CODEWITHSUNDEEP
node.jstypescriptdefinitelytyped
JerryKur
JerryKur

Reputation: 7519

TypeScript getting error TS2304: cannot find name ' require'

I am trying to get my first TypeScript and DefinitelyTyped Node.js application up and running, and running into some errors.

I am getting the error "TS2304: Cannot find name 'require' " when I attempt to transpile a simple TypeScript Node.js page. I have read through several other occurrences of this error on Stack Overflow, and I do not think I have similar issues. I am running at the shell prompt the command:

tsc movie.server.model.ts.

The contents of this file are:

'use strict';

/// <reference path="typings/tsd.d.ts" />

/*    movie.server.model.ts - definition of movie schema */

var mongoose = require('mongoose'),
Schema = mongoose.Schema;

var foo = 'test';

The error is thrown on the var mongoose=require('mongoose') line.

The contents of the typings/tsd.d.ts file are:

/// <reference path="node/node.d.ts" />
/// <reference path="requirejs/require.d.ts" />

The .d.ts file references were placed in the appropriate folders and added to typings/tsd.d.ts by the commands:

tsd install node --save
tsd install require --save

The produced .js file seems to work fine, so I could ignore the error. But I would appreciate knowing why this error occurs and what I am doing wrong.

Upvotes: 651

Views: 889902

Answers (24)

kucherenkovova
kucherenkovova

Reputation: 734

I've been struggling from this issue as well. I believe that this works for all release candidates aka rc but I didn't test it though. For @angular rc.2 it works well.

  1. Add core-js as npm dependency in package.json
  2. run typings install core-js --save
  3. remove all "es6-shim" occurances in your package.json. You don't need it anymore.

Cheers!

Upvotes: 2

Joshua Dyck
Joshua Dyck

Reputation: 2173

If you are using Yarn v3 and see this error (cannot find name require) or other node related "cannot find" errors in VSCode, make sure you have Yarn's VSCode sdk plugin installed and have selected the workspace version of Typescript.

Command to install the sdks:

yarn dlx @yarnpkg/sdks

To set the Typescript version:

  1. Select a Typescript file
  2. Press Command + Shift + P
  3. Type Typescript: Select Typescript Version
  • Select "Use Workspace Version"

See https://yarnpkg.com/getting-started/editor-sdks#vscode for more details.

Upvotes: 0

basquith16
basquith16

Reputation: 103

import * as mongoose from 'mongoose'

Upvotes: 4

cgatian
cgatian

Reputation: 22994

Quick and Dirty

If you just have one file using require, or you're doing this for demo purposes you can define require at the top of your TypeScript file.

declare var require: any

TypeScript 2.x

If you are using TypeScript 2.x you no longer need to have Typings or Definitely Typed installed. Simply install the following package.

npm install @types/node --save-dev

The Future of Declaration Files (6/15/2016)

Tools like Typings and tsd will continue to work, and we’ll be working alongside those communities to ensure a smooth transition.

Verify or Edit your src/tsconfig.app.json so that it contains the following:

...
"types": [ "node" ],
"typeRoots": [ "../node_modules/@types" ]
...

Make sure is the file in the src folder and no the one on the root app folder.

By default, any package under @types is already included in your build unless you've specified either of these options. Read more

TypeScript 1.x

Using typings (DefinitelyTyped's replacement) you can specify a definition directly from a GitHub repository.

Install typings

npm install typings -g --save-dev

Install the requireJS type definition from DefinitelyType's repo

typings install dt~node --save --global

Webpack

If you are using Webpack as your build tool you can include the Webpack types.

npm install --save-dev @types/webpack-env

Update your tsconfig.json with the following under compilerOptions:

"types": [
      "webpack-env"
    ]

This allows you to do require.ensure and other Webpack specific functions.

Angular CLI

With CLI you can follow the Webpack step above and add the "types" block to your tsconfig.app.json.

Alternatively, you could use the preinstalled node types. Keep in mind this will include additional types to your client-side code that are not really available.

