Typescript: Explore supporting ES import() proposal

[mohsen1]

Dynamic import proposal is in early stages but it will require TypeScript to support it in order to be usable in TypeScript based apps.

Basic syntax:

import('./my-module.ts').then(({export1, export2}) => {

});

[mhegazy]

This is a proposal that we are following in the committee. I would expect us to start looking into this early next year.

also referenced in https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/issues/11611. i think we just need one issue to track this.

[Jessidhia]

Stubbing it such that it is not a syntax error, has apparent type (request: string) => Promise<any>, and is emitted as-is could be useful for using it with e.g. https://github.com/airbnb/babel-plugin-dynamic-import-webpack or eventually with https://github.com/webpack/webpack/issues/3098 in webpack 2; but I don't know how good or bad an idea that is.

[aluanhaddad]

@Kovensky anyone can easily write that stub should they need it so I don't think its declaration belongs in the language any more than require, define, or System.import.

[Jessidhia]

@aluanhaddad not quite. Just writing a ( after import causes a syntax error, regardless of anything you try to do declaration-wise. This needs compiler support, and definitely behind an experimental flag if it's ever done as a stub.

[aluanhaddad]

@Kovensky I don't think I have actually tried to write it like that, thanks for explaining that this isn't possible.

[Jessidhia]

Dynamic import() support landed in webpack master and should be in the next webpack 2 beta. It was also promoted to stage-3 as of the last latest TC39 meeting.

[saschanaz]

It was also promoted to stage-3 as of the last TC39 meeting

That means SystemJS may update their API to match it! :D

[chicoxyzzy]

SystemJS can't update their API to match proposal because import() is a SyntaxError. TypeScript's parser should definitely support this syntax so people will be able to transpile dynamic imports to SystemJS / CommonJS / Webpack 1 require.ensure() / use WebPack 2 code splitting

[chicoxyzzy]

has apparent type (request: string) => Promise<any>

it's (specifier: any) => Promise<any>, according to latest spec, it's totally valid to pass anything to it, ToString will be applied to specifier

[chicoxyzzy]

Can we have a compiler option to support this syntax?

[chicoxyzzy]

Sadly we'll loose type information when specifier should be computed :(

[Jessidhia]

There are talks about attaching meta-properties to import, similarly to what was done with new for new.target. It might be better represented (for forward compatibility) as an interface with that call signature, but this might be thinking too far ahead.

See https://github.com/estree/estree/pull/137#issuecomment-256141610

[bmeck]

airbnb/babel-plugin-dynamic-import-webpack#12 see concerns

[Jessidhia]

@mhegazy is this going to be in the TS "Future" (2.3?) roadmap?

[originalmoose]

I have a solution if anyone wants a hack to use while waiting for the feature to be properly implemented in TS.

You'll need string-replace-loader or something similar setup as the last loader in your ts config. (The search and replace should probably be a regex just to make sure we don't accidentally clobber something but this was enough to test that the idea works)

module: {
    rules: [
        {
            test: /\.tsx?$/,
            use: [
                {
                    loader: 'string-replace-loader',
                    options: {
                        search: '_import(',
                        replace: 'import('
                    }
                },
                {
                    loader: 'babel-loader'
                },
                {
                    loader: 'ts-loader',
                    options: {
                        silent: true,
                        compilerOptions: {
                            noEmit: false,
                        },
                    },
                },
            ],
        },
    ]
}

Then simply create a definition like so...

declare function _import<T>(path: string): Promise<T>;

You can change the _import to really be anything but I felt the _ was pretty safe and would be easy enough to find and replace when typescript adds support.

My test was a simple react-router v4 app with two routes that were added with _import. An example of it in use is below

render() {
    return (
        <Match pattern="/" exactly render={props =>
            <LazyRoute module={() => _import('./Home')}>
                {module => module ? <module.default {...props} /> : null}
            </LazyRoute>
        } />
    );
}

[Avol-V]

It's hard to use such hack without native support if we want types. We should do things like:

import * as ModuleInit from './init';

async function main(): Promise<void>
{
    const Init: typeof ModuleInit = await _import( './init' );

    Init.default();
}

[isiahmeadows]

I'll note that the proposal is currently at stage 3, and only string literals should be checked (anything else should return {[key: string]: any}).

Also, it'd be nice to see it transpiled in CommonJS/AMD (Webpack 2 works with ES module syntax):

// Original
import("specifier").then(...)

// CommonJS
Promise.resolve()
.then(() => require("specifier"))
.then(...)

// AMD
Promise.resolve()
.then(() => new Promise(resolve => require(["specifier"], resolve)))
.then(...)

In particular, lazy loading in Node would be very nice for end-user apps with optional features, and import() provides a very nice way of doing that.

