Jest won't transform the module - SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module
Solution 1
Even though I have tried them separately, I haven't tried them together (transform
and transformIgnorePatterns
). So this jest configuration solved my issue:
"jest": {
"preset": "ts-jest",
"testEnvironment": "node",
"transform": {
"node_modules/variables/.+\\.(j|t)sx?$": "ts-jest"
},
"transformIgnorePatterns": [
"node_modules/(?!variables/.*)"
]
},
My mistakes were:
- Not using
transform
andtransformIgnorePatterns
together. - And defining
babel-jest
as the transformer instead ofts-jest
(I guess that is a problem when the preset of jest is defined asts-jest
. Because if I change it to bebabel-jest
it throws the same error again.):
--- "node_modules/variables/.+\\.(j|t)sx?$": "babel-jest"
+++ "node_modules/variables/.+\\.(j|t)sx?$": "ts-jest"
Solution 2
Since Jest is not working with esmodules well, you need to add these configurations in jest.config.js
to tell Jest to use commonJS
builds instead
moduleNameMapper: {
'^variables$': 'variables/dist/cjs',
'^[NAME OF MODULE YOU WANT TO IMPORT]$': '[NAME OF MODULE YOU WANT TO IMPORT]/dist/cjs'
}
Solution 3
I got stuck in the same situation. Due to I had a private untranspiled package which is based on TypeScript, and all my source files and test files were all applied with ECMA ( import syntax ), I encountered the following error as well.
SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module
The solutions I have tried.
- The above answers, such as use transform, transformIgnorePatterns, moduleNameMapper in
jest.config.ts
. - Followed JEST official document, Configuration Jest#transformignorepatterns-arraystring, I used exactly the same method and even referred to the use case from React Native Guide.
- Removed all
node_modules
, including cache, and reinstalled them. - Used react-scripts and downgrade jest and babel-jest to 26 from 27. There was another issue that occurred.
After all, I found ECMAScript Modules from the JEST official document, the four steps perfectly solved my problem. I pasted their instructions here, however, you should take a look at the document itself.
- Ensure you either disable code transforms by passing transform: {} or otherwise configure your transformer to emit ESM rather than the default CommonJS (CJS).
- Execute node with --experimental-vm-modules, e.g. node --experimental-vm-modules node_modules/.bin/jest or NODE_OPTIONS=--experimental-vm-modules npx jest etc.. On Windows, you can use cross-env to be able to set environment variables.
- Beyond that, we attempt to follow node's logic for activating "ESM mode" (such as looking at type in package.json or mjs files), see their docs for details.
- If you want to treat other file extensions (such as ts) as ESM, please use the extensionsToTreatAsEsm option.
Solution 4
tl;dr: tsconfig.spec.json >
{ "compilerOptions": { "allowJs": true } }
Did everything else mentioned here:
- transformIgnorePatterns
- add an additional pattern to the transform section
- ... much more that I reverted afterwards
Then I debugged into the transformer. First think I realized: the preconfigured workspace does not log anything, not even into ts-jest.log, not with --verbose
or --debug
and not even the warning, that would have been:
Got a
.js
file to compile whileallowJs
option is not set totrue
(file: {{path}}). To fix this:
- if you want TypeScript to process JS files, set
allowJs
totrue
in your TypeScript config (usually tsconfig.json)- if you do not want TypeScript to process your
.js
files, in your Jest config change thetransform
key which value ists-jest
so that it does not match.js
files anymore
(see: ts-jest-transformer.ts)
dugong
Updated on December 23, 2021Comments
-
dugong over 2 years
I couldn't get rid of this
SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module
error no matter what I have tried and it got so frustrating. Is there anybody out here solved this issue? I have read a million stackoverflow and github issue threads. No clear solutions.This is a React, Typescript, Webpack project. I am trying to test a module. But Jest won't transform the module to plain javascript somehow.
The error I get is
/Users/me/dev/Project/project/node_modules/variables/src/variables.js:12 import './main.js'; ^^^^^^ SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module 17 | 18 | */ > 19 | import { GlobalVars } from 'variables' | ^ 20 | 21 | export const Vars = new GlobalVars() 22 |
What I have tried to solve this (and didn't work):
Using
env
setup inbabel.config
:env.test.preset: ['@babel/plugin-transform-modules-commonjs']
modifying
transform
setup in Jest configuration as'^.+\\.jsx?$': 'babel-jest', '^.+\\.tsx?$': 'ts-jest'
and all other possibilities around this.In Jest configuration,
testPathIgnorePatterns
,transformIgnorePatterns
Using
.babel.config.js
instead of.babelrc.js
...and more.
I have this setup:
package.json
"jest": { "preset": "ts-jest", "testEnvironment": "node" }
.babelrc.js
module.exports = { presets: [ ['@babel/preset-env', { targets: { node: 'current' } }], '@babel/preset-react', '@babel/preset-typescript', ], plugins: [ '@babel/plugin-transform-runtime', '@babel/proposal-class-properties', '@babel/transform-regenerator', '@babel/plugin-transform-template-literals', 'react-hot-loader/babel', ], }
variables.ts
import { GlobalVars } from 'variables' export const Vars = new GlobalVars()
variables.spec.ts
import { Vars } from './variables.ts' describe('Test The Package', () => { it('Should accept new variables', () => { Vars.newVariable = 'new variable' expect(Vars.newVariable).toEqual('new variable') }) })
Any idea on how to resolve this problem?