Automated refactoring for TypeScript apps with Tsmod
Remo H. Jansen
Posted on September 30, 2019
Inspired by the talk from Cristina Bernardis about jscodeshift at JSDayIE I have released Tsmod.
A library that allows us to write automated refactoring code modifications powered by David Sherret's ts-morph.
What is this about?
If you have a very large codebase and you want to change something across many files this tool will allow you to write a script that will do the work for you. This is a good idea because it can save you time but also because it can be used by other members of the team as a valuable source of information. The transform scripts can also be shared online as open source. A common example is a migration script for a breaking change in the API of a framework. You can release the new version of the framework together with the transform scripts to help the users of the framework to upgrade their version with ease.
Installation
You can install this module as a global dependency using npm:
npm install -g tsmod
Please note that if you have never used TypeScript or ts-node you will also need them:
npm install -g typescript ts-node
The typescript module is the TypeScript compiler and the ts-node module is a version of Node.js that can work directly with TypeScript files (.ts
) instead of using JavaScript files (.js
).
Usage
The following command applies the transform var_to_const_tramsform.ts
to the files fileA.ts
and fileB.ts
:
tsmod -t var_to_const_tramsform.ts fileA.ts fileB.ts
Please Note: A TypeScript compiler configuration file (
tsconfig.json
) file is expected in the current directory when you run the previous command.
Transform example
The transforms are powered by the ts-morph
API. You can learn more about the API at https://ts-morph.com.
The following example changes all var
variable declarations into const
variable declarations:
import { SourceFile, SyntaxKind, VariableDeclarationKind } from "ts-morph";
export const varToConstTransform = (file: SourceFile, transformArgs: {}) => {
// Find all variable declarations in source file
const variableStatements = file.getDescendantsOfKind(
SyntaxKind.VariableStatement
);
// Change var for const for each statement
variableStatements.forEach(variableStatement => {
const declarationKind = variableStatement.getDeclarationKind();
if (declarationKind === VariableDeclarationKind.Var) {
variableStatement.setDeclarationKind(VariableDeclarationKind.Const);
}
});
// Return source code
const updatedSourceCode = file.getText();
return updatedSourceCode;
};
Options
For additional help use the following:
tsmod -h
I hope you enjoyed it, please let me know your thoughts!
Please note that at the moment this project is just an experiment is not considered a mature piece of software...
Posted on September 30, 2019
Join Our Newsletter. No Spam, Only the good stuff.
Sign up to receive the latest update from our blog.