TemplateMark dingus preview is blank: browser bundle pulls browser-unsafe markdown-pdf code

[stevenobiajulu]

Summary

The live TemplateMark dingus is currently broken:

https://templatemark-dingus.netlify.app/

The right-hand preview pane stays blank. I found two issues in the historical v0.16.2 dingus build, one of which appears to be the main cause.

Main issue

The dingus imports ToPdfMake from the @accordproject/markdown-pdf package root:

https://github.com/accordproject/markdown-transform/blob/v0.16.2/packages/dingus/lib/index.js#L12

const ToPdfMake = require('@accordproject/markdown-pdf').ToPdfMake;

But the package root eagerly exports both PdfTransformer and ToPdfMake:

https://github.com/accordproject/markdown-transform/blob/v0.16.2/packages/markdown-pdf/index.js#L22-L23

module.exports.PdfTransformer = require('./lib/PdfTransformer');
module.exports.ToPdfMake = require('./lib/ToPdfMake');

That pulls in browser-unsafe PDF parsing code. In particular:

https://github.com/accordproject/markdown-transform/blob/v0.16.2/packages/markdown-pdf/src/ToCiceroMark.js#L17-L20

require('./domstubs.js').setStubs(global);
let pdfjsLib = require('pdfjs-dist/legacy/build/pdf.js');

and then:

https://github.com/accordproject/markdown-transform/blob/v0.16.2/packages/markdown-pdf/src/domstubs.js#L267-L270

exports.setStubs = function (namespace) {
  exported_symbols.forEach(function (key) {
    console.assert(!(key in namespace), "property should not be set: " + key);
    namespace[key] = exports[key];
  });
};

In the browser bundle, global resolves to window, so this tries to assign window.document and crashes startup.

Console errors include:

• Assertion failed: property should not be set: document
• Uncaught TypeError: Cannot set property document of #<Window> which has only a getter

That appears to abort initialization before the initial preview render runs.

Secondary issue

The dingus template also hard-codes this script:

https://github.com/accordproject/markdown-transform/blob/v0.16.2/packages/dingus/lib/index.pug#L19

script(src='https://twemoji.maxcdn.com/twemoji.min.js')

That URL currently returns invalid content, causing:

• Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected identifier 'World'

The Twemoji usage is here:

https://github.com/accordproject/markdown-transform/blob/v0.16.2/packages/dingus/lib/index.js#L178-L180

Expected behavior

The default sample input should render in the preview pane.

Actual behavior

The preview pane is blank.

Suggested fix

The main fix seems to be avoiding the @accordproject/markdown-pdf root import in the browser dingus bundle, or changing the package root so importing ToPdfMake does not also require PdfTransformer.

The Twemoji URL should also be updated or removed.

[Rishabh060105]

Hi, @stevenobiajulu I’ve taken the retirement-path approach for this one rather than trying to restore the removed dingus/PDF code.

What I changed

• added a static archival page under support/templatemark-dingus-retired/
• added deployment handoff notes for the Netlify site owner
• added a ready-to-use close comment for issue TemplateMark dingus preview is blank: browser bundle pulls browser-unsafe markdown-pdf code #655

Why

The live site was still serving the old v0.16.2 dingus bundle, and that bundle still has both of the problems called out in the issue:

• the browser-unsafe @accordproject/markdown-pdf import chain
• the obsolete twemoji.maxcdn.com script reference

Since packages/dingus and packages/markdown-pdf were intentionally removed from main, I treated the supported fix as retiring the stale public demo instead of reintroducing deleted functionality.

Important note

I was able to verify the replacement page locally, but I could not redeploy templatemark-dingus.netlify.app from this environment because the authenticated Netlify account here does not have access to the existing site. So this PR is mainly the repo-tracked replacement artifact plus the handoff material needed for whoever has access to that Netlify site to publish it.