Develop Reference

How export and import work in typescript?

I was going through Angular2 quickstart tutorial with Javascript and Typescript as well, In javascript version I observed that components and modules are first assigned to a variable (window.app which I understood as some global variable that can be accessed across js files or script blocks) and that is fine. Coming to type script version just export and import were used, I tried to analyze the generated javascript code but understood nothing. Can some one explain me how this export and import works in Tyepescript.

Import and export in typescript are explained well by the documentation here https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/modules.html.
Like toskv said in his comment, how those statements in your TypeScript files get transpiled into statements in your JavaScript files depends largely on the module system you set up in your tsconfig.json file.
For example, setting "module": "commonjs" will cause the TypeScript compiler (tsc) to transform your import/export statements into essentially node.js-style require() statements. This documentation has a few simple, but helpful, examples of how node.js modules work: https://nodejs.org/api/modules.html.
Using a setting of "systemjs" instead of "commonjs" will make TypeScript translate your import/export statements into a format that SystemJS understands, of which I am no expert.
This process is further complicated by the fact that Angular 2 projects also require build steps that take the transpiled JavaScript files and turn them into packaged "bundles." These bundled files are (depending on your configuration settings) concatenated, minified, and perhaps even uglified. So looking at the final javascript code that is run is really not helpful, as it was not written by humans.
For example, the Webpack build system (google webpack.js) takes require() statements it finds in JavaScript code and does some magic to wrap each module in its own __webpack_require__ function, which allows the build system to take your whole project file structure and bundle it in to one or several JavaScript files which still maintain their dependencies on each other.
In other words, by the time you look at the production JavaScript code, it's not meant to be intelligible by human readers. The flow can be simply represented by TS Source Code > TS Transpilation into JS Code > Module/Dependency Build Steps into Production JS Code.
TL;DR TypeScript doesn't actually handle the module importing/exporting. During transpilation, it converts those statements into statements other module systems (node.js or SystemJS) can understand, which are in turn converted into production code for serving an Angular 2 application.

What are the best practices for writing and organizing javascript plugins?

So I have a nice chunk of code that is the same across many different javascript files, but I occasionally have to update it due to path changes or other various conditions. Now copy and pasting it all over to the new files works fine but is annoying to execute. Is there a good way to maintain one javascript file with my "plugin" code and have it be accessible by other javascript files that use the plugin?
I am looking for both a good nodejs solution, and vanilla js solution. If they could be mutually shared that'd be ideal, but not required by any means. Ideally, I'd like to host my workspace in workspace/ and have some folders, workspace/front-end-js/ and workspace/back-end-nodejs/, be able to run code off a plugin in workspace/plugins/ so that I can execute things like MyPluginVar.Foo();
I am aware of some systems, like the node's var foo = require('bar'); and the frontend browserified version, but really do not know all my options. What's the best way of writing and organizing javascript plugins?
--
Edit: I'm really trying to avoid npm, but it might be the best option.

You typically add your shared libraries and plugins as dependencies to your project's package.json file and install them using npm.
CommonJS modules, which use the module.exports object and require function, are the de facto standard at the moment.
ES2015 modules, which use the export and import statements, are an emerging formal standard, but support for them is not yet universal. They are a good option if your environment supports them.
To load either type of module on the front end, you will need to use a bundler such as Webpack or Browserify.
Older javascript modules typically publish to the global scope (window), and are a simple option for front end code.
You can also support multiple module systems if you like by using a UMD (Universal Module Definition) wrapper. Here's an example from the UMD Github repo that leverages CommonJS if supported, while falling back to a browser global:
(function (root, factory) {
if (typeof exports === 'object' && typeof exports.nodeName !== 'string') {
// CommonJS
factory(exports, require('b'));
} else {
// Browser globals
factory((root.commonJsStrictGlobal = {}), root.b);
}
}(this, function (exports, b) {
// b represents some dependency
// attach properties to the exports object to define
// the exported module properties.
exports.action = function () {};
}));

