How can i correctly config my typescript nodejs project?

Question

I am trying to figure this out for hours but i can not solve this seemingly easy problem.

I want to write an nodejs app with typescript. I want to use the import statement like import express from 'express'; because then I get autocomplete in visual studio code. With require this does not work.

How can i export a function? What standard should i use? es6, commonjs,...?

How should i configure my tsconfig.json?

//tsconfig.json

{
  "exclude": ["node_modules"],
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "ES6" /* Set the JavaScript language version for emitted JavaScript and include compatible library declarations. */,
    "module": "ES6" /* Specify what module code is generated. */,
    "moduleResolution": "node" /* Specify how TypeScript looks up a file from a given module specifier. */,
    "outDir": "dist" /* Specify an output folder for all emitted files. */,
    "esModuleInterop": true /* Emit additional JavaScript to ease support for importing CommonJS modules. This enables 'allowSyntheticDefaultImports' for type compatibility. */,
    "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true /* Ensure that casing is correct in imports. */,
    "strict": true /* Enable all strict type-checking options. */,
    "skipLibCheck": true /* Skip type checking all .d.ts files. */
  }
}

JohannesAndersson · Accepted Answer · 2022-10-08 20:54:39Z

2

I assume that you already have nodejs installed on your computer/server. I did these steps this morning, created a new node project with typescript. You can of course choose other versions as you like.

Run command npm init -y
Run command npm install --save-dev typescript
Create tsconfig.json
add code to tsconfig.json

{ "compilerOptions": { "module": "commonjs", "esModuleInterop": true, "target": "es6", "moduleResolution": "node", "sourceMap": true, "outDir": "dist" }, "lib": ["es2015"] }
Run command npm install --save [email protected]
Run command npm install -save-dev @types/[email protected]
Create app.ts in src folder
Add code to app.ts

import express from 'express'; const app = express(); const port = 3000;

app.get('/', (req, res) => { res.send('Hello World!'); });

app.listen(port, () => { return console.log(Express is listening at http://localhost:${port}); });
Update package.json with "main": "dist/app.js"
Run command to compile ts code npx tsc
Run command node dist/app.js to execute program

answered Oct 8, 2022 at 20:54

JohannesAndersson

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3 Comments

swftowu69 Over a year ago

Thanks for the reply. This throws than an error ReferenceError: exports is not defined in ES module scope. I use in my typescript files no require anymore. Just es6 export and import. So i have to set the compiler option to : "module": "es6", , or am I wrong? After that I get the error: Error [ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND]: Cannot find module 'C:\ticketing\dist\routes\admin' imported from C:\ticketing\dist\app.js The compiled app.js has this line: import adminRouter from './routes/admin';

JohannesAndersson Over a year ago

According to this answer, yes https://stackoverflow.com/a/43999062/1349916. Try to create a new project, follow my steps and then compare with your old project.

swftowu69 Over a year ago

I fixed it. I changed import { createOrder } from '../paypal/paypal'; to import { createOrder } from '../paypal/paypal.js';

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