Any news on updating the Lithium SDK to support newer versions of NodeJS?
It's stuck at version 8.3.x currently and Apple Silicon Macs are only supported by NodeJS 16.x and newer.
Couple that with the SDK not officially being supported on Windows and it's looking bleak for the current SDK workflow going forwards.
I know Aurora is in the works but that's not likely to address this issue before it becomes a problem for people, our company is looking to transition the Mac estate over to Apple Silicon machines in the next 12 months and we don't have confirmed plans to shift to Aurora in that timeframe for our community.
Testing with an Apple Silicon Mac, I can confirm that out of the box you'll not be able to install the required versions of NodeJS that the Community SDK currently supports.
There is however a workaround to get the SDK running on an Apple Silicon Mac that I'd like to share.
In order to install and run NodeJS version 8.3.0 you'll need to switch terminal over to the X86_64 architecture, there are 2 options for this.
Option 1:
Change Terminal in Finder to always open using Rosetta.
Note: All terminal sessions will then default to the x86_64 emulation, this is fine if you don't use the terminal for other items in your workflow, however if you use the Terminal for anything else this might cause problems for you.
To do this in Finder navigate to your Applications Folder > Utilities and open the Properties for Terminal (Command + I) then check the box to Open using Rosetta as shown below:
Option 2
Selectively tell the Terminal session you have open to run in the X86_64 instruction set. This requires you to run the following command before interacting with the SDK every time you run a terminal session.
arch -x86_64 zsh
This second option is less disruptive for people who may use the terminal for other workflows, however does come with the caveat that you need to run this command every time you open a new terminal window and want to interact with the SDK.
Using either of the options above you should be able to install the SDK and use it as per the instructions on the community in the same way that Intel Macs are currently supported.
@AshishKeSuzieH Updating the SDK for newer versions of Node.js really should be on the roadmap. Forcing us to use these Byzantine workarounds is not good customer support. Furthermore, using these VERY old versions of Node.js is not secure, which is not a professional look for Khoros.
@AshishKeSuzieH Updating the SDK for newer versions of Node.js really should be on the roadmap. Forcing us to use these Byzantine workarounds is not good customer support. Furthermore, using these VERY old versions of Node.js is not secure, which is not a professional look for Khoros.
This second option is less disruptive for people who may use the terminal for other workflows, however does come with the caveat that you need to run this command every time you open a new terminal window and want to interact with the SDK.
Hi SuzieH , updating the Plugin SDK to support later versions of nodeJS is in our backlog. We will look into this further and see how best it can be planned.
AshishKeSuzieH I'm very concerned that there might be serious security issues using such an old version of Nodejs. 8.3.0 was released August 2017. And also concerned that the more we update my Mac or Windows machines, the closer it gets to not being at all compatible with current OS's. I already have to use workarounds to install it on my Mac BigSur, using Node Version Manager both to install it and swap out to a higher verion when I have to do other work requiring Nodejs.
