Importing node and express with typings in TypeScript

Question

I am trying to set up a TypeScript express/node application in Visual Studio Code following the Microsoft guide but changing it to use TypeScript however when it comes to installing the type definitions using typings I seem to have to install more packages than the guide.

I'm running the following pair of commands:

typings install node --ambient --save
typings install express --ambient --save

However attempting to build with just those packages gives the following type of error:

error TS2307: Cannot find module 'serve-static'.

For the following typings:

mime
express-serve-static-core
serve-static

I can resolve this by installing the required typings but it seems like something typings should do by itself.

I wanted to check if I was missing a fundamental step to automatically pull in dependencies or whether the guide was outdated?

In case it's relevant, my tsconfig.json:

{
    "compilerOptions": {
        "target": "es5",
        "module": "commonjs",
        "sourceMap": true,
        "outDir": "bin",
        "sourceRoot": "src"
    },
    "exclude": [
        "node_modules",
        "typings/browser.d.ts",
        "typings/browser"
    ]
}

My tsc is version 1.8.7 and I have typescript installed globally.

While it would be great if it pulled the ambient declarations today, it currently doesn't and it likely won't change. See [this issue](https://github.com/typings/typings/issues/113) as well as [this comment](https://github.com/typings/typings/issues/281#issuecomment-192551121) — chrisbajorin, Mar 15 '16 at 17:30
Just a side note that "ambient" is deprecated now: `typings ERR! deprecated The "ambient" flag is deprecated. Please use "global" instead` — Musa Haidari, Aug 23 '16 at 10:06

Josh1billion · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-19T20:03:27.800

31

As of the release of TypeScript 2.0 last month, the recommended tool for installing typings is our trusty old friend npm instead of typings or tsd.

npm install @types/node --save

With npm, there's no need to worry about "global" or "ambient" installations anymore.

You also don't need to worry about adding <reference> tags to the top of your source files anymore; just drop the following property into your compilerOptions in tsconfig.json, and the TypeScript compiler will automatically find the npm typings you've installed:

"typeRoots": [ "node_modules/@types" ]

Here's a blog post that explains the change in some more detail: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/typescript/2016/06/15/the-future-of-declaration-files/

edited Oct 19 '16 at 20:03

answered Oct 19 '16 at 16:04

Josh1billion

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`@types`modules are defined as the default for typedeclarations in typescript 2. For this reason `"typeroots" : [ "node_modules/@types` ]` is unnecessary as long as it is the only typing folder. – Samuel Kupferschmid Oct 26 '16 at 12:00
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This is incredible! What a life-saver. Typings was become quite the pain in the arse – Angad Nov 05 '16 at 07:58
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I haven't had any time to look at TypeScript for a long while but this seems to work for me now. I've changed this to the accepted answer. – Underscore Nov 06 '16 at 12:17

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

8

The tutorial I linked has now been updated to include the following commands:

typings install node --ambient
typings install express serve-static express-serve-static-core --ambient

See @cdbajorin 's comment for information about why dependencies are not automatically downloaded.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community

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answered Mar 27 '16 at 15:49

Underscore

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_--ambient_ has been renamed to _--global_ in [typings-1.0.0](https://github.com/typings/typings/releases/tag/v1.0.0) – Stewart Francis May 17 '16 at 13:55
2

Also (as far as I can make out) the default repository for installation is now npm. There's a new repository added called env which contains type declarations for environments (such as node). I used: `typings install env~node@4.0.0 --save --global` Not sure if the situation with the global dependencies of your dependencies has changed with this. – Stewart Francis May 17 '16 at 13:59

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 14 '16 at 10:26

2

to save everyone a headache, the magic command to get the typings for node is now:

typings install node --source env --global --save

answered Oct 14 '16 at 10:26

Will Munn

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Importing node and express with typings in TypeScript

3 Answers3

Linked