If you need to write node.js application like express app, you want to make it with Typescript, this repo can be useful for you.

What do we have here:

• Typescript
• Path aliases
• Dotenv support
• File watcher

Themes

• Environment variables using .env files
• How to build?
• How to run in watch/development mode?
• How to run in production mode?
• How to use path alias?

Pay attention that there are support .env files using dontenv plugin, but ONLY for development mode. Why? Usually you are not using .env files on production due to security risks, but if you need this, modify you start script:

{
  ...
  "scripts": {
    ...
    "start": "npm run build && node -r dotenv/config ./build/main.js",
  }

}

To build project use next command:

$ npm run build

To run project in watch mode, that means that it will make rebuild on every change you need to run next command:

$ npm run start:dev

We are using nodemon as a watcher, feel free to modify its config nodemon.json.

To run project in production use next command:

$ npm run start

This command will build your project and then run it.

This sample has already path alias example.

Take a look into utils/say-hello.ts:

export const sayHello = () => {
  console.log('Hello!');
};

And how it's imported in main.ts file.

import { sayHello } from '@utils/say-hello';

To make path alias works, in main.ts file, on the very first line you should have next line:

import 'module-alias/register';

Then you need to define your aliases in both tsconfig.json and package.json files. There are some difference, in tsconfig.json you need to define path relative to your src structure.

tsconfig.json

{
  ...
  "paths": {
    "@utils/*": ["utils/*"],
  }
}

But in package.json - relative to your build folder structure

{
  ...
  "_moduleAliases": {
    "@utils": "./build/utils"
  }
}

All in all, they are the same, but in package.json you need to add "./build/" string.