My Development Environment
I am utilizing Angular, Angular CLI, NPM, and Typescript in my web application development.
Within one of my components, I require the use of jQuery to initialize a jQuery plugin. In this particular case, the plugin in question is backstretch. Although the specific plugin may vary, the issue detailed below would be consistent for any jQuery plugin.
Despite common suggestions against using Angular and jQuery side by side, there remains significant utility in employing reusable jQuery plugins within an Angular project.
The Challenge at Hand
Although while coding in the VS Code IDE, IntelliSense indicates that both jQuery and backstretch properties are recognized without errors, a problem arises during the "ng serve" execution, as TypeScript transpiles the code into JavaScript.
This results in the following error message displayed in the console:
ERROR in C:/wamp/www/PaperbackComingSoon/Angular/my-app/src/app/app.component.ts (20,7): Property 'backstretch' does not exist on type 'JQueryStatic'.
A screenshot showing this error, alongside the jsconfig.json file and the installed type definitions for jQuery and Backstretch can be found here.
While the compiler seems to recognize jQuery, it encounters difficulties finding backstretch for unknown reasons. The actual type definition for backstretch is visible in this screenshot.
Seeking Answers
What aspect am I overlooking? Any insights into what might be causing this issue? Could it be possible that the version of the type definition file for the Backstretch plugin doesn't align with the actual jQuery Backstretch plugin?
Given my utilization of TypeScript, I aim to fully leverage all available typing files for jQuery plugins to ensure strong typing. While a makeshift solution could involve defining typings manually and setting all jQuery plugins as type "any," such an approach doesn't seem appropriate. My intention is to make use of all typing files accessible to me. Despite the compiler's inability to locate the defined property, there appears to be no reason not to benefit from existing typing files.
Potential Explanations
My hypothesis points towards a potential discrepancy between the TS versions globally installed on my system compared to the TypeScript version within the VS Code IDE environment. Checking the TS version within VSCode status bar reveals 2.4.2.
To contrast, running "tsc -v" command in the console yields 1.0.3.0 (given my prior work with TypeScript in Visual Studio). Even post executing "npm install -g [email protected]", the version remains unaffected.
Any thoughts or recommendations on this matter?