CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptnode.jstypescriptnode-modules
dinika saxena
dinika saxena

Reputation: 141

Should libraries be shipped as typescript files?

I am using a Postgres client as a dependency in my simple node js server. I noticed that this dependency has built and published itself as .ts files, instead of .js files. Is that a norm/good-practice? I've usually seen libraries being packages as vanilla js files and (optionally) declaring their types in .d.ts files. Currently, I have to use allowTsInNodeModules in my webpack.config.ts to use this dependency, and I get the following error without using this flag:

ERROR in ./node_modules/pgeon/postgres-client.ts
Module build failed (from ./node_modules/ts-loader/index.js):
Error: TypeScript emitted no output for /home/dinika/src/expenses-server-node/node_modules/pgeon/postgres-client.ts. By default, ts-loader will not compile .ts files in node_modules.
You should not need to recompile .ts files there, but if you really want to, use the allowTsInNodeModules option.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1388

Answers (1)

evelynhathaway
evelynhathaway

Reputation: 1887

This is not a best practice nor the norm. The developer of that library should likely read how to publish TypeScript packages.

A summary is they should have a main and types key in their package.json and be compiling their TypeScript to declarations and JavaScript (*.d.ts and *.js files).

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions