Cannot find name 'console'. (only server side)

[hongbo-miao]

I am using Angular2-Meteor, TypeScript. (Meteor version 1.3.2.4)

When I use console.log('test'); on the server side, it is working well.

However, I got this warning in my terminal:

Cannot find name 'console'.

The code for server side is very simple:

import { Meteor } from 'meteor/meteor';
Meteor.startup(() => {
    console.log('I am server');
});

I made a reproduction for this issue here.

[hongbo-miao]

Originally asked on Stack Overflow.

[derekkite]

I get the same error with FileReader, both on the client and server. It seems to not know javascript library names.

The code works just fine, these errors are in the build process.

[barbatus]

You will need to install NodeJS typings, i.e,
go to the server folder and run typings install node --ambient there.

[hongbo-miao]

@barbatus thanks, I just tried typings install node --ambient, but still does not work.

[MilosStanic]

didn't work for me, either.

[denodaeus]

Also didn't work from me, I think it must have something to do with the barbatus:typescript library and how it addresses typings -- see that stack overflow post @hongbo-miao linked to.

[denodaeus]

Also to note, it seems if we eagerly load code (put in /client and /server folders), the console log warnings from the typescript compiler go away for us. It's only when we lazily load (put everything in the imports directory, as recommended by the Meteor 1.3 meteor guide), that we actually get these warnings.

That makes me think it has something to do with packaging with meteor and what's happening converting the typescript into JS. It feels like the lazily loaded case is missing some stuff, specifically the typings as defined in that stack overflow post above, specifically: https://basarat.gitbooks.io/typescript/content/docs/types/lib.d.ts.html

[twastvedt]

@denodaeus Maybe it's something different, but I've been seeing this issue with code in a /server folder as well:

server/main.ts (78, 4): Cannot find name 'console'.

[denodaeus]

Just throwing it out here, you can make this temporarily go away (the typescript compiler warnings) by throwing this into a custom typing .d.ts:

export declare var console: any;

or just declare the var inside your class files.

A work around if you want the warnings to go away, but hopefully these guys get to the root cause of the problem.

[derekkite]

Installing node@4.0.0 (DefinitelyTyped)...

Seemed to get rid of the errors on the browser part of the build, but the server still gives errors.

[barbatus]

The issue is in that TypeScript package uses lib.core.ts default lib on the server side which doesn't have definitions for console. NodeJS definitions from other side as now defines console in the global scope only (i.e. global.console) (see for example typed-typings/env-node#1).

So, I just created a meteor typings repo https://github.com/barbatus/meteor-typings with more or less right structure, which will be hopefully added to the typings registry (https://github.com/typings/registry). In that way we have more control over structure of the definitions. For now you could try:
(Note: it's for Meteor 1.3 only)

typings install github:barbatus/meteor-typings/meteor/1.3#849703d4981a0362700062ca72c954119e55b248 --ambient

[dagatsoin]

Not using Angular but React and it perfectly works too thx to @barbatus file.

[barbatus]

It's added to the registry. Install by: typings install registry:env/meteor --ambient

[denodaeus]

@barbatus Is there a reason to create a separate meteor typings repo?

There was some work done here: https://github.com/meteor-typescript/meteor-typescript-libs

That also includes typings for a lot of the meteor modules that we would use (for example: aldeed:simple-schema)