TypeScript loader for webpack
This is the typescript loader for webpack.
Getting Started
Examples
We have a number of example setups to accomodate different workflows. From "vanilla" ts-loader, to using ts-loader in combination with babel for transpilation, happypack or thread-loader for faster builds and fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin for performing type checking in a separate process. Our examples can be found here.
Babel
ts-loader works very well in combination with babel and babel-loader. There is an example of this in the official TypeScript Samples. Alternatively take a look at our own example.
Faster Builds
As your project becomes bigger and bigger, compilation time increases linearly. It's because typescript's semantic checker has to inspect all files on every rebuild. The simple solution is to disable it by using the transpileOnly: true
option, but doing so leaves you without type checking.
You probably don't want to give up type checking; that's rather the point of TypeScript. So what you can do is use the fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin. It runs the type checker on a separate process, so your build remains fast thanks to transpileOnly: true
but you still have the type checking. Also, the plugin has several optimizations to make incremental type checking faster (AST cache, multiple workers).
If you'd like to see a simple setup take a look at our simple example. For a more complex setup take a look at our more involved example.
If you'd like to make things even faster still (I know, right?) then you might want to consider using ts-loader with happypack which speeds builds by parallelising work. (This should be used in combination with fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin for typechecking.) If you'd like to see a simple setup take a look at our simple example. For a more complex setup take a look at our more involved example.
There is a "webpack-way" of parallelising builds. Instead of using happypack you can use ts-loader with ts-loader with thread-loader and cache-loader in combination. (Again, this should be used in combination with fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin for typechecking.) If you'd like to see a simple setup take a look at our simple example. For a more complex setup take a look at our more involved example.
Installation
npm install ts-loader
You will also need to install TypeScript if you have not already.
npm install typescript
Running
Use webpack like normal, including webpack --watch
and webpack-dev-server
, or through another
build system using the Node.js API.
Configuration
-
Create or update webpack.config.js
like so:
module.exports = {
devtool: 'inline-source-map',
entry: './app.ts',
output: {
filename: 'bundle.js'
},
resolve: {
extensions: ['.ts', '.tsx', '.js']
},
module: {
loaders: [
{ test: /\.tsx?$/, loader: 'ts-loader' }
]
}
}
-
Add a tsconfig.json
file. (The one below is super simple; but you can tweak this to your hearts desire)
{
"compilerOptions": {
"sourceMap": true
}
}
The tsconfig.json file controls
TypeScript-related options so that your IDE, the tsc
command, and this loader all share the
same options.
devtool
/ sourcemaps
If you want to be able to debug your original source then you can thanks to the magic of sourcemaps. There are 2 steps to getting this set up with ts-loader and webpack.
First, for ts-loader to produce sourcemaps, you will need to set the tsconfig.json option as "sourceMap": true
.
Second, you need to set the devtool
option in your webpack.config.js
to support the type of sourcemaps you want. To make your choice have a read of the devtool
webpack docs. You may be somewhat daunted by the choice available. You may also want to vary the sourcemap strategy depending on your build environment. Here are some example strategies for different environments:
devtool: 'inline-source-map'
- Solid sourcemap support; the best "all-rounder". Works well with karma-webpack (not all strategies do)devtool: 'cheap-module-eval-source-map'
- Best support for sourcemaps whilst debugging.devtool: 'source-map'
- Approach that plays well with UglifyJsPlugin; typically you might use this in Production
Code Splitting and Loading Other Resources
Loading css and other resources is possible but you will need to make sure that
you have defined the require
function in a declaration file.
declare var require: {
<T>(path: string): T;
(paths: string[], callback: (...modules: any[]) => void): void;
ensure: (paths: string[], callback: (require: <T>(path: string) => T) => void) => void;
};
Then you can simply require assets or chunks per the webpack documentation.
require('!style!css!./style.css');
The same basic process is required for code splitting. In this case, you import
modules you need but you
don't directly use them. Instead you require them at split points. See this example and this example for more details.
TypeScript 2.4 provides support for ECMAScript's new import()
calls. These calls import a module and return a promise to that module. This is also supported in webpack - details on usage can be found here. Happy code splitting!
