Unhandled electron-log error TypeError: The "path" argument must be of type string. Received undefined

[douglascayers]

Summary

👋 Hello, thanks for this great project!

I'm converting a typescript project from CJS to ESM (😭) and I encountered an issue in one of my tests that uses code that uses electron-log.

In my original code base, I dynamically imported electron-log/main when it was needed, but with the ESM version of my project I now statically import it import electronLogMain from 'electron-log/main.js';. Not sure if that's related, just giving some context.

In any case, it seems electron isn't initialized in my new world like it had been and so electron.app.name or electron.app.getName() return undefined, which led to the following error message:

Unhandled electron-log error TypeError: The "path" argument must be of type string. Received undefined
        at new NodeError (node:internal/errors:405:5)
        at validateString (node:internal/validators:162:11)
        at Object.join (node:path:1171:7)
        at ElectronExternalApi.getAppLogPath (/path/to/app/node_modules/electron-log/src/node/NodeExternalApi.js:17:19)
        at ElectronExternalApi.getPathVariables (/path/to/app/node_modules/electron-log/src/node/NodeExternalApi.js:95:31)
        at initializeOnFirstAccess (/path/to/app/node_modules/electron-log/src/node/transports/file/index.js:84:23)
        at getFile (/path/to/app/node_modules/electron-log/src/node/transports/file/index.js:117:5)
        at transport (/path/to/app/node_modules/electron-log/src/node/transports/file/index.js:60:18)
        at Logger.processMessage (/path/to/app/node_modules/electron-log/src/core/Logger.js:173:11)
        at Logger.logData (/path/to/app/node_modules/electron-log/src/core/Logger.js:129:10)
        at Object.newScope.<computed> (/path/to/app/node_modules/electron-log/src/core/scope.js:26:42)
        at Object.<anonymous> (/path/to/app/node_modules/jest-mock/build/index.js:794:25)
        at /path/to/app/node_modules/jest-mock/build/index.js:397:39
        at Object.<anonymous> (/path/to/app/node_modules/jest-mock/build/index.js:404:13)
        at Object.mockConstructor [as info] (/path/to/app/node_modules/jest-mock/build/index.js:148:19)

Digging into the electron-log code, I identified the two methods that were impacted:

class ElectronExternalApi extends NodeExternalApi {
  getAppName() {
    try {
      return electron.app?.name || electron.app?.getName();
    } catch {
      return super.getAppName();
    }
  }

  getAppVersion() {
    try {
      return electron.app?.getVersion();
    } catch {
      return super.getAppVersion();
    }
  }

  ...
}

Note that the super fallback is only called if an error was caught, not also if electron.app.xyz was undefined.

Expected Result

• When electron.app.name or electron.app.getName() or electron.app.getVersion() return undefined then fallback to calling the super method just as when catching an error.

Actual Result

• Error thrown Unhandled electron-log error TypeError: The "path" argument must be of type string. Received undefined

Versions

"electron-log": "^5.1.0"
"electron": "^28.2.0"
"jest": "^29.7.0"
"typescript": "^5.3.3"

Node v18.18.0