Compiler fails to find external module referenced by two different files

[michael-terry]

(Also posted on StackOverflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28844917/typescript-cant-find-external-module-when-referenced-by-two-different-files)

I may be missing something obvious, but Typescript's module resolver for commonjs isn't working as expected.

Given the following directory structure and files:

• ./first/shared.ts
• ./first/second/class_a.ts
• ./first/second/class_b.ts
• ./third/class_c.ts

Where:

• class_a references shared.ts
• class_b references class_a.ts and class_c.ts
• class_c references shared.ts

Specifically:

shared.ts:

class Shared{}
export = Shared;

class_a.ts:

import Shared = require('../shared');
class A{}
export = A;

class_b.ts:

import A = require('./class_a');
import C = require('../../third/class_c');
class B {}
export = B;

class_c.ts:

import Shared = require('../first/shared');
class C {}
export = C;

All compile individually, except class_b.ts, using the following compiler invocation:

tsc --module commonjs class_b.ts

Compiling class_b.ts fails with the error that it can't find shared.ts:

../../third/class_c.ts(1,25): error TS2307: Cannot find external module '../first/shared'.

Note that if you reverse the order of imports in class_b.ts, you get a different error:

class_a.ts(1,25): error TS2307: Cannot find external module '../shared'.

It seems the compiler is finding shared.ts the first time it is imported, but not the second time.

This is with tsc 1.4.1.0.

[mhegazy]

the problem is how files are named when relative path are used. as a work around, wither call the compiler from the root directory, or pass in absolute paths.

[canmrt]

@mhegazy : can you please provide an example of how to run a gulp/grunt task from the root directory to bypass this issue? Currently this is a blocker issue, since I'm using only external modules.

[mhegazy]

@canmrt how is this happening with grunt or gulp? if i understand correctly, you have a build file, possibly at the root of your project, and you will always be calling it from the same place.. is that accurate? what is the issue you are seeing?

[niemyjski]

+1 with a external module.

[sneerin]

have the same issue, without any relative path, I had next schema
server.ts -> uses few imports e.g. import require('mongoose') etc..
from server.ts I'm refering to modile dto/elmyDatasource.ts and it's working fine, once I'm adding same imports to dto/elmyDatasource.ts this module not able to find in server.ts. Is there any way to reuse imports in all files?

[sneerin]

log is next : [gulp-typescript] 2304 Cannot find name 'DBBackend'.

file: /Users/mdomarev/workspace/singularex/angular-typescript-gulp-seed/server/server.ts:
[35]

/Users/mdomarev/workspace/singularex/angular-typescript-gulp-seed/node_modules/gulp-typescript/release/output.js:161
var references = file.original.ts.referencedFiles.map(function
^
TypeError: Cannot read property 'ts' of undefined

[sneerin]

Is there any workaround for this, without this workaround I can't use external files at all

[ivogabe]

@sneerin It looks like you're using an older version of gulp-typescript, can you try upgrading to the latest release?

[sneerin]

I updated and now having even more troubles, I have a class:

 class Backend {
        public server:any;

        private dbUtils:DbUtils;

        constructor() {
          //  debug.log("starting server");
          //  this.startServer();

            debug.log("init mongo");
            this.initDb();

            debug.log("init routes");
            this.initRoutes();

        }

        startServer():void {
            this.server = restify.createServer();
            this.server.use(restify.bodyParser());
            this.server.listen('8080', ()=> {
                debug.log('listening port: 8080');
            })
        }

and this during compilation cause next that happened for commented part of the file( :

file: /Users/mdomarev/workspace/singularex/angular-typescript-gulp-seed/server/server.ts:
[66] // this.startServer();
/Users/mdomarev/workspace/singularex/angular-typescript-gulp-seed/node_modules/gulp-typescript/release/output.js:162
var references = file.original.ts.referencedFiles.map(function

[sneerin]

I don't know what's wrong, but I'm about to giveup using typescript, I did many tricks, and it finally compiles, however when I'm staring node.js sever it is said my require imports with relative path wasn't able to find.

[sneerin]

is there any good structured with classes and modules sample of code for server node.js and commonjs modules?