TypeScript

Installation

1. Run the TypeScript installer

bundle exec rails webpacker:install:typescript

After that, a new file called hello_typescript.ts will be present in your packs directory (or rather the source_entry_path of your webpacker.yml configuration). You’re now ready to write TypeScript.

(Optional) Adding Compile-Time Type Checking

The default installation only transpiles your TypeScript code using Babel. If you would like to enable type checking as part of the Webpack compilation process (i.e. fail the build if there are TS errors), you can do the following:

1. Install the Fork TS Checker Webpack Plugin

    yarn add --dev fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin
   

2. Then add it to your development environment config in config/webpack/development.js

    const ForkTsCheckerWebpackPlugin = require("fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin");
    const path = require("path");
   
    environment.plugins.append(
      "ForkTsCheckerWebpackPlugin",
      new ForkTsCheckerWebpackPlugin({
        typescript: {
          configFile: path.resolve(__dirname, "../../tsconfig.json"),
        },
        async: false,
      })
    );
   

   If you are using fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin older than 5.0, the tsconfig option also needs to be specified:

    const ForkTsCheckerWebpackPlugin = require("fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin");
    const path = require("path");
   
    environment.plugins.append(
      "ForkTsCheckerWebpackPlugin",
      new ForkTsCheckerWebpackPlugin({
        // this is a relative path to your project's TypeScript config
        tsconfig: path.resolve(__dirname, "../../tsconfig.json"),
        // non-async so type checking will block compilation
        async: false,
      })
    );
   

Upgrading to 5.1

If you update your App to webpacker >= 5.1 and had TypeScript installed before, you need to add some new/remove some old configurations:

1. Remove old packages:
   • yarn remove ts-loader
2. Add new packages:
   • yarn add @babel/preset-typescript
3. Remove old configuration files:
   • Delete this file: config/webpack/loaders/typescript.js
4. Remove the following lines from config/webpack/environment.js:
   • const typescript = require('./loaders/typescript')
   • environment.loaders.prepend('typescript', typescript)
5. Add the TypeScript preset to your babel.config.js:
   • This line ['@babel/preset-typescript', { 'allExtensions': true, 'isTSX': true }] has to be added as the last item to the presets array in your babel.config.js

Upgrading to 5.1 for Vue users

1. Remove old packages:
   • yarn remove ts-loader pnp-webpack-plugin
2. Follow point 3 and 4 from the TypeScript with Vue components section

TypeScript with React

1. Setup react using Webpacker react installer. Then run the TypeScript installer

bundle exec rails webpacker:install:typescript

1. Rename the generated hello_react.js to hello_react.tsx. Make the file valid TypeScript and now you can use TypeScript, JSX with React.

TypeScript with Vue components

1. Setup Vue using the Webpacker Vue installer. Then run the TypeScript installer

bundle exec rails webpacker:install:typescript

1. Rename generated hello_vue.js to hello_vue.ts.
2. Install the right Babel preset: yarn add babel-preset-typescript-vue
3. Change the generated babel.config.js from

["@babel/preset-typescript", { "allExtensions": true, "isTSX": true }]

to

["babel-preset-typescript-vue", { "allExtensions": true, "isTSX": true }]

and now you can use <script lang="ts"> in your .vue component files. See the babel-preset-typescript-vue docs for more info.

HTML templates with TypeScript and Angular

After you have installed Angular using bundle exec rails webpacker:install:angular you would need to follow these steps to add HTML templates support:

1. Use yarn to add html-loader

yarn add html-loader

1. Add html-loader to config/webpack/environment.js

environment.loaders.append('html', {
  test: /\.html$/,
  use: [{
    loader: 'html-loader',
    options: {
      minimize: true,
      removeAttributeQuotes: false,
      caseSensitive: true,
      customAttrSurround: [ [/#/, /(?:)/], [/\*/, /(?:)/], [/\[?\(?/, /(?:)/] ],
      customAttrAssign: [ /\)?\]?=/ ]
    }
  }]
})

1. Add .html to config/webpacker.yml

  extensions:
    - .elm
    - .coffee
    - .html

1. Setup a custom d.ts definition

// app/javascript/hello_angular/html.d.ts

declare module "*.html" {
  const content: string
  export default content
}

1. Add a template.html file relative to app.component.ts

<h1>Hello </h1>

1. Import template into app.component.ts

import { Component } from '@angular/core'
import templateString from './template.html'

@Component({
  selector: 'hello-angular',
  template: templateString
})

export class AppComponent {
  name = 'Angular!'
}

That’s all. Voila!