"compilerOptions": {
    // other options
    "types": [
      "node"
    ]
  }

Upvotes: 965

Matt
Matt

Reputation: 243

As approved answer didn't mention possibility to actually create your own typings file, and import it there, let me add it below.

Assuming you use npm as your package manager, you can:

npm i @types/node --save-dev

Then in your tsconfig file:

tsconfig.json

"include": ["typings.d.ts"],

Then create your typings file:

typings.d.ts

import 'node/globals'

Done, errors are gone, enjoy TypeScript :)

Upvotes: 4

Farida Anjum
Farida Anjum

Reputation: 569

For me it is resolved by adding types to the angular compiler options.

"angularCompilerOptions": {
"fullTemplateTypeCheck": true,
"strictInjectionParameters": true,
"types": [ "node" ]
}

Upvotes: 6

HankCa
HankCa

Reputation: 9629

I've yet another answer that builds upon all previous ones that describe npm install @types/node and including node in tsconfig.json / compilerOptions / types.

In my case, I have a base tsConfig.json and a separate one in the Angular application that extends this one:

{
    "extends": "../../tsconfig.json",
    "compilerOptions": {
        "outDir": "../out-tsc/app",
        "types": []
 },

My problem was the empty types in this tsconfi.app.json - it clobbers the one in the base configuration.

Upvotes: 4

Hearen
Hearen

Reputation: 7828

Just for reference, I am using Angular 7.1.4, TypeScript 3.1.6, and the only thing I need to do is to add this line in tsconfig.json:

    "types": ["node"], // within compilerOptions

Upvotes: 11

Aavgeen singh
Aavgeen singh

Reputation: 443

If you are facing this issue in a .ts file which is only there to provide you some constant values, then you can just

rename your .ts file to .js file

and the error will not come again.

Upvotes: -3

Nadav SInai
Nadav SInai

Reputation: 489

This answer relates to modern setups (TypeScript 2.x, Webpack > 2.x)

You don't need to install @types/node (which is all of Node.js types and is irrelevant for front-end code, actually complicating things such as setTimout different return values, etc..

You do need to install @types/webpack-env

npm i -D @types/webpack-env

which gives the runtime signatures that Webpack has (including require, require.ensure, etc.)

Also make sure that your tsconfig.json file has no set 'types' array -> which will make it pickup all type definitions in your node_modules/@types folder.

If you want to restrict search of types you can set the typeRoot property to node_modules/@types.

Upvotes: 14

mihaa123
mihaa123

Reputation: 1338

Electron + Angular 2/4 addition:

On top of adding the 'node' type to ts.config various files, what eventually worked for me was adding the next to the typings.d.ts file:

declare var window: Window;
interface Window {
  process: any;
  require: any;
}

Note that my case is developing with Electron + Angular 2/4. I needed the require on the window global.

Upvotes: 2

Darshan Ballal
Darshan Ballal

Reputation: 19

Add the following in tsconfig.json:

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

Upvotes: 1

skaveesh
skaveesh

Reputation: 439

Sometime missing "jasmine" from tsconfig.json may cause this error. (TypeScript 2.X)

So add

"types": [
  "node",
  "jasmine"
]

to your tsconfig.json file.

Upvotes: 2

Mike Eshva
Mike Eshva

Reputation: 1160

If you can compile code, but Visual Studio 2015 marks 'require' functions as errors with error text cannot find name 'require' or cannot resolve symbol 'require', update TypeScript for Visual Studio 2015 to the latest version (at the moment 2.1.5) and update ReSharper (if you use it) to at least version 2016.3.2.

I had this annoying problem for a while and couldn't find a solution, but I finally resolved it this way.

Upvotes: 1

Thomas
Thomas

Reputation: 304

I couldn't get the 'require' error to go away by using any of the tricks above.

But I found out that the issue was that my TypeScript tools for Visual Studio where an old version (1.8.6.0) and the latest version as of today is (2.0.6.0).

