BREAKING CHANGE: drop support for XMLHttpRequest and remove cross-fetch

[v1rtl]

This PR removes support for XMLHttpRequest as it is not used widely anymore for fetching things. Fetch API no longer requires a polyfill on Node.js, and is supported by all major browsers and runtimes.

See compatibility table: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/fetch#browser_compatibility and: https://caniuse.com/fetch

For environments that don't support fetch (such as IE11) - they should install a fetch polyfill in their projects.

It also removes dependency on cross-fetch as it is not needed anymore. Node.js supports fetch natively since 18.x. I've added an engines.node field to notify that minimum node 18 is required.

Since it's a breaking change, in my opinion a semver major bump is required.

Checklist

• [x] only relevant code is changed (make a diff before you submit the PR)
• [x] run tests npm run test
• [x] tests are included
• [x] commit message and code follows the Developer's Certification of Origin

Checklist (for documentation change)

• [ ] only relevant documentation part is changed (make a diff before you submit the PR)
• [ ] motivation/reason is provided
• [ ] commit message and code follows the Developer's Certification of Origin

[adrai]

XMLHttpRequest is only used as fallback... if no fetch is available... Also cross-fetch is only used if fetch is not available... At runtime there should be no difference on modern environments of having or not having the XMLHttpRequest and/or cross-fetch "logic" in i18next-http-backend or not... So what hurts in keeping i18next-http-backend like is it now for a longer while?

[v1rtl]

@adrai unnecessary code being downloaded by browsers and package managers. Other packages might also import cross-fetch but with another version, resulting in dependency duplication.

[adrai]

Do you have an actual issue with the current i18next-http-backend version? Do you need to have this merged soon? Because of what?

[v1rtl]

@adrai there's no urgency of it getting merged, I just submitted a PR as a general ecosystem cleanup. That's done so that modern environments aren't slowed down by unnecessary polyfills.

[adrai]

My concern is, I know there are users out there having still the need for this fallbacks... if I merge this now, there risk is high there will be more github issues, etc... asking for bringing back support etc... Would you be ready to respond to those github issues?

[adrai]

@adrai there's no urgency of it getting merged, I just submitted a PR as a general ecosystem cleanup. That's done so that modern environments aren't slowed down by unnecessary polyfills.

ok, then let's keep this PR open for a while...

[v1rtl]

@adrai

1. in case of fallbacks, they should pin a version to the previous major. This is very simple, just doing a ^major... works. Stuff might break only if it's imported without specifying a version, which is a risk of it's own anyway. Any further bugfixes can be backported to previous major if needed, in case there's an urgent security bug.
2. I labeled it as "BREAKING CHANGE" specifically for preserving compat, so that other projects who don't need all these fallbacks and polyfills (which are the majoeity) don't have to download/pull the code.
3. yes, I'm ready to fix it if there's any issues arising with it.

[adrai]

will come back to this in 6-7 months...

[v1rtl]

@adrai thanks for reaching out and taking time to look at the PR! I'll ping in 6 months in case of anything

[adrai]

fyi: a new version has been released that addresses an issue with Deno 2... With this change, the getFetch.cjs is not necessary anymore and I rechecked this PR again... I asked some devs I know are still using Node.js 16 and other environments like Electron etc... It would be better if we keep the support for them for a while. Beside that if we would also drop the XMLHttpRequest support, there would be no real difference to the i18next-fetch-backend module.

[biast12]

Mmmm so i just tried that update..... it completely crashes my app The error:

[vite] X [ERROR] Top-level await is not available in the configured target environment ("chrome87", "edge88", "es2020", "firefox78", "safari14" + 2 overrides)
[vite]     node_modules/i18next-http-backend/esm/request.js:37:16:
[vite]       37 │     fetchApi = (await import('cross-fetch')).default;
[vite]          ╵                 ~~~~~
[vite] 19.35.11 [vite] error while updating dependencies:
[vite] Error: Build failed with 1 error:
[vite] node_modules/i18next-http-backend/esm/request.js:37:16: ERROR: Top-level await is not available in the configured target environment ("chrome87", "edge88", "es2020", "firefox78", "safari14" + 2 overrides)
[vite]     at failureErrorWithLog (C:\Path\to\the\app\node_modules\esbuild\lib\main.js:1651:15)
[vite]     at C:\Path\to\the\app\node_modules\esbuild\lib\main.js:1059:25
[vite]     at C:\Path\to\the\app\node_modules\esbuild\lib\main.js:1527:9
[vite]     at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)

[adrai]

fyi: https://github.com/i18next/i18next-http-backend/issues/158

[razor-1]

It would be nice for this to have been a major version change, since it's breaking (even though the fix is trivial). But thank you for making it easy to find and resolve.

[adrai]

It would be nice for this to have been a major version change, since it's breaking (even though the fix is trivial). But thank you for making it easy to find and resolve.

I did not know before releasing, the default vite settings has problems with that. That's why I did not a major bump.

[adrai]

v2.7.0 has now been deprecated and v3.0.0 was released

[smman89]

v2.7.0 has now been deprecated and v3.0.0 was released

This didn't solve the problem

[adrai]

v2.7.0 has now been deprecated and v3.0.0 was released

This didn't solve the problem

@smman89 have you read the changelog?

fix for Deno 2 and removal of unnecessary .cjs file
for esm build environments not supporting top-level await, you should import the i18next-http-backend/cjs export or stay at v2.6.2

for vite https://github.com/i18next/i18next-http-backend/issues/158#issuecomment-2488663775:

Have you tried to adapt the config? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/72618944/get-error-to-build-my-project-in-vite-top-level-await-is-not-available-in-the

that should do the trick:

https://github.com/i18next/i18next-http-backend/issues/158#issuecomment-2488690194 Alternatively, change your import like this: import backend from 'i18next-http-backend/cjs'

[adrai]

v3.0.1 tries to remove the top-level await

[v1rtl]

why was this PR closed?

[adrai]

why was this PR closed?

because of this tldr; we will not remove cross-fetch and XMLHttpRequest for now, if you only want to use the in-built native fetch, use i18next-fetch-backend