Package installed from npm still has Q in d.ts file

[DSakura207]

Hi,
I am now writing an tfs web application. When I compile my application, tsc complains:
node_modules/vso-node-api/FileContainerApi.d.ts(1,20): error TS2307: Cannot find module 'q'. node_modules/vso-node-api/VsoClient.d.ts(1,20): error TS2307: Cannot find module 'q'.

In FileContainerApi.d.ts:

import Q = require('q');
import VsoBaseInterfaces = require('./interfaces/common/VsoBaseInterfaces');
import FileContainerApiBase = require("./FileContainerApiBase");
...

If I remove the import and replace Q.Promise with Promise, compilation is good.

Here are my question:
Is it safe for me to remove them?
Do I need any special setting for tsconfig? Current I have "target": "es6".

Thanks!

[bgavrilMS]

I think you're missing the typings for Q.

[bgavrilMS]

Here's a project that we wrote that uses vsts-node-api https://github.com/Microsoft/tfsgit-pr-injector/blob/master/typings.json

[DSakura207]

Thanks! It works perfectly. Can you please give me some hints for the reason? I am new to NodeJS and TypeScript.

[bgavrilMS]

Sure. Typescript is a superset of javascript, and many libraries are still in pure javascript. So typescript came up with the concept of typings - a way to wrap existing js libraries in a typescript interface. Have a look at q.d.ts from the typings directory for an example - it's quite human readable. You'll note that you don't need typings for vsts-node-api, because it's already written in typescript.

So now there are a few repositories of "typings", communities making sure old javascript libs can easily be used in typescript projects. Check out https://github.com/typings/typings for how to easily pull them in your nodejs + typescript proj.

To get back to your error - although you had installed the q module, typescript could not use Q.Promise because it's missing a typings file that links the ts interface for the underlying js logic.