Setup TS project in Node

Basic Setup

To set up a TypeScript project in Node.js using the TypeScript compiler (tsc), follow these steps:

1. Install the TypeScript compiler by running npm install -g typescript . This will install the TypeScript compiler globally on your system, allowing you to run it from the command line.

2. Create a new directory for your project and navigate to it.

3. Run tsc --init to create a tsconfig.json file in your project directory. This file is used to configure the TypeScript compiler and specify the options for your project.

4. Open the tsconfig.json file in a text editor and set the "outDir" option to specify the directory where you want the compiled JavaScript files to be placed. For example:

   {
   "compilerOptions": {
       "outDir": "./build"
   }
   }

5. Create a src directory in your project and add a TypeScript file to it. For example, you might create a file called src/index.ts with the following contents:

   function greet(name: string) {
     console.log(`Hello, ${name}!`);
   }
   
   greet("World");

6. Run tsc to compile your TypeScript code. This will generate a JavaScript file in the build directory with the same name as your TypeScript file, in this case build/index.js.

7. Run node build/index.js to execute the compiled JavaScript file. This should print "Hello, World!" to the console.

   That's it! You've set up a TypeScript project in Node.js using the tsc compiler.

Nodemon to Automatically Update

To add nodemon to a TypeScript project, you will need to install it as a development dependency:

1. Run npm install --save-dev nodemon to install nodemon and add it to the devDependencies section of your project's package.json file.

2. Create a script in the package.json file that runs nodemon with the TypeScript compiler. For example:

   {
   "scripts": {
       "start": "nodemon -e ts --exec 'tsc && node'"
   }
   }
   info

   This script tells nodemon to watch for changes to TypeScript (.ts) files and, when a change is detected, to run the TypeScript compiler (tsc) and then execute the compiled JavaScript file with node.

3. To start the project with nodemon, run npm start. This will start the TypeScript compiler in watch mode and nodemon will automatically restart the app when it detects a change to your TypeScript files.

   tip

   Note: If you want to specify the entry point for your app, you can modify the script to include the path to your main TypeScript file. For example:

   "start": "nodemon -e ts --exec 'tsc -p src && node src/index.js'"

   This script tells nodemon to run the TypeScript compiler with the -p src option to specify the src directory as the root of the TypeScript project, and to execute the compiled JavaScript file at src/index.js with node.