error occurs during pool creation.
Corrected error handling and response sending in the /change_hc_version.js route.
Corrected the handleResources function.
Corrected samples, test scenarios, and test runners.
Bumped versions of most packages, with an updating deprecated Puppeteer from v21.1.1 to latest.
Added missing Highcharts modules to stay up-to-date with the latest updates.
Added missing JSDoc descriptions.
Revamped all log messages, error messages, prompt messages, and info for improved clarity of information.
README has been revised and corrected by incorporating additional information, improving descriptions, adding missing details, including new API information, and expanding with new sections such as Debugging, Available Endpoints, Examples, and a Note about Deprecated Options.
Updated Wiki pages with a new Samples section.

Fixes:

Fixed multer related error: 'Field value too long'.
Fixed the SSL handshake error (#307).
Fixed missing background color transparency (#492).
Fixed missing foreignObject elements issue.
Fixed type compatibility issues in the pairArgumentValue function, arising from CLI string arguments.
Fixed the 'httpsProxyAgent is not a constructor' issue with the https-proxy-agent module.
Fixed the issue of being unable to run both HTTP and HTTPS servers simultaneously.
Fixed the issue with the multiselect type of values in prompt functionality triggered by the --createConfig option.
Fixed the error handling in the postWork function which resulted in doubled errors.
Fixed the deprecated description of the pool from the generic-pool to tarn notation, triggered by the getPoolInfo and getPoolInfoJSON functions.
Fixed the issue of not gracefully terminating the process when an error occurs and a pool or browser already exists.
Fixed the 'Could not clear the content of the page... - Target closed' error.
Made minor corrections to ESLint and Prettier configuration.
Other minor stability, linting and text corrections have been implemented.

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4.0.1

Upgrade Notes

Changelog

Releases: highcharts/node-export-server

V4.0.2

V4.0.1

4.0.1

V4.0

Upgrade Notes

Changelog

2.0.16

2.0.15