Tag: node

To run Typescript in Node, you can either compile the code in advance, or at runtime. Doing this at runtime is convenient, since you probably would be compiling + running the code at the same time every time you run your application.

The easiest way I’ve found to do this is to install ts-node:

npm install ts-node

Then make a small index.js script, which functions as a shim. All the Express.js code can then be moved into a Typescript file.

index.js:

// Fix incompatibility between React 15 and different Webkit versions
delete Object.assign;
Object.assign = require("object.assign").shim();

// Allow Node to read JSX files
require("node-jsx").install({extension: ".jsx"});

// Allow Node to read TS + TSX files
require("ts-node").register();

require("./app.ts")["init"]();

In the app.ts file, you can add all of the regular Express initialization things, as you’d expect, but now you can use types:

function init() {
 const express = require("express");
 const router = express.Router();

 router.use(function (req,res,next) {
    next();
  });
}

export { init as init };

I wrapped the entire thing in a function, which is exported and called by the main index.js script.