TypeScript not compiling with WE3 and TS 0.9.1.1

Question

I just upgraded to the latest version of WebEssentials v3 and the TS files in my ASP MVC 4 project aren't compiling to JS anymore. I verified that the Options --> Text Editor --> TypeScript --> Project --> Automatically compile TypeScript files which are part of a project option is checked, but nothing happens when I save or compile my project. I've tried deleting the existing .js and .min.js files that WE2 created, but that didn't help. I tried adding a new TS file to my project that and didn't generate a JS file. I reinstalled TS 0.9.1.1 and that didn't help.

Sooooo what to do? Am I missing something obvious? Is something not working or do I just have the wrong expectations?

Do I need to go back to WE2?

Update: I even created a brand new ASP MVC 4 C# project to verify it wasn't just my original project, but I got the same results.

Interestingly enough, I just created a new TypeScript project and my TS files compiled properly on save... So that's interesting..

Answer 1

There are some links in the change log of WE3, here is the one describes how to enable the compile-on-save feature, see http://typescript.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Compile-on-Save for details.

I've created a nuget package called Ltc.MSBuild.TS0911WE3.targets which will do the trick for you, just open Package Manager Console, type in Install-Package Ltc.MSBuild.TS0911WE3.targets!

Go to Ltc.MSBuild.TS0911WE3.targets on nuget.org.

Answer 2

I'm not sure if this is the correct method of dealing with the problem, but here's what I did to get "compile on save" working on my project...

After noticing that Compile On Save worked when starting from a new HTML Application with TypeScript project, I did a comparison between that and my non-working ASP MVC project. Turns out, my ASP MVC project was missing this bit of code..

  <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug'">
    <TypeScriptTarget>ES3</TypeScriptTarget>
    <TypeScriptRemoveComments>false</TypeScriptRemoveComments>
    <TypeScriptSourceMap>true</TypeScriptSourceMap>
    <TypeScriptModuleKind>AMD</TypeScriptModuleKind>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Release'">
    <TypeScriptTarget>ES3</TypeScriptTarget>
    <TypeScriptRemoveComments>true</TypeScriptRemoveComments>
    <TypeScriptSourceMap>false</TypeScriptSourceMap>
    <TypeScriptModuleKind>AMD</TypeScriptModuleKind>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <Import Project="$(VSToolsPath)\TypeScript\Microsoft.TypeScript.targets" />

Copy/pasting that into my ASP MVC project gave me Compile On Save support again. Of course, it's still not exactly what I expected. The resultant JS files are not added to the project automatically, so that's something I had to do manually. I also had to manually group the JS file with the TS file to mimic the same experience I was getting with WE2.

Hope that helps someone. Would love to hear some feedback on the solution.