Typescript - Uncaught ReferenceError: exports is not defined

Question

Im getting this error message (Uncaught ReferenceError: exports is not defined) when trying to import other ts files in the main app.ts

app.ts

import { LanguagesConfigs } from './LanguagesConfigs';
let languagesConfigs = new LanguagesConfigs();

LanguagesConfigs.ts

export class LanguagesConfigs {
 code
}

tsconfig.json

{
    "compilerOptions": {
        "target": "es5",
        "module": "commonjs",
        "sourceMap": true
    }
}

I compile it in visual studio code. It generates the .js and .js.map files

Note: I'm not using frames like angular, just plain typescript. Note2: CommonJS is installed in the project (Typescript ReferenceError: exports is not defined)

Answer 1

When you use export in your code while in your tsconfig.json you have "module": "commonjs" the result code assume commonjs module style.

For example:

export class Foo{}

Will result is:

.
.
.
exports.Foo = Foo;

So when you try to run the result js code you will get this error if the environment doesn't support commonjs.

For example, browsers do not support commonjs but nodejs does. You can add commonjs support to the browser by using webpack or just add browserify