Typescript & TypeORM: Cannot use import statement outside a module

Question

I've set up a Typescript project with TypeORM and I am facing some issues with the compilation.

My package structure is like this:

root
├── db
│   ├── migrations
│   │   ├── a_migration.ts
│   ├── connection
│   │   ├── config.ts <- ormconfig
│   │   ├── encrypt.ts
│   │   ├── index.ts <- creates the connection
├── src
│   ├── card
│   │   ├── entity.ts
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json

My config.ts is:

export = {
  type: 'postgres',
  host: POSTGRES_HOST,
  port: POSTGRES_PORT,
  username: POSTGRES_USER,
  password: POSTGRES_PASS,
  database: POSTGRES_DB,
  synchronize: true,
  logging: false,
  entities: ['**src/**/*entity.{ts,js}'],
  migrations: ['**/migrations/*.{ts,js}'],
  cli: {
    entitiesDir: 'src/entity',
    migrationsDir: 'db/migrations',
  },
  namingStrategy: new SnakeNamingStrategy(),
};

tsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "target": "es6",
    "module": "CommonJS",
    "allowJs": false,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "noImplicitAny": true,
    "resolveJsonModule": true,
    "outDir": "./build",
    "strict": true,
    "emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
    "experimentalDecorators": true
  },
  "include": ["./src/*", "./db/*"],
  "exclude": ["./**/__tests__/*", "./**/__functionaltests__/*"]
}

I tried replacing the ** prefix in entities & migrations with a path.join + __dirname but then typeorm could not detect the migration files and the entities. I understand this has something to do with the path resolving where the code ends up under the build folder but I am not sure how I can tackle this.

If I live it like this the CLI works for the uncompiled code (ts) executing the app with something like nodemon but not for the compiled (js) one.

The error I am getting from the compiled js is the: SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module

Any help is appreciated, thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Your entities and migrations should be given the build directory instead of the src directory.

And synchronize should set as false.

Try to update your config.ts like below:

export = {
  type: 'postgres',
  host: POSTGRES_HOST,
  port: POSTGRES_PORT,
  username: POSTGRES_USER,
  password: POSTGRES_PASS,
  database: POSTGRES_DB,
  synchronize: false,
  logging: false,
  entities: ['build/src/**/*entity.{ts,js}'],
  migrations: ['build/db/migrations/*.{ts,js}'],
  cli: {
    entitiesDir: 'src/entity',
    migrationsDir: 'db/migrations',
  },
  namingStrategy: new SnakeNamingStrategy(),
};

Note the changes in entities and migrations properties. If this did not work, most probably it might be due to the paths I specified are not inside the build directory. In that case, change those as necessary.

Hope this helps you! Cheers !!!

Answer 2

Create environment variables for your deployments. In config.ts check the env then set entities and migrations accordingly.

Answer 3

I encountered a similar problem, perhaps this might help you.

I am using a (uncompiled) ormconfig.js (note, .js ) for migrations like this (the NestJS application uses another way to establish its DB connection via TypeORM):

const { SnakeNamingStrategy } = require('typeorm-naming-strategies');

module.exports = {
    type: 'mysql',
    host: 'localhost',
    username: 'some user',
    database: 'some db',
    password: 'some pw',
    entities: ['./src/**/model/*.entity.ts'],
    migrations: ['migrations/*{.ts,.js}'],
    cli: {
        migrationsDir: 'src/migrations',
    },
    namingStrategy: new SnakeNamingStrategy(),
};

My IDE suggests to convert this to an ES6 module, which changes the require('typeorm-naming-strategies') into an import statement. And if I do so, I will get:

SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module

Additional output to the error is:

import { SnakeNamingStrategy } from 'typeorm-naming-strategies';
^^^^^^

So perhaps you can replace your (not shown?) import of SnakeNamingStrategy to a require .

Just a guess, not sure if it does really help you.