Using webpack to generate typescript libraries with typing files

Currently my process for building is:
Write lots of typescript files with ES6 module syntax
Generate an index.ts which re-exports all modules from one point
Compile to CommonJS + System
Output Descriptor/Typing files
This results in an index.js file which re-exports all the internal files without the developer consuming it needing to know about it, as well as a lot of d.ts files which mirror the file structure.
Now this works, but if I were to take this approach to the browser I would need to webpack up all the js or it would be a http request nightmare pulling in all the individual files. Currently this library would be consumed as a dependency for other libraries, so it is not an end point for logic or anything it is a module/library.
Now the main question is with webpack I know I can load TS in and get a commonJS module out, however I cannot find any way to generate d.ts files with webpack. So is there a way for me to use webpack as the compiler/packager in this scenario and have an output my-lib.js and my-lib.d.ts rather than the current approach which yields lots of individual files.
== Extra Clarification on Use Case ==
Just to try and make sure everyone is on the same page here when I say it is a library that would be re-used what I mean is that this is something that would be loaded via npm or jspm or something as a module dependency for other modules.
So for example let us pretend jquery doesn't exist and I am going to create it but write it in typescript for other developers to consume in both JS and TS. Now typescript outputs both js files and d.ts files, the js files are to be used as you would expect, but the d.ts files explain to other typescript files what the types contained within the library are.
So assuming I have developed jquery in TS as listed above, I would then want to publish this output (be it created by webpack or tsc) on npm/jspm/bower etc. So then others can re-use this library in their own projects.
So webpack typically is used to package an "application" if you will, which contains logic and business concerns and is consumed directly as an entry point to a larger set of concerns. In this example it would be used as a compilation and packaging step for a library and would be consumed via var myLib = require("my-lib"); or similar.

Generating the .d.ts files is not related to webpack. With webpack you can use either ts-loader or awesome-typescript-loader. Both of them make use of tsconfig.json. What you need to do is to add declaration: true in your tsconfig.json.
I'd also suggest you to take a look at typescript-library-starter. You'll find how's set up there, including UMD bundle and type definitions :).

Module definition to work with node.js, require.js and with plain scripttags too

I am working on a javascript module/library that should work in 3 environments:
in node.js
in requirejs
when simply included using tags into the webpage. In this case the whole module should be hooked up under window.myModule
Do you have any suggestions as to how to write the structure of the library so that it works in all these environments?
EDIT: basically I mean some sort of wrapper code around the library so that I can call the file form any of those three methods and I'm fine...

This requirement and its solution is known as Universal Module Definition (UMD). It is currently a draft proposal. Background and current status is described in Addy Osmani - Writing Modular JavaScript With AMD, CommonJS & ES Harmony article. Look for "UMD" link pointing to various templates you can use.
Quite many other templates can be found on the web - UMD is the search keyword.
(did not find the final link myself yet :)

We're working on the same thing, I think.
And we have some success. We have library (we call it 'slib'), compiled to AMD js files. It does not depend on npm modules or browser, so it can be called from node and from browser.
1) To call it from node, we use requirejs:
file require.conf.js
module.exports = function(nodeRequire){
global.requirejs = require('requirejs');
requirejs.config({
baseUrl: __dirname+"/../web/slib/",
paths: {
slib: "."
},
nodeRequire: nodeRequire
});
}
In any other serverside (nodejs) file we add this line at the beginning
require("./require.conf")(require);
then we call slib's code by:
var Computation = requirejs("slib/Computation");
2) To call slib from browser, we just use requirejs. It handles everything fine.
3) We do not need to call slib from < script > directly.
For production, we use r.js to make a bundle js file with most of dependencies and use it on the page with one < script >. And this script downloads all other deps, if they are not included, using standard requirejs and it does not need requirejs (as far as I remember), it just works alone. This is very flexible for large projects: use requirejs while development, use r.js to bundle core files in production to speed up page load, use whole bundle if you need only one < script > without any other requests. r.js bundles all dependencies correctly, including old js libraries, which were commonly loading using only < script > and accessible by window.myOldLibrary using shim param on config.
It seems you can use browserfy to make some npm modules accessible from slib's code, but we did not tried yet.
Also, using requirejs on node's side, I think, can be simpler (why we need second 'requirejs' function together with node's one?) We just have not investigated it well, but this works.
In any slib module you can write
if (window)
window.module1 = this // or whatever
and it will be exported as old js lib upon load

Refactoring a userscript to use javascript modules

I'm working on a userscript - in particular this userscript - which has been designed to encapsulate functionality in modules. In order to be able to do some automated testing I would like to split the modules into their own files and use node.js's module exporting and require functions to combine into one file for use in Greasemonkey or simple browser extensions.
My first thought was to just copy the modules into their own files as such
module.js
var exportedModule = (function (){
var Module = {
// public functions and members
};
//private functions and members
return Module;
}());
module.exports = exports = exportedModule;
And then have a central file that requires each of these modules, perhaps compiling them with something like Browserify.
script.js
var importedModule = require(./module);
importedModule.init();
Is this possible?

It seems to me that you would be better off using Requirejs, which uses AMD style modules and is inherently more browser friendly. Node commonjs-style modules are synchronous and do not fit the browser model very well.
Of course, using requirejs will change your scripts a bit.

It's possible, and Browserify makes it easy:
browserify src/my.user.js -o dist/my.user.js
The metadata in the source file may get moved, but it's still parsed correctly (by Greasemonkey at least).
For a more complex example which compiles various assets, including CSS and images, see here.