[mohsen1]

Promise will resolve to module namespace not any.

import * as path from 'path';
console.log(path.resolve('foo'));

and

import('path').then(path => {
  console.log(path.resolve('foo'));
});

I'm assuming TypeScript will not allow dynamic module specifier (import(moduleName + '.ts')) as spec is suggesting.

[isiahmeadows]

@mohsen1 I referred to {[key: string]: any} as the fallback type, not any.

[donaldpipowitch]

@originalmoose How did you implemented <LazyRoute module={...}>. I have a hard time to create custom routes and add new properties without changing internal behaviour (e.g. here https://github.com/ReactTraining/react-router/issues/4595).

If someone is interested in a custom component instead of a custom route which imports other components written in TS2.2, here is a gist.

[originalmoose]

@donaldpipowitch Here is a gist with my lazy route not sure if it does what you need. This is for react-router v4

[glen-84]

@mohsen1,

I'm assuming TypeScript will not allow dynamic module specifier (import(moduleName + '.ts')) as spec is suggesting.

Not allow meaning treat the result as any, or no support at all?

[Jessidhia]

It looks like the result will be typed as Promise<any>. Maybe in the future improvements in the way of https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/issues/13231 could help better type the return type; but you'd probably still need to do it with asserts.

[AlanWuji]

Is there any plan to support import() now ?

[maierson]

I'm also interested in this for code splitting. This doesn't work at the moment because of import() call:

import Loadable from 'react-loadable';

function MyLoadingComponent() {
  return <div>Loading...</div>;
}

const LoadableAnotherComponent = Loadable({
  loader: () => import('./another-component'),
  LoadingComponent: MyLoadingComponent
});

class MyComponent extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return <LoadableAnotherComponent/>;
  }
}

[Jessidhia]

For now, you can work around it by having

declare global {
  interface System {
    import (request: string): Promise<any>
  }
  var System: System
}

and using System.import instead of import. webpack 2 provides the same behavior under that alias, though it will probably get removed in webpack 3. You will, unfortunately, not get type checking, though, but there are ways to get something good enough for now working.

[maierson]

@Kovensky that worked great. Thank you.

A few gotchas - webpack 2 needs a chunkFilename to load the chunk script correctly:

  output: {
    filename: '[name].js',
    path: PATHS.build,
    publicPath: '/',
    chunkFilename: '[id].chunk.js'
  },

Also used the babel-plugin-syntax-dynamic-import in .babelrc

If you are getting webpackJsonp errors make sure that the scripts are in the correct order in .html (vendor, app then chunks)

[maierson]

Also for react-loadable it only works with default exports #20

[jch254]

@Kovensky cheers for the workaround! I've combined with react-loadable here if anyone is interested in a demo: https://github.com/jch254/starter-pack/tree/typescript.

[napalm684]

@Kovensky while this post is largely around react, I am attempting your interface approach via Angular 2 and still getting the import property is undefined? Any thoughts:

main.ts:20 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'import' of undefined
    at getTranslations (main.ts:20)
    at Object.<anonymous> (main.ts:12)
    at __webpack_require__ (bootstrap 8581ef0…:52)
    at Object.<anonymous> (module.js:22)
    at __webpack_require__ (bootstrap 8581ef0…:52)
    at webpackJsonpCallback (bootstrap 8581ef0…:23)
    at app.8581ef0….js:1

Generated code looks as follows I am wondering if the interface is not being ignored in this case causing the actual import() function to go un-recognized.

var system_interface_1 = __webpack_require__(508);
core_1.enableProdMode();
// platformBrowserDynamic().bootstrapModule(AppModule);
getTranslations();
function getTranslations() {
    var locale = document['locale'] ? document['locale'] : 'en';
    switch (locale) {
        case 'en':
            system_interface_1.System.import('../locale/messages.en.xlf!text').then(function (someModule) {
                platform_browser_1.platformBrowser().bootstrapModuleFactory(app_module_ngfactory_1.AppModuleNgFactory);
            });
            break;
    }
}

/***/ }),
/* 508 */
/***/ (function(module, exports, __webpack_require__) {

"use strict";
// TODO: Remove when TS supports dynamic imports: https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/issues/12364

Object.defineProperty(exports, "__esModule", { value: true });
// tslint:enable 
//# sourceMappingURL=system.interface.js.map

/***/ }),

[mhegazy]

Fixed by https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/pull/14774

[Jessidhia]

It was reverted :cry:

16281 should actually fix it.

EDIT: now it's merged :tada:

[misantronic]

I am still having this issue - using [email protected]

[samuelmaddock]

@misantronic You might need to change your tsconfig's "module" option to "esnext"