TypeScript Modules in Visual Studio 2015 Update 2 - 'require' is undefined

Question

In Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise (Update 2 installed) I\'ve created a new TypeScript-Project TypeScriptHTMLApp1 from the Template (using default project settings). After that, I

Answer 1

You need to include requirejs or bundle your scripts with webpack. TypeScript provides the module syntax and compiles down into require calls, but does not provide a runtime module loader. You must include that in your page for the scripts to work.

In the browser, make sure to provide the --module flag and specify the type of module you're using. This will typically be es6 for code you're running through webpack or amd/umd for older code using requirejs.

If you take a look at the TS compiler's output, you'll see that

import {foo} from './bar';

becomes

define(["require", "exports"], function (require, exports) {
    "use strict";
});

but note that define and the modules "require" and "exports" are not defined by the compiler.

If you're running in a node environment, the nodejs runtime provides the necessary functions for commonjs module loading.