Module not found: Can't resolve 'ApiClient' in '\node_modules\docusign-esign\src' When running SERVER-SIDE

[sjkcodes]

HI there,

I'm getting Module not found: Can't resolve 'ApiClient' in '\node_modules\docusign-esign\src' from my API route.

I see that this error is normally associated with users trying to run the client from the browser, but my code is definitely server-side.

I'm using NextJS 13.

Anyone else encountering this issue?

[ByungjaeChung]

I guess the docusign-esign package was damaged so the src/ApiClient file no longer exists. Could you please remove the current package and reinstall the latest version in your application?

[sjkcodes]

I've confirmed that I'm on the latest version 6.3.0 and the src/ApiClient file exists in node_modules

[ByungjaeChung]

Based on my knowledge, NextJS is used as a Frontend framework, not a server-side. I found this post that addresses this issue on NextJS official page: https://nextjs.org/docs/messages/module-not-found#the-module-youre-trying-to-import-is-not-installed-in-your-dependencies

Hope this helps!

[romariclaurent]

Getting the same issue here using next 14. Did you manage to get it work ?

I can confirm that nextjs has the ability the define backend api routes with a nodejs runtime.

[nicolassanmar]

I'm using Next and I'm getting this same exact error when migrating from the pages router to the app router. Importing docusign-esign in the app router (in a route.ts file, which only executes on the server side) causes this Can't resolve 'ApiClient' Did you mean './ApiClient'? error.

I tried this on Next 13 and Next 14 and encountered the same issue on both.

I tried to solve this by fiddling with webpack resolver aliases: (https://webpack.js.org/configuration/resolve/#resolvealias), and was able to make the error change to Can't resolve 'Configuration' or various other modules, but was ultimately unable to make this work. Any help is appreciated

[nicolassanmar]

I think that the issue might come from these lines of code: https://github.com/docusign/docusign-esign-node-client/blob/e54536ac33f339fdff3fe695d774d830e333a0e1/src/index.js#L11-L18

I'm not really sure, but I think that in the pages router the else if condition gets executed (which works), while the if condition gets executed on the app router (which does not work)

[nicolassanmar]

@sjkcodes @romariclaurent I was able to fix this by adding the following to the next.config.js file:

module.exports = {
      ...
      experimental: {
        serverComponentsExternalPackages: ['docusign-esign'],
      },
}

Unfortunately, now I'm getting other errors that are preventing me from migrating to the app router, but might fix your problem!

[thutter]

Same issue here with Next.js 14 using pages router.

[renanadstest]

As @nicolassanmar added in Nov 7th answer serverComponentsExternalPackages should be provided in your next.config.js in case you want to use our SDK with Next.js. Don't forget to import docusign-esign library with require (CommonJS) not with import (ESM). More can be seen in Next.js documentation about this option.

[jamespdaubert]

I followed what nicolassanmar said above:

@sjkcodes @romariclaurent I was able to fix this by adding the following to the next.config.js file:

module.exports = {
      ...
      experimental: {
        serverComponentsExternalPackages: ['docusign-esign'],
      },
}

Unfortunately, now I'm getting other errors that are preventing me from migrating to the app router, but might fix your problem!

And also had "other errors" -- namely, when running npm run build it would fail on linting (after successfully compiling). Changing my import statement from

import docusign from 'docusign-esign';

to

const docusign = require('docusign-esign');

fixed it and got my code compiling, as renanadstest suggested above.

[sonawane-sanket]

Thanks, @nicolassanmar, for providing a solution here! I really appreciate your help in resolving this issue for our SDK users.

@sjkcodes @romariclaurent, can you please confirm if you've been able to resolve the issue you were facing, or are you still encountering problems?

[jamespdaubert]

@sonawane-sanket I am no longer facing issues after adding the above. However, at the very least, I think documentation should be updated to reflect this limitation. This solution was difficult to track down, and without finding it, I would not have been able to use DocuSign with NextJS.

[arheinjohnson]

I am facing this issue as well, can the documentation be updated to help us understand how to write a NextJS API route that uses docusign-esign? This is still unclear to me

[ritzcod3]

I solved this issue by creating a server component with "use server" on the top of the page. I was using nextjs 14 and had docusign esign version 8.0.1.

I also updated my next.congif.mjs file to include experimental: { serverComponentsExternalPackages: ['docusign-esign'] },

[bayurzxsmtp]

This worked for me

// next.config.ts

import type { NextConfig } from "next";

const nextConfig: NextConfig = {
  serverExternalPackages: ['docusign-esign'],
  // Remove the experimental wrapper and directly use serverExternalPackages
};

export default nextConfig;