gatsby-plugin-typescript

What is gatsby-plugin-typescript?

The gatsby-plugin-typescript package allows you to use TypeScript in your Gatsby project. It provides built-in support for TypeScript files, enabling type-checking and other TypeScript features within your Gatsby site.

What are gatsby-plugin-typescript's main functionalities?

TypeScript Support

This feature allows you to add TypeScript support to your Gatsby project by including the gatsby-plugin-typescript in your gatsby-config.js file.

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    'gatsby-plugin-typescript',
  ],
};

TypeScript Configuration

This feature allows you to customize the TypeScript configuration by passing options to the gatsby-plugin-typescript plugin in your gatsby-config.js file.

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    {
      resolve: 'gatsby-plugin-typescript',
      options: {
        isTSX: true, // defaults to false
        jsxPragma: 'jsx', // defaults to 'React'
        allExtensions: true, // defaults to false
      },
    },
  ],
};

Other packages similar to gatsby-plugin-typescript

typescript

The typescript package is the official TypeScript compiler and language service. It provides the core TypeScript functionality, including type-checking and transpilation. Unlike gatsby-plugin-typescript, it does not integrate directly with Gatsby but can be used in any JavaScript project.

babel-plugin-transform-typescript

The babel-plugin-transform-typescript package is a Babel plugin that allows you to use TypeScript with Babel. It strips out type annotations and compiles TypeScript code to JavaScript. This plugin can be used in conjunction with Gatsby's Babel setup, but it does not provide the same level of integration as gatsby-plugin-typescript.

ts-loader

The ts-loader package is a TypeScript loader for Webpack. It allows you to compile TypeScript files using the TypeScript compiler within a Webpack build process. While it can be used in a Gatsby project, it requires additional configuration compared to the seamless integration provided by gatsby-plugin-typescript.

README

gatsby-plugin-typescript

Allows Gatsby to build TypeScript and TSX files. Does NOT run type checking during build (see Caveats).

This plugin is automatically included in Gatsby. The only reason you would need to explicitly use this plugin is if you need to configure its options.

How to customize usage

1. Include the plugin in your gatsby-config.js file with the specific options
2. Write your components in TSX or TypeScript.
3. Run TypeScript directly or with a build tool.
4. You're good to go.

When creating pages programmatically, you can pass the .tsx filename directly as the component for createPage.

Please note: If packages don't ship with TypeScript definitions you'll need to manually install those type definitions, e.g. for React. A typical Gatsby project would need: npm install --save-dev @types/react @types/react-dom @types/node

Options

When adding this plugin to your gatsby-config.js, you can pass in options to override the default @babel/preset-typescript config.

// gatsby-config.js
module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    {
      resolve: `gatsby-plugin-typescript`,
      options: {
        isTSX: true, // defaults to false
        jsxPragma: `jsx`, // defaults to "React"
        allExtensions: true, // defaults to false
      },
    },
  ],
}

For more detailed documentation on the available options, visit https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-preset-typescript#options. To add TypeScript Babel plugins (e.g. @babel/plugin-proposal-decorators), you can try using a custom .babelrc file.

Caveats

This plugin uses babel-plugin-transform-typescript to transpile TypeScript. It does not do type checking. Also since the TypeScript compiler is not involved, the following applies:

Does not support namespaces. Workaround: Move to using file exports, or migrate to using the module { } syntax instead.

Does not support const enums because those require type information to compile. Workaround: Remove the const, which makes it available at runtime.

Does not support export = and import =, because those cannot be compiled to ES.next. Workaround: Convert to using export default and export const, and import x, {y} from "z".

Does not support baseUrl. Workaround: use gatsby-plugin-root-import and configure it to point the baseUrl value (also set baseUrl option in tsconfig.json file).

https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-transform-typescript.html

Type checking

First of all you should set up your IDE so that type errors are surfaced. Visual Studio Code is very good in this regard.

In addition, you can see the instructions in TypeScript-Babel-Starter for setting up a type-check task.