How to consume the Moment.js TypeScript definition file if my site is already using moment.min.js?

Question

I'm in the process of converting a website to use TypeScript and I'm converting just one of many JavaScript files to TypeScript. All pages of my site already reference moment.js, such as:

<script src="/scripts/moment.min.js"></script>

I've added other TypeScript definition files using:

npm install --save-dev @types/jquery

... But, the above seems like the wrong choice for moment. When I use the above command (but substitute 'moment' for 'jquery'), a readme file is downloaded that says:

This is a stub types definition for Moment (https://github.com/moment/moment). Moment provides its own type definitions, so you don't need @types/moment installed!

As a solution, I tried saving the moment.d.ts file from its GitHub repo and referencing it in the TypeScript file as so:

///<reference path="../../Scripts/typeDeclarations/moment.d.ts"/>
var now:any = moment.utc();

But, TypeScript gives me the warning:

Cannot find the name 'moment'

Answer 1

TL;DR;

Add the moment.d.ts (link) in your project from the moment github site and comment out the last line

 //export = moment;

---

I have created a mini test project to prove this and this works for me.

Project structure

--
  |
  -typings/
     -moment/
       -moment.d.ts   <-- //export = moment; commented out
  -typescript/
     -main.ts
  -tsconfig.json

Contents of both typings and typescript are part of the compilation target, i.e. not excluded in tsconfig.json which looks like this

{
    "compilerOptions": {
        "target": "es5",
        "declaration": false,
        "noImplicitAny": true,
        "removeComments": true,
        "outDir": "dist",
        "jsx": "react",
        "sourceMap": true,
        "experimentalDecorators": true
    },
    "compileOnSave": true,
    "exclude": [
        "node_modules",
        "dist"
    ]
}

The main.ts file contains

const now: moment.Moment = moment.utc();

and compiles... As expected, my IDE gives me auto-completion from the definition file. (no need for ///<reference tags - you should avoid them anyway)

Removing the export statement at the end of the definition file, "transforms" it into an internal - but global - module declaration file.