TypeScript definition files

Question

I'm playing with TypesScript, but the compiler complains when I use browser types such as HTMLCanvasElement. I guess I need definition files for these types. I bet there is a repository of definition files for the DOM and for most popular frameworks, but Google has not been able to help me find it.

Do you guys know of such a repository?

Solution 1

The lib.d.ts that is included in the source (http://typescript.codeplex.com/SourceControl/changeset/view/fe3bc0bfce1f#bin%2flib.d.ts) contains definitions for most of the DOM related stuff. If you are using Visual Studio, you should consider downloading the tools which includes a template where lib.d.ts is bundled.

If anything is missing, I think you can use the declare syntax.

Solution 2

In addition to what @Christoffer has said for the DOM, @Boris Yankov has a really useful repository here: https://github.com/borisyankov/DefinitelyTyped with definition files for more than thirty, one hundred and thirty close to two hundred libraries(and counting!).

There's even a manager for the type definition files now: http://definitelytyped.org/tsd/ (Do not follow: link is now NSFW spam)

AND: Quite a lot of definition files are now on nuget: http://www.nuget.org/packages?q=TypeScript

Comments

[Robert Larsen]

This looks like what I were looking for. Thanks.

[Robert Larsen]

That looks very useful indeed. Thanks for the link.

[Diullei]

you can look at tsdpm.com and github.com/Diullei/tsd#readme too.

[GFoley83]

@JcFx Do you know of any plugin or Grunt task that can create definitions for newly created, local typescript files? E.g. I have a _definitions.ts file that contains all my definitions (local and plugins e.g. AngularJS). This file then gets referenced from every other .ts file. It would be great if something could update _definitions.ts with every new typescript file I create, automatically.

[jocull]

TSD has been deprecated in favor of Typings now: github.com/typings/typings/blob/master/docs/tsd.md

[Rafael Schimassek]

We may need to update the link for type definition file manager. It redirects to something completely different now.