Need to support declaration merging in external modules

[cnshenj]

jQuery (jQuery UI) support method extensions. If we write my own jQuery UI widget, I can do this:
In myWidget.ts:

interface JQuery {
    myWidget(): JQuery
}

class myWidget {
    public foo() {
        // This is okay now, but will fail once we add some import statements to this file,
        // because TypeScript thinks this JQuery is not that JQuery
        var some: JQuery = $("#some-id").text();
    }
}

$.fn.extend({
    myWidget() {...}
});

Then in another file:

$(selector).myWidget(); // Create a new myWidget, this is okay because of myWidget() is declared in my version of JQuery interface
$(selector).attr("id", "my-id"); // This is okay because attr is declared in jquery.d.ts

However, this stops working when I add this line to myWidget.ts:

import helpers = require("helpers");

Now TypeScript thinks there 2 JQuery interfaces, instead of merging them into one. How do I tell TypeScript that I'm not creating a new interface for this module, but need to merge it with an existing interface?

[mhegazy]

by adding import or export to the top level scope in your file, you are truing this file into a module.

Modules, as per ES6 spec, have their own scope. so your interface JQuery is a local interface, and does not merge with the global JQuery. TypeScript does not provide a way to model modules affecting global state.

To do that, you have two options:

1. Split your file into a .d.ts with the extension to JQuery, and your module would include that .d.ts using ///reference.
2. do not use modules, i.e. no "imports" and it will be included globally as a script tag

Please note that ES6 modules have not supported this pattern, but rather a pattern of module composition, where you would import JQuery, add your extension, and export it again. users would only import your module instead of JQuery plus your module. e.g. export * from "JQuery".

[cnshenj]

I like the module composition solution. Is it supported by TypeScript yet?

[mhegazy]

@cnshenj ES6 module syntax is supported starting form TypeScript 1.5-alpha

[masaeedu]

@mhegazy

Please note that ES6 modules have not supported this pattern, but rather a pattern of module composition, where you would import JQuery, add your extension, and export it again.

Could you please illustrate this? How would this work when I have two different modules that add different things to JQuery?

[mhegazy]

See #6213 for the module augmentation support.