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I want to be able to have inline TypeScript in an ASPX (or Razor) page that is converted to Javascript when the page compiles.

So:

<script type="text/typescript" runat="server">
    ...
</script>

Becomes...

<script type="text/javascript">
    ...
</script>

It should happen at the same point that @ or <% %> blocks are converted.

This should be possible at run time with some kind of page post-processing, but that won't generate exceptions at compile time - I want to find errors in the script at the same time as any C# code.

Ideally TypeScript intellisense and the like should work in the inline <script> block, which makes me think that this should be a VS2012 extension.

Is there any way to do this?

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0

4 Answers 4

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8

The short answer is no.

You could write a TypeScript file and paste the compiled JavaScript in, but that's as close as you'll get. One practical problem would be that if the compiler transformed your TypeScript into JavaScript, you would lose your TypeScript code. This is why you have a TypeScript file and a JavaScript file.

What's the compelling reason to put the script inline rather than referencing an external script - maybe there is another solution to your problem that doesn't require inline scripts?

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6 Comments

Why? I don't lose the content of a <% %> or @{ } block. My reasons for using inline blocks are rather too long and a bit off topic here.
@keith the content of <% and %> remains the same at runtime. It is not transformed. You're missing the point.
@x0n ASP.Net definitely compiles, though depending on config it can compile JIT (when the first user visits the ASPX page) or compile in advance (resulting in every ASPX page being reduced to an empty placeholder). The content of <% %> is not output in the browser, but it can also be picked up by the compiler and warn in VS. I want a TS block to behave like a special case of a <% %> block.
If the question is "can this be done" the answer is no - there isn't a way to do this. If the question is "could this be done" - it could be, although you would need an implementation of the compiler running on the server and something to pass it the string and output the result. You would also need to extend Visual Studio to perform static analysis on the block of text, otherwise you wouldn't get any type checking at design time.
@Keith I'm not saying Visual Studio doesn't do it. I'm saying nothing does this. Not Visual Studio, not Web Essentials, not an alternative plugin. There is nothing that does this. If you wrote a plugin - it would be the first!
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4

You could create a server-control that compiles the code at runtime, and caches it:

[DefaultProperty("Text")]  
[ToolboxData("<{0}:TypeScript runat=server></{0}:TypeScript>")]  
public class TypeScript : WebControl  
{  
    public string Text { get; set; }

    protected override void RenderContents(HtmlTextWriter output)  
    {  
        output.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Type, "text/javascript");  
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(this.ID))
        {
            output.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Id, this.ID);  
        }
        output.RenderBeginTag("script");
        output.Write(CompileToJavaScript(Text));
        output.RenderEndTag();
    }

    private string CompileToJavaScript(string typeScript)
    {
        // TODO: Call tsc with the code, and return the result.
    }
}

You might be able to compile tsc.js with JScript.NET, if you care to implement the IO-layer, and weed out some JScript.Net (not JavaScript) syntax errors.

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1 Comment

+1 and I like that idea, but it has two problems: the compilation of TS will be run-time (like my post-processor idea) losing a lot of TS's advantages. Also to VS2012 the content of the control will just be plain text.
2

  • have a work around for it, what I do is declare the variables needed from razor in a script tag

    <script type="text/javascript">

//Razor variables initialized here and declared in the TypescriptFile.ts file

var url = "@Url.Action("NewRequest", "Request")";

</script>

  • next declare the url variable in the Typescript file

    //TypescriptFile.ts
declare var url: string;
alert(url);

  • use it

  • sad to see that Visual Studio 2013 still does not provide server side support.

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2 Comments

Cheers, but that's not really what I'm asking about. I want to parse TypeScript code blocks inline in the page server side, rather than include code nuggets in Javascript.
Cheers Keith, thanks for commenting. sure, I understand what you want, need it too, but according to channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2013/9-006, it doesn't seem to be happening now, maybe soon enough. I had posted this answer because people read this thread sometimes with such requirement and this could help :)
0

Although it's not a real solution to your problem, but why don't you leave your TypeScript code as is in <script type="text/typescript"> and use Typescript Compile to have it compiled at runtime?

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1 Comment

Because then you get none of the compile time advantages of TS, and a large JS library/compile overhead gets added for the user. You get all the problems and none of the advantages.

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