Migrating from pre-2.8

When migrating from a version older than ArangoDB 2.8 please note that starting with ArangoDB 2.8 the behavior of the require function more closely mimics the behavior observed in Node.js and module bundlers for browsers, e.g.:

In a file /routes/examples.js (relative to the root folder of the service):

• require('./my-module') will be attempted to be resolved in the following order:

  1. /routes/my-module (relative to service root)
  2. /routes/my-module.js (relative to service root)
  3. /routes/my-module.json (relative to service root)
  4. /routes/my-module/index.js (relative to service root)
  5. /routes/my-module/index.json (relative to service root)

• require('lodash') will be attempted to be resolved in the following order:

  1. /routes/node_modules/lodash (relative to service root)
  2. /node_modules/lodash (relative to service root)
  3. ArangoDB module lodash
  4. Node compatibility module lodash
  5. Bundled NPM module lodash

• require('/abs/path') will be attempted to be resolved in the following order:

  1. /abs/path (relative to file system root)
  2. /abs/path.js (relative to file system root)
  3. /abs/path.json (relative to file system root)
  4. /abs/path/index.js (relative to file system root)
  5. /abs/path/index.json (relative to file system root)

This behavior is incompatible with the source code generated by the Foxx generator in the web interface before ArangoDB 2.8.

Note: The org/arangodb module is aliased to the new name @arangodb in ArangoDB 3.0.0 and the @arangodb module was aliased to the old name org/arangodb in ArangoDB 2.8.0. Either one will work in 2.8 and 3.0 but outside of legacy services you should use @arangodb going forward.

Foxx queue

In ArangoDB 2.6 Foxx introduced a new way to define queued jobs using Foxx scripts to replace the function-based job type definitions which were causing problems when restarting the server. The function-based jobs have been removed in 2.7 and are no longer supported at all.

CoffeeScript

ArangoDB 3.0 no longer provides built-in support for CoffeeScript source files, even in legacy compatibility mode. If you want to use an alternative language like CoffeeScript, make sure to pre-compile the raw source files to JavaScript and use the compiled JavaScript files in the service.

The request module

The @arangodb/request module when used with the json option previously overwrote the string in the body property of the response object of the response with the parsed JSON body. In 2.8 this was changed so the parsed JSON body is added as the json property of the response object in addition to overwriting the body property. In 3.0 and later (including legacy compatibility mode) the body property is no longer overwritten and must use the json property instead. Note that this only affects code using the json option when making the request.

Bundled NPM modules

The bundled NPM modules have been upgraded and may include backwards-incompatible changes, especially the API of joi has changed several times. If in doubt you should bundle your own versions of these modules to ensure specific versions will be used.

The utility module lodash is now available and should be used instead of underscore, but both modules will continue to be provided.