A boilerplate Node.js config

Here is a simple boilerplate configuration when using Node.js with Typescript using ES-modules and reloading it with Nodemon.

The configuration

package.json

{
  "main": "index.ts",
  "type": "module",
  "scripts": {
    "watch": "tsc -w",
    "dev": "nodemon"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "cors": "^2.8.5",
    "dotenv": "^16.0.3",
    "express": "^4.18.2"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@types/cors": "^2.8.13",
    "@types/express": "^4.17.15",
    "nodemon": "^2.0.20",
    "typescript": "^4.9.4"
  }
}

As TypeScript is globally installed on my VS Code IDE, there is no need to add it as a devDependency, but you should if you do not have it installed at all.

tsconfig.json

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "ESNext",
    "module": "ESNext",
    "rootDir": "./src",
    "moduleResolution": "NodeNext",
    "lib": ["DOM", "DOM.Iterable", "ESNext"],
    "baseUrl": "./",
    "outDir": "./dist",
    "allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
    "strict": true,
    "strictNullChecks": true,
    "alwaysStrict": true,
    "noImplicitReturns": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true,
    "jsx": "react-jsx"
  },
  "include": ["./src/**/*.ts"],
  "exclude": ["node_modules"],
}

nodemon.json

{
  "watch": ["dist"],
  "ext": "js,json",
  "ignore": [],
  "exec": "node ./dist/index.js"
}

The execution

Having your project run is done in two-and-a-half steps.

1. We must compile TypeScript into JavaScript..
   .. (and tell it to re-compile every time we save a change in our TypeScript-files)

// execute in a terminal-window
npm run watch

// it will do whatever "watch" is told to do in package.json

2. We must tell Nodemon to run our app..
   .. (and tell it to re-run it every time it notices that any .js or .json file has been changed)

// execute in a new terminal-window
npm run nodemon

// it will do whatever nodemon.json has stated

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25 december 2022