Declarations (.d.ts)
To output a built .d.ts file, you can set "declaration": true in your tsconfig, and use the DeclarationBundlerPlugin in your webpack config.
Compatibility
TypeScript / Webpack
ts-loader supports the latest and greatest version of TypeScript right back to v1.6.
ts-loader supports webpack 2. It may well still work with webpack 1 but it does not officially support webpack 1 any longer. Our continuous integration test suites run against webpack 2; not webpack 1.
A full test suite runs each night (and on each pull request). It runs both on Linux and Windows, testing ts-loader against major releases of TypeScript. The test suite also runs against TypeScript@next (because we want to use it as much as you do).
If you become aware of issues not caught by the test suite then please let us know. Better yet, write a test and submit it in a PR!
Failing the build on TypeScript compilation error
The build should fail on TypeScript compilation errors as of webpack 2. If for some reason it does not, you can use the webpack-fail-plugin.
For more background have a read of this issue.
Options
There are two types of options: TypeScript options (aka "compiler options") and loader options. TypeScript options should be set using a tsconfig.json file. Loader options can be set either using a query when specifying the loader or through the options
property in the webpack configuration:
module.exports = {
...
module: {
rules: [
{
test: /\.tsx?$/,
loader: 'ts-loader',
options: {
transpileOnly: true
}
}
]
}
}
Alternatively this can be configured using a query:
module.exports = {
...
module: {
loaders: [
{
test: /\.tsx?$/,
loader: 'ts-loader?' + JSON.stringify({
transpileOnly: true
}) }
]
}
}
For a full breakdown of the power of query syntax have a read of this.
Loader Options
transpileOnly (boolean) (default=false)
If you want to speed up compilation significantly you can set this flag.
However, many of the benefits you get from static type checking between
different dependencies in your application will be lost.
It's advisable to use transpileOnly
alongside the fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin to get full type checking again. To see what this looks like in practice then either take a look at our simple example. For a more complex setup take a look at our more involved example.
happyPackMode (boolean) (default=false)
If you're using HappyPack or thread-loader to parallise your builds then you'll need to set this to true
. This implicitly sets *transpileOnly*
to true
and WARNING! stops registering all errors to webpack.
It's advisable to use this with the fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin to get full type checking again. To see what this looks like in practice then either take a look at our simple HappyPack example / our simple thread-loader example. For a more complex setup take a look at our more involved HappyPack example / more involved thread-loader example. IMPORTANT: If you are using fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin alongside HappyPack or thread-loader then ensure you set the checkSyntacticErrors
option like so:
new ForkTsCheckerWebpackPlugin({ checkSyntacticErrors: true })
This will ensure that the plugin checks for both syntactic errors (eg const array = [{} {}];
) and semantic errors (eg const x: number = '1';
). By default the plugin only checks for semantic errors (as when used with ts-loader in transpileOnly
mode, ts-loader will still report syntactic errors).
getCustomTransformers ( () => { before?: TransformerFactory[]; after?: TransformerFactory[]; } )
Provide custom transformers - only compatible with TypeScript 2.3+ (and 2.4 if using transpileOnly
mode). For example usage take a look at typescript-plugin-styled-components or our test.
logInfoToStdOut (boolean) (default=false)
This is important if you read from stdout or stderr and for proper error handling.
The default value ensures that you can read from stdout e.g. via pipes or you use webpack -j to generate json output.
logLevel (string) (default=info)
Can be info
, warn
or error
which limits the log output to the specified log level.
Beware of the fact that errors are written to stderr and everything else is written to stderr (or stdout if logInfoToStdOut is true).
silent (boolean) (default=false)
If true, no console.log messages will be emitted. Note that most error
messages are emitted via webpack which is not affected by this flag.
ignoreDiagnostics (number[]) (default=[])
You can squelch certain TypeScript errors by specifying an array of diagnostic
codes to ignore.
compiler (string) (default='typescript')
Allows use of TypeScript compilers other than the official one. Should be
set to the NPM name of the compiler, eg ntypescript
.
configFileName (string) (default='tsconfig.json')
This option has been deprecated in favor of configFile
.
configFile (string) (default='tsconfig.json')
Allows you to specify where to find the TypeScript configuration file.
