How to use multiple tsconfig files in vs-code?

Question

I am using Visual Studio Code and have a fairly common project structure:

├── client/
│   ├── tsconfig.json
├── shared/
├── server/
│   ├── tsconfig.json
├── project.json

The two tsconfig files have different settings (e.g. the one under client/ targets ES5, the one under server/ targets ES6). Note that there is no tsconfig in the root directory.

The problem is that I want the shared directory to be included in both projects. I can't do this using tsconfig because the exclude option won't let me include a folder that is in a higher directory than the tsconfig.json, and using files I have to constantly keep the list of files up to date as it doesn't support globs.

Note that I can compile fine by adding the shared folder into tsc, what I want is for the Visual Studio Code IDE to recognise the shared code for intellisense etc.

Is the only option to wait for filesGlob?

Answer 1

These days it is much easier as vscode has better support for this.

You can use this directory structure so all the code is independent:

├── frontend/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── <frontend code>
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── tsconfig.json
├── shared/
│   ├── package.json
├── backend/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── <backend code>
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── tsconfig.json

Then in both the backend and frontend tsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "paths": {
      "~shared/*": ["../shared/*"]
    },
    "rootDirs": [
      "./src",
      "../shared"
    ]
  }
}

To allow access to the shared code e.g.:

import { Foo } from '~shared/foo';

---

Old Answer

Use a single tsconfig.json for the root. And then extend it for each project (backend tsconfig.server.json, frontend tsconfig.webpack.json).

• Root tsconfig.json include: ['src'] to ensure all files get typechecked in the IDE
• Backend tsconfig.server.json exclude: ['src/app'] the frontend files
• Frontend : tsconfig.webpack.json exclude: ['src/server'] the backend files

Folder Structure

├── src/
│   ├── app/    < Frontend
│   ├── server/ < Backend
│   ├── common/ < Shared
├── tsconfig.json
├── tsconfig.server.json
├── tsconfig.webpack.json

Config Files

tsconfig.json

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "noImplicitAny": true,
    "strictNullChecks": true
  },
  "include": [
    "src"
  ]
}

tsconfig.webpack.json

{
  "extends": "./tsconfig.json",
  "exclude": [
    "src/app"
  ]
}

tsconfig.server.json

{
  "extends": "./tsconfig.json",
  "exclude": [
    "src/server"
  ]
}

More

Example lesson (by me)