Winston: [ts] Property 'createLogger' does not exist on type '{}'.

[dfdumaresq]

Please tell us about your environment:

• _winston version?_
  
  
  
  • [x] winston@2
  
  
  • [x] winston@3
  
  
• _node -v outputs:_
• _Operating System?_ macOS
• _Language?_ ASP.NET Core, TypeScript 2.9.1, es5, ReactJS

What is the problem?

After installing ASP.NET Core with React.js

dotnet new react

And add the getting-started example for either winston3 or winston2 on Home.tsx

import * as React from 'react';
import { RouteComponentProps } from 'react-router';
const winston = require('winston');
const logger = winston.createLogger({
    transports: [
         new winston.transports.Console(),
        new winston.transports.File({ filename: 'combined.log' })
    ]
 });

 logger.log({
     level: 'info',
     message: 'Hello distributed log files!'
 });

I'm seeing compilation errors from TypeScript.

What do you expect to happen instead?

I'm expecting to be able to log to Console and File.

{"level":"info","message":"Hello distributed log files!"}

Other information

My tsconfig.json:
{
"compilerOptions": {
"baseUrl": ".",
"module": "es2015",
"moduleResolution": "node",
"target": "es5",
"jsx": "react",
"sourceMap": true,
"skipDefaultLibCheck": true,
"strict": true,
"types": ["webpack-env"]
},
"exclude": [
"bin",
"node_modules"
]
}

I can fix the TypeScript error by defining

const winstonType: any = winston;

const logger = winstonType.createLogger({
    transports: [
       new winstonType.transports.Console(),
       new winstonType.transports.File({ filename: 'combined.log' })
   ]
});

But then get errors:

Module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'fs' in '/hello-logging-winston/node_modules/winston/lib/winston'
Module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'fs' in '/hello-logging-winston/node_modules/winston/lib/winston/transports'

I've since found that ReactJS is not supported but is on the v3 roadmap.
According to https://github.com/winstonjs/winston/issues/900, I must use import * as winston from 'winston' in order to get all exports.

That fixes the compiler issues I was getting. However, I am still getting the errors Module Not Found Can't resolve 'fs' ...

[dfdumaresq]

Can I get some direction on this, please??

[DABH]

Sorry, what version of winston are you using exactly? Can you try winston@master, by e.g. specifying

...
"winston": "winstonjs/winston#master",
...

in your package.json? (And then reinstall node modules, e.g. rm -rf node_modules && npm install .)

It does look like you're running into other errors as well (e.g. with react), or possibly your project is trying to typecheck TS definitions under node_modules, which it shouldn't do (that should be some setting in tsconfig.json or something).

[sangaman]

Are you using @types/winston with Winston 3.0?

[dfdumaresq]

Thanks for the replies! I was using [email protected].

npm list winston
[email protected] /Users/ddumaresq/Projects/EPAS2/hello-logging-winston
└── [email protected]

And have now updated including @types/winston.

npm list winston
[email protected] /Users/ddumaresq/Projects/EPAS2/hello-logging-winston
 └── [email protected]  (github:winstonjs/winston#8be746b4fba623c7167420c887ee9cf3d4147664)

npm list @types/winston
[email protected] /Users/ddumaresq/Projects/EPAS2/hello-logging-winston
└── @types/[email protected]

Still getting errors, though. I've removed node_modules and reinstalled. Got one additional error.

[sangaman]

I believe the issue is that @types/winston is still designed for version 2.x of winston, which has some major differences from version 3.x. I think once @types/winston is updated to version 3.x, you should be able to use that and this error will go away.

[dfdumaresq]

I've removed @types/winston and get

[sangaman]

Hmmm I don't have any ideas off the top of my head. I've never used winston with react personally.

[DABH]

Cool, those seem like legitimate errors. The file transport uses the native Node fs module for writing to log files on a server. It's not possible to directly use the fs module in the browser since the browser filesystem (e.g. HTML5 local storage) is very different than the native fs e.g. in a server environment (and you can't directly log to a cilent's filesystem from the browser -- security issues etc.). You could try another transport like the console transport that doesn't rely on that module. Otherwise you would need to use some other transport that is browser-compatible.

[DABH]

Btw if you add the following to your webpack config, it seems the console transport at least works. But the point is you just ignore the fs module...

node: {
    fs: 'empty'
}

This worked for me in a test webpack project with the console transport. Good luck!

[dfdumaresq]

@DABH - I've followed your advice and fixed a number of errors. But one remains:

ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/winston/index.d.ts:22:15 
TS2304: Cannot find name 'Map'.

Just to add a reference that helped me with the react issue screenshotted above.
Type 'ChangeTargetHTMLAttributes<T>' does not satisfy the constraint 'DOMAttributes<T>'

https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/issues/22601

[DABH]

Are you sure you’re using ES6?
https://stackoverflow.com/a/49569255/4451284
ES5 will not work since it’s missing types like Map

[DABH]

(If you have to use ES5 for some reason, I think there are polyfills available for Map etc. that could make things work... but just use ES6 ;) )

[dfdumaresq]

Thanks, it fixes the Map error, but unleashes many more @types errors in react, react-dom, react-router and history.
I'll look at polyfills for Map...

[DABH]

Going to close this for now (seems we are outside the scope of winston issues) but feel free to open a new issue if you find any new winston-specific problems. Thanks!

[ArpithaGMGowda]

i am getting this error .

ERROR in ./node_modules/winston/dist/winston/tail-file.js
Module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'fs' in 'C:\Users\703247433\Desktopwinstontoolkit\toolkit\node_moduleswinston\distwinston'
ERROR in ./node_modules/winston/dist/winston/transports/file.js
Module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'fs' in 'C:\Users\703247433\Desktopwinstontoolkit\toolkit\node_moduleswinston\distwinston\transports'