You may provide
- just a file name. The loader then will search for the config file of each entry point in the respective entry point's containing folder. If a config file cannot be found there, it will travel up the parent directory chain and look for the config file in those folders.
- a relative path to the configuration file. It will be resolved relative to the respective
.ts
entry file. - an absolute path to the configuration file.
visualStudioErrorFormat (boolean) (default=false)
If true
, the TypeScript compiler output for an error or a warning, e.g. (3,14): error TS4711: you did something very wrong
, in file myFile
will instead be myFile(3,14): error TS4711: you did something very wrong
(notice the file name at the beginning). This way Visual Studio will interpret this line and show any errors or warnings in the error list. This enables navigation to the file/line/column through double click.
compilerOptions (object) (default={})
Allows overriding TypeScript options. Should be specified in the same format
as you would do for the compilerOptions
property in tsconfig.json.
instance (string)
Advanced option to force files to go through different instances of the
TypeScript compiler. Can be used to force segregation between different parts
of your code.
entryFileIsJs (boolean) (default=false)
To be used in concert with the allowJs
compiler option. If your entry file is JS then you'll need to set this option to true. Please note that this is rather unusual and will generally not be necessary when using allowJs
.
appendTsSuffixTo (RegExp[]) (default=[])
appendTsxSuffixTo (RegExp[]) (default=[])
A list of regular expressions to be matched against filename. If filename matches one of the regular expressions, a .ts
or .tsx
suffix will be appended to that filename.
This is useful for *.vue
file format for now. (Probably will benefit from the new single file format in the future.)
Example:
webpack.config.js:
module.exports = {
entry: './index.vue',
output: { filename: 'bundle.js' },
resolve: {
extensions: ['.ts', '.vue']
},
module: {
rules: [
{ test: /\.vue$/, loader: 'vue-loader' },
{ test: /\.ts$/, loader: 'ts-loader', options: { appendTsSuffixTo: [/\.vue$/] } }
]
}
}
index.vue
<template><p>hello {{msg}}</p></template>
<script lang="ts">
export default {
data(): Object {
return {
msg: "world"
}
},
}
</script>
We can handle .tsx
by quite similar way:
webpack.config.js:
module.exports = {
entry: './index.vue',
output: { filename: 'bundle.js' },
resolve: {
extensions: ['.ts', '.tsx', '.vue', '.vuex']
},
module: {
rules: [
{ test: /\.vue$/, loader: 'vue-loader',
options: {
loaders: {
ts: 'ts-loader',
tsx: 'babel-loader!ts-loader',
}
}
},
{ test: /\.ts$/, loader: 'ts-loader', options: { appendTsSuffixTo: [/TS\.vue$/] } }
{ test: /\.tsx$/, loader: 'babel-loader!ts-loader', options: { appendTsxSuffixTo: [/TSX\.vue$/] } }
]
}
}
tsconfig.json (set jsx
option to preserve
to let babel handle jsx)
{
"compilerOptions": {
"jsx": "preserve"
}
}
index.vue
<script lang="tsx">
export default {
functional: true,
render(h, c) {
return (<div>Content</div>);
}
}
</script>
Or if you want to use only tsx, just use the appendTsxSuffixTo
option only:
{ test: /\.ts$/, loader: 'ts-loader' }
{ test: /\.tsx$/, loader: 'babel-loader!ts-loader', options: { appendTsxSuffixTo: [/\.vue$/] } }
LoaderOptionsPlugin
There's a known "gotcha" if you are using webpack 2 with the LoaderOptionsPlugin
. If you are faced with the Cannot read property 'unsafeCache' of undefined
error then you probably need to supply a resolve
object as below: (Thanks @jeffijoe!)
new LoaderOptionsPlugin({
debug: false,
options: {
resolve: {
extensions: ['.ts', '.tsx', '.js']
}
}
})
It's worth noting that use of the LoaderOptionsPlugin
is only supposed to be a stopgap measure. You may want to look at removing it entirely.
Contributing
This is your TypeScript loader! We want you to help make it even better. Please feel free to contribute; see the contributor's guide to get started.
License
MIT License