plugin-typescript

TypeScript loader for SystemJS

Overview

A plugin for SystemJS which enables you to System.import TypeScript files directly. The files are compiled in the browser and compilation errors written to the console.

plugin-typescript uses TypeScript 1.8.x
For TypeScript 1.7.5 and below use plugin-typescript 2.x.x

Starting with JSPM 0.17.0 (currently in beta) this plugin will be the officially supported mechanism for transpiling TypeScript. It provides the ability to type-check files while loading them, which is not currently possible with the built-in SystemJS TypeScript transpiler.

Installation

SystemJS

Add SystemJS map configuration for plugin-typescript and typescript:

SystemJS.config({
  packages: {
    "ts": {
      "main": "plugin.js"
    },
    "typescript": {
      "main": "lib/typescript.js",
      "meta": {
        "lib/typescript.js": {
          "exports": "ts"
        }
      }
    }
  },
  map: {
    "ts": "path/to/plugin-typescript/lib/",
    "typescript": "path/to/typescript/lib/"
  }
});

JSPM

Install plugin-typescript like this:

jspm install ts

Setup

Optionally: Make plugin-typescript the default transpiler for js and ts files

System.config({
  transpiler: "ts"
  packages: {
    "app": {
      "defaultExtension": "ts",
    }
  }
});

This will tell SystemJS to transpile all modules (.js and .ts) using plugin-typescript.

Also: For full type-checking add packages configuration

System.config({
  transpiler: "plugin-babel",
  packages: {
    "src": {
      "defaultExtension": "ts",
      "meta": {
        "*.ts": {
          "loader": "ts"
        }
      }
    }
  }
});

This will cause all .ts files in the "src" package to be loaded through plugin-typescript.

See the example projects contained within this repository for a working setup.

Configuration

Configuration settings can be passed to the compiler via "typescriptOptions":

System.config({
  typescriptOptions: {
    module: "system",
    noImplicitAny: true,
    typeCheck: true,				// also accepts "strict"
    tsconfig: true                  // also accepts a path
  }
});

All the usual TypeScript compiler options are supported, as well as these additional ones:

typeCheck

A boolean flag which controls whether the files are type-checked or simply transpiled. Type-checking does add some overhead to the build process as typings need to be loaded and the compiler has more work to do.

By default compiler errors are written to the console but the build is allowed to continue. To change this behaviour you can use typeCheck: "strict" in which case the build will be failed when compiler errors are encountered.

tsconfig

A boolean flag which instructs the plugin to load configuration from "tsconfig.json". To override the location of the file set this option to the path of the configuration file, which will be resolved using normal SystemJS resolution.

Compiler options which do not conflict with those required by plugin-typescript will be loaded from the compilerOptions section of the file. Any declaration files contained in the files array will also be loaded if type-checking is enabled.

targetLib

Specify whether to use lib.d.ts targetLib: "es5" or lib.es6.d.ts targetLib: "es6" (default)

resolveAmbientRefs

(deprecated)

A boolean flag which controls how triple-slash references are resolved. When it is set then SystemJS will be used to resolve reference files, so

/// <reference path="./common/angular.d.ts" />

will resolve relative to the current directory because of the "./", but

/// <reference path="angular2/bundles/typings/angular2/angular2.d.ts" />

will resolve to jspm_packages/npm/angular2@2.0.0/bundles/typings/angular2/angular2.d.ts

The default value is false. As it is incompatible with other tools (editors etc), this setting is deprecated in favour of using typings as described below.

supportHtmlImports

When true, the type-checker will automatically resolve any file with a .html extension to have a default export which is a string. This enables importing of html templates using plugin-text with full type-checking and no errors.
(this feature will be removed when https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/issues/6615 becomes available)

Features

Link to source from compiler errors

When compiling in the browser, compiler errors contain a link to the exact location of the error in the source. This is particularly helpful if you are using Chrome DevTools as your IDE.

Hot-Reload Support

This plugin provides incremental type-checking when using systemjs-hot-reloader See any of the example projects for a working hot-reloading setup.

External Typings Support

The plugin will automatically load typings for packages if it knows that they are present. In order tell the plugin that a package exposes external typings, use SystemJS metadata configuration which can be specified in packages configuration or in package.json overrides, or in the jspm registry.

    "overrides": {
      "npm:@angular/core@2.0.0-rc.1": {
        "meta": {
          "*.js": {
            "typings": true      // can also be path of a typings bundle
          }
        }
      }
     }

If external typings are present for all js files in the package set "typings": true. If external typings are in a single bundled file then specify the path of that file, relative to the root of the project.
For more information on setting SystemJS metadata, see here

Type-checking over Multiple Packages

The type-checker runs across multiple packages if the imported file resolves to a typescript file. This means that if you do import "mypackage/index" and that resolves to a typescript file then that import will be properly type-checked. You no longer have to handcraft an external declaration file for 'mypackage'.

Override TypeScript Version

To override the version of TypeScript used by the plugin, add an override to the jspm section of your package.json

    "devDependencies": {
        "css": "systemjs/plugin-css@0.1.10",
        "ts": "frankwallis/plugin-typescript@^4.0.5"
    },
    "overrides": {
        "github:frankwallis/plugin-typescript@4.0.5": {
     		"dependencies": {
        		"typescript": "npm:typescript@1.9.0-dev.20160430"
      		}
        }
    }

Examples

To run the example projects:

> git clone https://github.com/frankwallis/plugin-typescript.git
> cd plugin-typescript
> npm install
> cd examples/react  		// or examples/angular2 or examples/angular
> jspm install
> npm start

To bundle each example project:

> npm run build 			// or jspm bundle-sfx src build/build.js