CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascripttypescriptmoduleshared-libraries
Andreas Gassmann
Andreas Gassmann

Reputation: 6544

Typescript library: Hide internal exports

I am building a library in typescript that is being published via npm.

In the index.ts, which is the starting point of the library, all the public classes and enums are exported.

import { MyClass } from './internal/my-class'
import { MyEnum } from './internal/my-enum'
export { MyClass, MyEnum }

This works well, but I noticed that users are able to import internal functions/classes etc. as well by using a direct path to the file.

// in a project that installed my library as an npm dependency
import { InternalClass } from 'my-lib/dist/internal/internal-class'

Is there a way to prevent this?

I need to "export" InternalClass because I'm importing and using it throughout my library, but I don't want to expose it publicly. I tried using namespaces, but couldn't really get it to work.

Upvotes: 22

Views: 4914

Answers (3)

Fr3ddyDev
Fr3ddyDev

Reputation: 474

You should set the stripInternal flag in your tsconfig.json (or from the command line) to true and use tsdoc comments with the @internal tag.

// internal/my_file.ts
/** @internal */
export function myInternalFunction() {}

Note that this will remove the function from the type declarations, so it that it will not autocomplete in editors, but if you really need to hide internal details I suggest you bundle your code using Rollup with the TypeScript plugin.

Upvotes: 18

Rex Pan
Rex Pan

Reputation: 2420

Using microbundle or similar tools to bundle your package. It should generate 1 file and your users can only import from that entry point.

Upvotes: 3

Δ O
Δ O

Reputation: 3710

I don't think you can.

I suppose you can use TS's modules to compile into JS's IIFE, as described by Lucas Morgan here, but I there's not much point doing that. If you publish open source, there's no stopping anyone from extracting any part of your code.

Upvotes: -2

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