You can download the latest version of the tools from:

TypeScript for Visual Studio 2015

Upvotes: 1

h22a
h22a

Reputation: 506

In my case, it was a super stupid problem, where the src/tsconfig.app.json was overriding the tsconfig.json setting.

So, I had this in tsconfig.json:

    "types": [
      "node"
    ]

And this one in src/tsconfig.app.json:

    "types": []

I hope someone finds this helpful, as this error was causing me gray hairs.

Upvotes: 49

Rupesh Kumar Tiwari
Rupesh Kumar Tiwari

Reputation: 967

Make sure you have installed npm i @types/node

Upvotes: 1

AlexStack
AlexStack

Reputation: 17381

I found the solution was to use the TSD command:

tsd install node --save

Which adds/updates the typings/tsd.d.ts file and that file contains all the type definitions that are required for a node application.

At the top of my file, I put a reference to the tsd.d.ts like this:

/// <reference path="../typings/tsd.d.ts" />

The require is defined like this as of January 2016:

declare var require: NodeRequire;

interface NodeModule {
    exports: any;
    require: NodeRequireFunction;
    id: string;
    filename: string;
    loaded: boolean;
    parent: any;
    children: any[];
}

Upvotes: 7

Vidish Datta
Vidish Datta

Reputation: 192

Just in addition to cgatian's answer, for TypeScript 1.x

If you are still seeing errors, please specifically provide index.d.ts in your compiler options.

"files": [
    "typings/index.d.ts"
]

Upvotes: 1

Jordan
Jordan

Reputation: 2361

For TypeScript 2.x, there are now two steps:

  1. Install a package that defines require. For example:

    npm install @types/node --save-dev

  2. Tell TypeScript to include it globally in tsconfig.json:

    {
    "compilerOptions": {
        "types": ["node"]
    }
}

The second step is only important if you need access to globally available functions such as require. For most packages, you should just use the import package from 'package' pattern. There's no need to include every package in the tsconfig.json types array above.

Upvotes: 139

Ayman Nedjmeddine
Ayman Nedjmeddine

Reputation: 12689

  1. Did you specify what module to use to transpile the code?
    tsc --target es5 --module commonjs script.ts
    You must do that to let the transpiler know that you're compiling NodeJS code. Docs.

  2. You must install mongoose definitions as well
    tsd install mongoose --save

  3. Do not use var to declare variables (unless necessary, which is a very rare case), use let instead. Learn more about that

Upvotes: 1

Benny Bottema
Benny Bottema

Reputation: 11493

I took Peter Varga's answer to add declare var require: any; and made it into a generic solution that works for all .ts files generically by using the preprocess-loader:

  1. install preprocessor-loader:

    npm install preprocessor-loader

  2. add the loader to your webpack.config.js (I'm using ts-loader for processing TypeScript sources):

    module: {
        loaders: [{
            test: /\.tsx?$/,
            loader: 'ts-loader!preprocessor?file&config=preprocess-ts.json'
        }]
    }
  1. Add the configuration that will add the workaround to every source:
{
    "line": false,
    "file": true,
    "callbacks": [{
        "fileName": "all",
        "scope": "source",
        "callback": "(function shimRequire(source, fileName) { return 'declare var require: any;' + source; })"
    }]
}

You can add the more robust require.d.ts the same way, but declare var require: any; was sufficient in my situation.

Note, there's a bug in preprocessor 1.0.5, which cuts off the last line, so just make sure you have an extra line space return at the end and you'll be fine.

Upvotes: 5

P Varga
P Varga

Reputation: 20229

You can

declare var require: any

Or, for more comprehensive support, use DefinitelyTyped's require.d.ts

Also, instead of var mongoose = require('mongoose'), you could try the following 

import mongoose from 'mongoose' // or
import mongoose = require('mongoose')

Upvotes: 84

Hurricane
Hurricane

Reputation: 1544

Instead of:

'use strict';

/// <reference path="typings/tsd.d.ts" />

Try: 

/// <reference path="typings/tsd.d.ts" />

'use strict';

i.e. reference path first.

Upvotes: 10

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