Override webpack crypto function by ejecting React Apps v4 - unblocking node version upgrades

[harsh183]

Successfully verified with Node versions 18, 20 and 22 (latest). I think we should be able to upgrade our node, react and any other major versions after this.

After a false start #810, I was able to use a minor version upgraded version of react scripts to eject. After ejecting, I was able to override the MD4 algorithm to SHA256 (stackoverflow).

The underlying issue in #789 was that openssl just permanently blocked MD4 (insecure since the 90s) while webpack 4 was using it. Upgrading to webpack 5 was a lot of work (#810) with dubious benefits, so a simpler solution was to patch the encryption algorithm used to something modern.

Edit: Don't forget to squash merge

[harsh183]

Looks like yarn build works on both places, but yarn test breaks on CI but not locally due to path imports not working exactly the same. Hopefully a small-ish bug to resolve.

[angrave]

FYI (not relevant to the current problem .. just an FYI that might trip you up; be sure check the logs) "yarn test "on CI github actions will fail if there no tests. (this is currently true in our main branch and could be true in your PRs)

[angrave]

@harsh183 Maybe "/Users/harsh183/Experiments/FrontEnd/src" in package.json ....should just be 'src' ? :-)

"modulePaths": [
      "/Users/harsh183/Experiments/FrontEnd/src"
    ],

[angrave]

Strange that the Docker.yaml is failing. As a quick sanity test I created an almost empty PR based on staging -
#814

• which builds okay.

Something that prevents yarn from contacting ct-dev.ncsa.illinois.edu to create public/config.js ?
I expected to see-
info: Config file downloaded and written for new backend server https://ct-dev.ncsa.illinois.edu>
(But I can't reproduce this locally; i.e. I can remove config/config.js and running "yarn" will happily recreate it.)
Update: the log line
error: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open './public/config.js'
is not a real error, and can be ignored.

[angrave]

I was able to reproduce the github actions build error by trying to create the docker image locally,
docker build -t whatever .
Cause: The Dockerfile needed to be updated to copy the new directories (build/ and config/) into the image.

[angrave]

I'm okay merging this in - assuming there's no other changes you want to add at this time.

[angrave]

LGTM

In the future, if we add Babel configs etc, be sure to update Dockerfile to copy them into the image

[harsh183]

Oh, I had no idea it would need Docker changes, thanks for debugging! In theory, create react scripts is not supposed to change anything functionally but just expose the abstraction out. Glad we don't have the starter template things anymore now

[harsh183]

@harsh183 Maybe "/Users/harsh183/Experiments/FrontEnd/src" in package.json ....should just be 'src' ? :-)

"modulePaths": [
      "/Users/harsh183/Experiments/FrontEnd/src"
    ],

I love create-react-app facebook devs not understanding the differences between filepaths