Using Moment with Angular and TypeScript

Question

I'm new to TypeScript and it's been a while since I've done any serious JavaScript development, so I may be missing something obvious.

I'm trying to use Moment in an Angular 1 app with TypeScript.

I'm using Angular 1.6.5, Moment 2.17.1 and TypeScript 2.17.1. I have Angular typings installed from the npm @types\\angular package. Intellisense etc for Angular is working in VS Code.

I've posted the sample code to GitHub here: https://github.com/kevinkuszyk/moment-angular-typescript

The first error

My sample app runs in the browser, but the TypeScript compiler complains that it can't find Moment:

app/controller.ts(3,20): error TS2503: Cannot find namespace 'moment'.
app/controller.ts(6,30): error TS2304: Cannot find name 'moment'.

Try using a /// compiler directive

To fix this, I tried adding the following /// compiler directive:

/// <reference path="../node_modules/moment/moment.d.ts" />

But that doesn't fix the TypeScript compiler:

app/controller.ts(5,20): error TS2503: Cannot find namespace 'moment'.
app/controller.ts(8,30): error TS2304: Cannot find name 'moment'.

Import Moment

Next I tried importing Moment using the instructions from their docs :

import * as moment from 'moment';

But this makes TypeScript generate a different erorr:

app/controller.ts(13,5): error TS2686: 'angular' refers to a UMD global, but the current file is a module. Consider adding an import instead.

Import Angular

I also imported Angular. This fixes TypeScript:

import * as angular from "angular";

But now the app doesn't run in the browser:

Uncaught ReferenceError: require is not defined
    at controller.js:2

Use Require.JS

Finally I tried adding Require.JS, but this just causes a different runtime error:

Uncaught Error: Module name "moment" has not been loaded yet for context: _. Use require([])
http://requirejs.org/docs/errors.html#notloaded
    at makeError (require.js:168)
    at Object.localRequire [as require] (require.js:1433)
    at requirejs (require.js:1794)
    at controller.js:2

Questions

1. Have I missed anything obvious here?
2. What's the best practice for referencing d.ts files which are shipped with the main package on npm rather than a separate @types package?
3. How do I make this work without using an external module loader?

Answer 1

It looks like this is a known issue with Moment's d.ts file (see issues #3763 , #3808 and #3663 ).

While we wait for an official fix, this worked for me.

Change:

export = moment;

to this:

declare module "moment" {
    export = moment;
}

Answer 2

Try explicitly declaring the @types scoped package to typesRoot in your tsconfig.json file:

{
    "compilerOptions": {
        "module": "commonjs",
        "target": "es5",
        "noImplicitAny": false,
        "sourceMap": false,
        "typeRoots": [
            "./node_modules/@types"
        ]
    }
}

Ensure the type definitions are installed properly in node_modules/@types/... and that your TypeScript compiler is up to date.