Hard to find typescript error in tests - and proposal

[erossignon]

At this time, if a typo or typescript error appears in a test.ts file mocha wont find it.

For instance if a test contains

const oops: number = "this is not a number but a string, typescript will complain";

running mocha produces:

npx mocha test/opcua-codec-test.ts 

 Exception during run: TypeError: Unknown file extension ".ts" for /home/etienne/projects/node-wot/packages/binding-opcua/test/opcua-codec-test.ts
    at Object.getFileProtocolModuleFormat [as file:] (node:internal/modules/esm/get_format:219:9)
    at defaultGetFormat (node:internal/modules/esm/get_format:245:36)
    at defaultLoad (node:internal/modules/esm/load:120:22)
    at async ModuleLoader.loadAndTranslate (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:580:32)
    at async ModuleJob._link (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:116:19) {
  code: 'ERR_UNKNOWN_FILE_EXTENSION'

with no clue about where the error is.

At this time the solution is to scrutanize the source code in the IDE for the wavy red indicators. we have no way to detect those erreur during build time as test/**/*.ts are not accessible in the tsconfig.json

The reason is that Mocha doesn't perform typescript compilatipon

A prefered situation would be that test scripts get compiled automatically as we build the solution.

One way to do this would be to change the tsconfig.json file

// in tsconfig.json
{
    "extends": "../../tsconfig.json",
    "compilerOptions": {
        "outDir": "dist",
-        "rootDir": "src",
+        "rootDir": "./",
        "skipLibCheck": true
    },
+    "include": ["./src/**/*"],
+    "include": ["./src/**/*", "./test/**/*],
    "references": [{ "path": "../core" }]
}

This has an impact on the generated files that goes

from:

dist/main.js

to:

dist/src/main.js
dist/test/main.test.js

and also requires a small change in the package.jon file, as we may not want to publish the transpiled test source.

{
    "name": "@node-wot/binding-opcua",
    "version": "0.9.2",
    "files": [
-        "dist",
+        "dist/src",
        "src"
    ],
-    "main": "dist/index.js",
-    "types": "dist/index.d.ts",
+    "main": "dist/src/index.js",
+    "types": "dist/src/index.d.ts",
    "devDependencies": {

Open for comment !

[danielpeintner]

Thanks for bringing this up 👍

I have been running into the same error as well. It is VERY confusing, I agree.

We should tackle it one way or the other. Having said that, I think we need to be careful to avoid any issues for the end user. Maybe It's worth to create a PR and try out the result, and maybe also deploy a "test" version on NPM...

[erossignon]

and maybe also deploy a "test" version on NPM...

I am not sure deploying a test version on npm would be a good practise, at the end of the day , anyone can clone the repo, build and run the tests, that's the best route, I believe.

[danielpeintner]

and maybe also deploy a "test" version on NPM...

I am not sure deploying a test version on npm would be a good practise, at the end of the day , anyone can clone the repo, build and run the tests, that's the best route, I believe.

What I meant was a snapshot version of node-wot on NPM before going with the final node-wot v0.9.2.
The reason I propose doing so is that changing the structure etc. might have side effect we can not foresee. Maybe I'm just too anxious. 🤷‍♂️