How to import js-modules into TypeScript file?

I have a Protractor project which contains such a file:

var FriendCard = function (card) {
    var webElement = card;
    var menuButton;
    var serialNumber;

    this.getAsWebElement = function () {
        return webElement;
    };

    this.clickMenuButton = function () {
        menuButton.click();
    };

    this.setSerialNumber = function (numberOfElements) {
        serialNumber = numberOfElements + 1;
        menuButton = element(by.xpath('.//*[@id=\'mCSB_2_container\']/li[' + serialNumber + ']/ng-include/div/div[2]/i'));
    };

    this.deleteFriend = function () {
        element(by.css('[ng-click="deleteFriend(person);"]')).click();
        element(by.css('[ng-click="confirm()"]')).click();
    }
};
module.exports = FriendCard;

Path to the file is ./pages/FriendCard.js.

I have no problems with its import to another file using require():

var FriendCard = require('./../pages/FriendCard');

So, I've decided to import this file to the TypeScript file just like that:

import {FriendCard} from './../pages/FriendCard'

I'm using WebStorm. It tells me that (TS2305) it has no exported member 'FriendCard'.

Maybe I have to configure tsconfig.json file somehow, but I still don't know how it works. Could you help me?

You can import the whole module as follows:

import * as FriendCard from './../pages/FriendCard';

For more details please refer the modules section of Typescript official docs.

Recent Updated Solution : We need to tweak the tsconfig.json to allow JS modules import. credits to @paulmest, @ben-winding @crispen-gari solutions below.

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "allowJs": true
  }
}

I'm currently taking some legacy codebases and introducing minimal TypeScript changes to see if it helps our team. Depending on how strict you want to be with TypeScript, this may or may not be an option for you.

The most helpful way for us to get started was to extend our tsconfig.json file with this property:

// tsconfig.json excerpt:

{
  ...
  "compilerOptions": {
    ...
    "allowJs": true,
    ...
  }
  ...
}

This change lets our JS files that have JSDoc type hints get compiled. Also our IDEs (JetBrains IDEs and VS Code) can provide code-completion and Intellisense.

References:

• TypeScript - Compiler Options
• TypeScript: TSConfig Reference - Compiler Options - allowJs

In your second statement

import {FriendCard} from './../pages/FriendCard'

you are telling typescript to import the FriendCard class from the file './pages/FriendCard'

Your FriendCard file is exporting a variable and that variable is referencing the anonymous function.

You have two options here. If you want to do this in a typed way you can refactor your module to be typed (option 1) or you can import the anonymous function and add a d.ts file. See https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/issues/3019 for more details. about why you need to add the file.

Option 1

Refactor the Friend card js file to be typed.

export class FriendCard {
webElement: any;
menuButton: any;
serialNumber: any;

constructor(card) {
    this.webElement = card;
    this.menuButton;
    this.serialNumber;
}



getAsWebElement = function () {
    return this.webElement;
};

clickMenuButton = function () {
    this.menuButton.click();
};

setSerialNumber = function (numberOfElements) {
    this.serialNumber = numberOfElements + 1;
    this.menuButton = element(by.xpath('.//*[@id=\'mCSB_2_container\']/li[' + serialNumber + ']/ng-include/div/div[2]/i'));
};

deleteFriend = function () {
    element(by.css('[ng-click="deleteFriend(person);"]')).click();
    element(by.css('[ng-click="confirm()"]')).click();
}
};

Option 2

You can import the anonymous function

 import * as FriendCard from module("./FriendCardJs");

There are a few options for a d.ts file definition. This answer seems to be the most complete: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12687779/how-do-you-produce-a-d-ts-typings-definition-file-from-an-existing-javascript

2021 Solution

If you're still getting this error message:

TS7016: Could not find a declaration file for module './myjsfile'

Then you might need to add the following to tsconfig.json

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    ...
    "allowJs": true,
    "checkJs": false,
    ...
  }
}

This prevents typescript from trying to apply module types to the imported javascript.

I tested 3 methods to do that...

Method1:

      const FriendCard:any = require('./../pages/FriendCard')

Method2:

      import * as FriendCard from './../pages/FriendCard';

Method3:

if you can find something like this in tsconfig.json:

      { "compilerOptions": { ..., "allowJs": true }

then you can write: import FriendCard from './../pages/FriendCard';

I've been facing this problem for long but what this solves my problem Go inside the tsconfig.json and add the following under compilerOptions

{
  "compilerOptions": {
      ...
      "allowJs": true
      ...
  }
}