gulp-typescript with requirejs and many path aliases and packages, error TS2307

Question

I have a large project that is mostly JavaScript. I would like to add some TypeScript. Things are mostly working fine. However, I have a large number of paths aliases and packages. So, when I

 import foo = require('foo');

This will, in runtime, rely on a path configuration, say

 require.config({
     paths: {
         foo: 'foobar/baz/js/quux'
     }
 });

So, predictably, the compiler gives me:

error TS2307: Cannot find module 'foo'

Is there any way that I could load in my requirejs configuration so that the compiler will be happy? Alternatively, is there a way that I suppress/ignore the error? The output JavaScript looks and runs fine. If I suppress the error, I wonder what I would be losing ... Can I specify where to find all my modules?

Answer 1

You can declare your own module in a definition file:

// my-modules.d.ts
declare module "foo" {
}

This way, gulp-typescript will not complain as long as the my-modules.d.ts file compiles with the rest.

Answer 2

is there any way that I could load in my requirejs configuration so that the compiler will be happy?

Not yet. Look out for https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/issues/5039

Alternatively, is there a way that I suppress/ignore the error?

Only if you want to be completely unsafe aka any :

var foo:any = require('foo');