Typescript definition file with submodules

Question

I'm using the Vortex Web JavaScript library within my TypeScript source code which provides the dds object. Here's a snippet:

var runtime = new dds.runtime.Runtime();
runtime.connect("ws://localhost:9000", "user:pass");

var chatTopic = new dds.Topic(0, 'ChatMessage');
runtime.registerTopic(chatTopic);

For this library I want to write a definition file.

Here's my current attempt:

declare module VortexWebClient {

    interface TopicQos {
        new (): TopicQos;
    }

    interface Topic {
        new (domainID: number, topicName: string): Topic;
        new (domainID: number, topicName: string, tqos: TopicQos): Topic;
        new (domainID: number, topicName: string, tqos: TopicQos, topicType: string): Topic;
        new (domainID: number, topicName: string, tqos: TopicQos, topicType: string, typeName: string): Topic;
    }   

    interface Runtime {
        new (): Runtime;
        connect(server: string, authToken: string);
        disconnect();
        registerTopic(topic: Topic);
    }

    interface runtime {
        Runtime: Runtime;
    }


    export interface DDS {
        runtime : runtime;
        Topic : Topic;
        VERSION: string;
    }


}

declare var dds: VortexWebClient.DDS;

This works but it looks to me that there should be a better way using the export keyword. Especially listing all the members for the DDS interface at the bottom (there are still a lot more to write) should be avoided.

I tried many different ways, one of them was the following. It should avoid explicitly creating the dds interface which is just a wrapper so to say:

declare module DDS {

    export interface TopicQos {
        new (): TopicQos;
    }

    export interface Topic {
        new (domainID: number, topicName: string): Topic;
        new (domainID: number, topicName: string, tqos: TopicQos): Topic;
        new (domainID: number, topicName: string, tqos: TopicQos, topicType: string): Topic;
        new (domainID: number, topicName: string, tqos: TopicQos, topicType: string, typeName: string): Topic;
    }

    interface Runtime {
        new (): Runtime;
        connect(server: string, authToken: string);
        disconnect();
        registerTopic(topic: Topic);
    }

    export interface runtime {
        Runtime: Runtime;
    }

    export var VERSION: string;

}

//Here IntelliJ complaints: "Cannot find name: DDS"
declare var dds: DDS;

What's the correct way of creating a definition file which includes several submodules?

Answer 1

The error in this line:

declare var dds: DDS;

Is because DDS is not a type, it's a module. But you're trying to use it as a type.

You could instead just rename DDS to dds , and it would then effectively be a variable holding an object with the internal structure you've declared.

Answer 2

Starting from the beginning of your example, dds is a global object.

declare var dds: any;

It has a runtime property.

declare var dds: { runtime : any};

runtime has a property called Runtime that is a class with a constructor that takes no arguments.

declare var dds: {
  runtime : {
    Runtime: typeof Runtime
  }
};

declare class Runtime {
  constructor();
}

The Runtime class has a method called connect that takes two strings and returns void.

declare var dds: {
  runtime : {
    Runtime: typeof Runtime
  }
};

declare class Runtime {
  constructor();
  connect(server: string, authToken: string): void;
}

This fills your initial requirement. Now let's tidy things up by putting all of the types (except dds which is global) in a VortexWeb module.

declare module VortexWeb {
  export class Runtime {
    constructor();
    connect(server: string, authToken: string): void;
  }
}

declare var dds: {
  runtime : {
    Runtime: typeof VortexWeb.Runtime
  }
};

That's your starter definition. Hope that helps!