Call Typescript Compiler from C#

[mike-ward]

Create nuget module to invokeTypescript compiler in C# to compile Typscript code specified in C# strings.

[RyanCavanaugh]

Someone else can do this.

[mike-ward]

Um...

I would have expected something like:

            var scType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("MSScriptControl.ScriptControl.1");
            dynamic sc = Activator.CreateInstance(scType);
            sc.Language = "JavaScript";
            sc.AddCode(tsc.js.text);

to work. But it doesn't. Guess that, "Someone else" has his work cut out for him.

[DanielRosenwasser]

Not really. It's not entirely trivial, but it's decently easy to use Chakra/JsRT from C# with the following resource. You can check out the C# version of the sample app which is Apache 2.0 licensed.

[DanielRosenwasser]

Also you can use Edge.js

[DickvdBrink]

I did something like that here: https://github.com./DickvdBrink/TypeScriptSyntaxVisualizer/blob/master/TypeScriptSyntaxVisualizer/TypeScript/TypeScriptContext.cs
Note: It is really old and won't work with the latest TS anymore

[mike-ward]

OK, just to close the loop on this one, I got this working by removing the last line in tsc.js where is invokes the command line processling.

I then created the following JS code:

var tsc = function(input) {
  var opts = {};
  var host = ts.createCompilerHost(opts);

  var output = '';
  host.writeFile = function (filename, text) { output += text; };
  host.getSourceFile = function() { return ts.createSourceFile('textsource', input, 0, '0'); }
  host.getDefaultLibFilename = function () { return ''; }
  host.getCurrentDirectory = function () { return '/' }
  host.useCaseSensitiveFileNames = function () { return false; }
  host.getCanonicalFileName = function (text) { return text; }
  host.getNewLine = function () { return '\n'; }

  var prog = ts.createProgram(['textsource'], opts, host);
  prog.getDiagnostics();
  var checker = prog.getTypeChecker(true);
  checker.emitFiles();
  return output;
}

var typescriptout = tsc(typescriptin);

and finally the C# code to invoke it:

    public static string Compile(string text)
    {
        try
        {
            var engine = new Engine();
            engine.SetValue("typescriptin", text);
            engine.Execute(Resources.TypeScript);
            engine.Execute(Resources.tsc);
            var js = engine.GetValue("typescriptout").AsString();
            return js;
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            return e.Message;
        }
    }

I'm sure I missed a few things but there you have it. It of course relies on knowing something about the inner workings which means it will likely break in the next version. Maybe a method could be added in some future version that takes strings instead of files?

[mhegazy]

I would highly recommend using the compiler API for these scenarios instead of just replacing strings in the compiler.

here is how to use the compiler API: https://github.com./Microsoft/TypeScript/wiki/Using-the-Compiler-API

And starting from next release, you should have a new API for string -> string transformation for modules, see issue #2499 for more details.

[mike-ward]

Awesome. Just what I needed.