How to watch and compile all TypeScript sources?

Question

I'm trying to convert a pet project to TypeScript and don't seem to be able to use the tsc utility to watch and compile my files. The help says I should use the -w switch, but it looks like it can't watch and compile all *.ts files in the some directory recursively. This seems like something tsc should be able to handle. What are my options?

Answer 1

Look into using grunt to automate this, there are numerous tutorials around, but here's a quick start.

For a folder structure like:

blah/
blah/one.ts
blah/two.ts
blah/example/
blah/example/example.ts
blah/example/package.json
blah/example/Gruntfile.js
blah/example/index.html

You can watch and work with typescript easily from the example folder with:

npm install
grunt

With package.json:

{
  "name": "PROJECT",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "author": "",
  "description": "",
  "homepage": "",
  "private": true,
  "devDependencies": {
    "typescript": "~0.9.5",
    "connect": "~2.12.0",
    "grunt-ts": "~1.6.4",
    "grunt-contrib-watch": "~0.5.3",
    "grunt-contrib-connect": "~0.6.0",
    "grunt-open": "~0.2.3"
  }
}

And a grunt file:

module.exports = function (grunt) {

  // Import dependencies
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-watch');
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-connect');
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-open');
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-ts');

  grunt.initConfig({
    pkg: grunt.file.readJSON('package.json'),
    connect: {
      server: {  // <--- Run a local server on :8089
        options: {
          port: 8089,
          base: './'
        }
      }
    },
    ts: {
      lib: { // <-- compile all the files in ../ to PROJECT.js
        src: ['../*.ts'],
        out: 'PROJECT.js',
        options: {
          target: 'es3',
          sourceMaps: false,
          declaration: true,
          removeComments: false
        }
      },
      example: {  // <--- compile all the files in . to example.js
        src: ['*.ts'],
        out: 'example.js',
        options: {
          target: 'es3',
          sourceMaps: false,
          declaration: false,
          removeComments: false
        }
      }
    },
    watch: { 
      lib: { // <-- Watch for changes on the library and rebuild both
        files: '../*.ts',
        tasks: ['ts:lib', 'ts:example']
      },
      example: { // <--- Watch for change on example and rebuild
        files: ['*.ts', '!*.d.ts'],
        tasks: ['ts:example']
      }
    },
    open: { // <--- Launch index.html in browser when you run grunt
      dev: {
        path: 'http://localhost:8089/index.html'
      }
    }
  });

  // Register the default tasks to run when you run grunt
  grunt.registerTask('default', ['ts', 'connect', 'open', 'watch']);
}

Answer 2

Today I designed this Ant MacroDef for the same problem as yours :

    <!--
    Recursively read a source directory for TypeScript files, generate a compile list in the
    format needed by the TypeScript compiler adding every parameters it take.
-->
<macrodef name="TypeScriptCompileDir">

    <!-- required attribute -->
    <attribute name="src" />

    <!-- optional attributes -->
    <attribute name="out" default="" />
    <attribute name="module" default="" />
    <attribute name="comments" default="" />
    <attribute name="declarations" default="" />
    <attribute name="nolib" default="" />
    <attribute name="target" default="" />

    <sequential>

        <!-- local properties -->
        <local name="out.arg"/>
        <local name="module.arg"/>
        <local name="comments.arg"/>
        <local name="declarations.arg"/>
        <local name="nolib.arg"/>
        <local name="target.arg"/>
        <local name="typescript.file.list"/>
        <local name="tsc.compile.file"/>

        <property name="tsc.compile.file" value="@{src}compile.list" />

        <!-- Optional arguments are not written to compile file when attributes not set -->
        <condition property="out.arg" value="" else='--out "@{out}"'>
            <equals arg1="@{out}" arg2="" />
        </condition>

        <condition property="module.arg" value="" else="--module @{module}">
            <equals arg1="@{module}" arg2="" />
        </condition>

        <condition property="comments.arg" value="" else="--comments">
            <equals arg1="@{comments}" arg2="" />
        </condition>

        <condition property="declarations.arg" value="" else="--declarations">
            <equals arg1="@{declarations}" arg2="" />
        </condition>

        <condition property="nolib.arg" value="" else="--nolib">
            <equals arg1="@{nolib}" arg2="" />
        </condition>

        <!-- Could have been defaulted to ES3 but let the compiler uses its own default is quite better -->
        <condition property="target.arg" value="" else="--target @{target}">
            <equals arg1="@{target}" arg2="" />
        </condition>

        <!-- Recursively read TypeScript source directory and generate a compile list -->
        <pathconvert property="typescript.file.list" dirsep="\" pathsep="${line.separator}">

            <fileset dir="@{src}">
                <include name="**/*.ts" />
            </fileset>

            <!-- In case regexp doesn't work on your computer, comment <mapper /> and uncomment <regexpmapper /> -->
            <mapper type="regexp" from="^(.*)$" to='"\1"' />
            <!--regexpmapper from="^(.*)$" to='"\1"' /-->

        </pathconvert>


        <!-- Write to the file -->
        <echo message="Writing tsc command line arguments to : ${tsc.compile.file}" />
        <echo file="${tsc.compile.file}" message="${typescript.file.list}${line.separator}${out.arg}${line.separator}${module.arg}${line.separator}${comments.arg}${line.separator}${declarations.arg}${line.separator}${nolib.arg}${line.separator}${target.arg}" append="false" />

        <!-- Compile using the generated compile file -->
        <echo message="Calling ${typescript.compiler.path} with ${tsc.compile.file}" />
        <exec dir="@{src}" executable="${typescript.compiler.path}">
            <arg value="@${tsc.compile.file}"/>
        </exec>

        <!-- Finally delete the compile file -->
        <echo message="${tsc.compile.file} deleted" />
        <delete file="${tsc.compile.file}" />

    </sequential>

</macrodef>

Use it in your build file with :

    <!-- Compile a single JavaScript file in the bin dir for release -->
    <TypeScriptCompileDir
        src="${src-js.dir}"
        out="${release-file-path}"
        module="amd"
    />

It is used in the project PureMVC for TypeScript I'm working on at the time using Webstorm.