Cannot build TS project when targeting Node16 or NodeNext

[Julien-Marcou]

Describe the bug

When I build my Node.js + Typescript project, I get the following error:

npm run build

> [email protected] build
> tsc

src/index.ts:1:20 - error TS1479: The current file is a CommonJS module whose imports will produce 'require' calls; however, the referenced file is an ECMAScript module and cannot be imported with 'require'. Consider writing a dynamic 'import("socket.io-client")' call instead.
  To convert this file to an ECMAScript module, change its file extension to '.mts', or add the field `"type": "module"` to '/home/jmarcou/dev/tarot-ai/package.json'.

1 import { io } from 'socket.io-client';
                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Found 1 error in src/index.ts:1

To Reproduce

Here is my project:

📂 test/
├── 📂 src/
│   └── 📄 index.ts
├── 📄 package.json
└── 📄 tsconfig.json

index.ts

import { io } from 'socket.io-client';
// nothing else, this is just the minimal repro we need

tsconfig.json

{
  "compileOnSave": false,
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": "./",
    "outDir": "./dist/out-tsc",
    "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
    "strict": true,
    "noImplicitOverride": true,
    "noPropertyAccessFromIndexSignature": true,
    "noImplicitReturns": true,
    "noFallthroughCasesInSwitch": true,
    "downlevelIteration": true,
    "target": "ES2022",
    "module": "Node16",
    "lib": [
      "ES2022",
      "DOM"
    ]
  },
  "include": [
    "src/**/*.ts"
  ]
}

package.json

{
  "name": "test",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "tsc"
  },
  "private": true,
  "dependencies": {
    "socket.io": "^4.7.2",
    "socket.io-client": "^4.7.2"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@types/node": "^18.17.13",
    "typescript": "^5.2.2"
  }
}

Expected behavior

I expect to be able to import socket.io-client in the same manner as I can import socket.io.

When I import socket.io I don't have any problem:

import { Server } from 'socket.io';

Platform

• WSL2 / Ubuntu 20.04
• Node.js v18.17.1

Additional context

Now you might be wondering why am I importing socket.io-client on a Node.js script ?
Well because I want to connect to a socket.io server from my terminal ^^

I know I can switch the module setting in the tsconfig.json from Node16/NodeNext to CommonJS to fix this issue, but I think there might be a configuration problem in socket.io-client that is the root cause of this problem, so I'd rather wait for a proper fix rather than switching to CommonJS

[darrachequesne]

Hi!

or add the field "type": "module" to '/home/jmarcou/dev/tarot-ai/package.json'.

I think you might be missing the "type": "module" in your package.json file, could you please check?

[Julien-Marcou]

Yes, it's a possible solution, but then I need to rewrite my entire project to be compatible with ESM, which is not the case at the moment.

For instance, all my imports doesn't specify the file extension, if I switch to "type": "module", then I need to fix all my imports.

Isn't socket.io-client supposed to behave as socket.io when imported on a Node.js project ?

[luisdeka]

waiting for this...

[tylerbutler]

I think the root of the problem is that the exports field for the package doesn't define types for the CJS export. I think it should look more like this:

    ".": {
      "import": {
        "types": "./build/esm/index.d.ts",
        "node": "./build/esm-debug/index.js",
        "default": "./build/esm/index.js"
      },
      "require": {
        "types": "./build/cjs/index.d.ts",
        "default": "./build/cjs/index.js"
      }
    },

https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/modules/reference.html#packagejson-exports

I think the types need to be duplicated, too, so that the CJS and ESM types have different paths. I found this somewhere in the Typescript docs but can't find it now, so I might be mistaken.

Patching the exports field manually worked in my project; I can open a PR if it is helpful.

[darrachequesne]

This should be fixed by 605de78, included in version 4.7.3.

@tylerbutler could you please check?

[tylerbutler]

This should be fixed by 605de78, included in version 4.7.3.

@tylerbutler could you please check?

Sorry for the delay. I confirmed 4.7.3 works for us, and I was able to remove our patched version. Thank you!