How do I auto generate .ts files in VSCode?

Question

I have a.json file that changes quite often and I would like to auto generate a.ts file every time the.json file is saved.

I want to write the logic of the converter from the.json to.ts myself. How is this achieved with VSCode?

Answer 1

Depending on your use case, this may not be the best approach, but there is a plugin called Run on Save that executes a command when you save a file. If you have a script in ts/js that converts the.json to.ts, you can execute it with the nodejs runtime.

A sample config could look like:

"emeraldwalk.runonsave": {
    "commands": [
        {
            "match": "file.json$",
            "cmd": "ts-node export.ts ${file}"
        },
    ]
}

Your export.ts script would be running in the nodejs runtime, so you'll have access to the fs module . This gives you the ability to read and write files to the disk. A sample could look like:

var fs = require('fs');

fs.readFile(process.argv[2], function (err, data) {
  if (err) throw err;
  
  //conversion would be here
  let jsonPayload = data;

  fs.appendFile('newTsFile.ts', jsonPayload, function (err) {
    if (err) throw err;
    console.log('Updated!');
  }); 
});