I am using the web3.js library directly in HTML, not via Node.js to interact with my local geth node. The following code gives me an error (web3.min.js:2 Uncaught TypeError: e is not a function) when running in a minimal test website in Chrome:
document.getElementById("output").innerText = "block number: " + web3.eth.getBlockNumber();
Instead, I have to go via an asynchronous call:
web3.eth.getBlockNumber(function(err, res){document.getElementById("output").innerText = "block number: " + res; });
Is there no way to make this call synchronous? I know that it does work synchronously in the geth JS console, why is this different when using via web3.js in a browser? This is especially confusing since the wiki states:
As this API is designed to work with a local RPC node, all its functions use synchronous HTTP requests by default.
Just for completion here my complete page:
<html>
<head>
<!-- you can also download web3.min.js, this example is optimized for minimal effort -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://rawgit.com/ethereum/web3.js/master/dist/web3.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="output">default</div>
<script>
var nodeUrl = "http://localhost:8545";
var web3 = new Web3(new Web3.providers.HttpProvider(nodeUrl));
web3.eth.getBlockNumber(function(err, res){document.getElementById("output").innerText = "block number: " + res; });
//document.getElementById("output").innerText = "block number: " + web3.eth.getBlockNumber(); // not working
</script>
</body>
</html>
