Appear to be getting 2 instances of globals - one in the remix serverside code (action, loader) & one in the server.js hosting code. Does that make sense?

[Nick-Minutello]

Our express/koa server initialises/configures our logging (lg4js).
The logging instance is a global.

However, it appears that when we import the logger from our action code, we are getting an un-initialised instance. How is that possible?

Is it expected?

[gustavopch]

Yes, unfortunately, it's expected.

When you import the logger from your server file, you're importing it from the app folder. When you import it from other files, what's actually running is the code in the build folder.

So you actually have two loggers: the one in (for example) app/logger.js and the one in build/server/index.js. Both are being used when you run your app.

I believe you wouldn't have that problem if you used https://github.com/kiliman/remix-express-vite-plugin because the server file wouldn't exist.

I hope the Remix team is aware that this is confusing and can find a solution in the future.

[gustavopch]

@Nick-Minutello I found a simple solution to this — inspired by remix-express-vite-plugin. Basically, move as much as you can from server.ts to entry.server.ts.

// app/entry.server.ts
// ===================

// ... Existing code.

export const createApp = (build: ServerBuild, viteDevServer: ViteDevServer): Express => {
  const app = express()

  // ... Configure your Express app (including the middlewares that will use your logger).

  return app
}

// server.ts
// ===================

// ... Existing code.

const build = viteDevServer
  ? await viteDevServer.ssrLoadModule('virtual:remix/server-build')
  : await import('./build/server/index.js' as string)

const app = build.entry.module.createApp(build, viteDevServer)

app.listen(port, () => { ... })

The "parallel dimension" only happens in server.ts, so keep as little code in it as possible and move everything you can to app/entry.server.ts so your code is in the "same dimension" as all the rest of the code of your app.

[Nick-Minutello]

Ahh, actually, that makes sense. Many thanks.

We have elected to pass the log4js singleton in via the dependency injection (context).