Error: Cannot find module 'js-yaml' when running "bower install"

Question

I am walking through basic set up of an AngularJS application (Just getting started) and am currently trying to install Bower components for the application.

When I run bower install from the terminal, I get the following error:

Error: Cannot find module 'js-yaml'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:337:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:287:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:366:17)
    at require (module.js:385:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (Path\bower\node_modules\configstore\index.js:9:12)
    at Module._compile (module.js:425:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:432:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:311:12)
    at Module.require (module.js:366:17)
    at require (module.js:385:17)

I haven’t specified js-yaml module anywhere in my scripts (as far as I am aware), so not sure where this dependency is coming from.

I have tried deleting the node_modules folder, clearing the npm cache, including js-yaml within the package.json file then re-running npm install, but I get the same error when running bower install

If it helps, my bower.json and package.json files are shown below:

Bower.json

{
  "name": "starter-node-angular",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "dependencies": {
    "bootstrap": "latest",
    "font-awesome": "latest",
    "animate.css": "latest",
    "angular": "latest",
    "angular-route": "latest"
  }
}

package.json

{
  "name": "starter-node-angular",
  "main": "server.js",
  "dependencies": {
    "express" : "~4.5.1",
    "mongoose" : "~3.8.0",
    "body-parser" : "~1.4.2",
    "method-override" : "~2.0.2",
    "js-yaml" : "latest"
  }
}

I am using WebStorm 10.0.4 (empty project as the starting point).

Has anyone come across this or a similar issue and possible point me in the right direction on how to resolve the issue?

Tyche

Modify the package.json file to look like this and then do npm install. When that finish, then do bower install – Enate

Hi Lucio, Thanks for the feedback. I will try out the solutions offered later today. In the meantime, could you explain what "js-yaml" : "latest" is doing versus "js-yaml" : "*" ? Just what to understand the difference. – Tyche

I couldn't see anywhere on the npm documentation to use latest to get the latest version of a package, the * is used for that. Doing so might install the package hence solving your problem. – Enate

Answer 1

Running sudo npm install -g js-yaml first should get you in the right direction.

Crossopterygian

This answer clicked it for me. I just closed Webstorm and run it again as admin. Worked fine post doing this. – Tyche

note that along with running webstorm as Admin, I also included --save in the npm command to save the dependency to the package.json file. – Tyche

Answer 2

My guess is that its not related to your application but bower is broken. Try reinstall it:

$ npm uninstall bower

And then reinstall it like this:

$ npm install -g bower

That solved it for me.

Matheny

appears this error after install bower: npm ERR! code 1 – Marquez