How to resolve SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module when running Vitest and TypeORM

[carlosmoliv]

I found the following error while running Vitest tests that require a database connection:

"SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module."

This issue appeared after I made some changes to my setup. Here's my new script for typeorm:

"migration:generate": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register ./node_modules/typeorm/cli -d ./src/infra/db/postgres/helpers/data-source.helper.ts migration:generate"

The migration file generated by this script is a TS file named "1683049252085-CreateUsersTable.ts." When I changed the file extension from ".ts" to ".mjs", Vitest started running correctly.

[carlosmoliv]

I have already tried solutions from these discussions:

• How can I get Vitest to work with TypeORM? #2751
• vitest doesn't work properly with @nestjs/testing #708 (comment)

And I ended up installing the following dependency: https://github.com/egoist/unplugin-swc, But didn't work for me.

[sheremet-va]

Your tsc script generates ESM files and your Node.js script runs them with your package.json. If you don't specify that type of your project is module, then it assumes it is CommonJS, and you can't use static imports there. Add "type": "module" to your packge.json or generate .mjs files.

[carlosmoliv]

I also have tried to put type: module but I got new errors:

• When running vitest: TypeError: Unknown file extension ".ts" for /home/carlos/projects/codex-solucoes/template-backend-node/src/infra/db/postgres/migrations/1683113898079-CreateUsersTable.ts

• When running my dev script: TypeError [ERR_UNKNOWN_FILE_EXTENSION]: Unknown file extension ".ts" for /home/carlos/projects/codex-solucoes/template-backend-node/src/main/server.ts

My Scripts:

"test": "vitest --passWithNoTests --silent --run",
"test:integration": "yarn test --no-run -c vitest-integration.config.ts",
"start:dev": "nodemon --watch src -e ts --exec 'ts-node' -r tsconfig-paths/register ./src/main/server.ts",

[carlosmoliv]

My tsconfig:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "outDir": "./dist",
    "target": "ES2019",
    "module": "CommonJS",
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "allowJs": true,
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
    "removeComments": true,
    "incremental": true,
    "sourceMap": true,
    "skipLibCheck": false,
    "noImplicitAny": true,
    "strictNullChecks": true,
    "resolveJsonModule": true,
    "types": ["vitest/globals"],
    "baseUrl": "./src",
    "paths": {
      "@data/*": ["data/*"],
      "@domain/*": ["domain/*"],
      "@infra/*": ["infra/*"],
      "@main/*": ["main/*"],
      "@presentation/*": ["presentation/*"],
      "@tests/*": ["tests/*"]
    }
  }
}

Vitest:

import { defineConfig } from 'vitest/config';

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    {
      name: 'a-vitest-plugin-that-changes-config',
      config: () => ({
        test: {
          setupFiles: ['./tests/setup-files/db-global-setup.ts'],
        },
      }),
    },
  ],
  test: {
    include: ['**/*.*-spec.ts'],
    mockReset: true,
    globals: true,
    coverage: {
      reportsDirectory: './coverage',
    },
    root: './',
    alias: {
      '@data': './src/data',
      '@domain': './src/domain',
      '@infra': './src/infra',
      '@main': './src/main',
      '@presentation': './src/presentation',
      '@tests': 'tests',
    },
  },
  resolve: {
    alias: {
      '@data': './src/data',
      '@domain': './src/domain',
      '@infra': './src/infra',
      '@main': './src/main',
      '@presentation': './src/presentation',
      '@tests': './src/tests',
    },
  },
});

[HarlemSquirrel]

Did you ever resolve this? I'm trying to set up TypeORM in a project that's been using vitest and am running into this issue.

It seems to happen when I initialize the data source with AppDataSource.initialize(). This error doesn't occur when running my express server, only when running vitest. I can run migrations from the CLI just fine. My tests run just fine when I comment out the migrations configuration in my data source.

Versions

typeorm@npm:0.3.19
vitest@npm:0.34.5

Code

// data-source.ts

export const AppDataSource = new DataSource({
  type: 'postgres',
  poolSize: 5,
  url: config.databaseUrl,
  logging: !config.isProduction,
  entities: [MyEntity],
  migrations: ['db/migrations/*.ts'], // Tests run when I comment out this line
  migrationsRun: false,
  subscribers: [],
});

import { it, describe, expect, beforeAll } from 'vitest';
import { AppDataSource } from '~db/data-source';

beforeAll(async () => {
  await AppDataSource.initialize()
    .then(() => {
      console.log('Data Source has been initialized!');
    })
    .catch((err) => {
      console.error('Error during Data Source initialization', err);
      throw err;
    });
});

tsconfig.json

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "allowJs": true,
    "allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true,
    "alwaysStrict": true,
    "baseUrl": "./",
    "checkJs": false,
    "composite": true,
    "declaration": true,
    "declarationMap": true,
    "emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
    "incremental": true,
    "inlineSourceMap": true,
    "module": "nodenext",
    "moduleResolution": "nodenext",
    "noFallthroughCasesInSwitch": true,
    "noImplicitAny": true,
    "noImplicitReturns": false,
    "outDir": "./build",
    "preserveSymlinks": true,
    "resolveJsonModule": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true,
    "strict": true,
    "target": "es2020",
    "tsBuildInfoFile": "./.tsbuildinfo",
    "useUnknownInCatchVariables": false,
    "paths": {
      "~app/*": ["./app/*"],
      "~config": ["./config"],
      "~config/*": ["./config/*"],
      "~db/*": ["./db/*"],
      "~integrations/*": ["./integrations/*"],
      "~shared/*": ["./shared/*"]
    }
  },
  "include": [
    "./**/*.ts",
    "vitest.config.mts",
    ".eslintrc.js"
  ],
  "exclude": ["build", "dist", "node_modules"]
}

// vitest.config.mts
const config = defineConfig({
  esbuild: {
    format: 'esm',
    target: 'es2020',
  },
  test: {
    testTimeout: 20000,
    exclude: ['build', 'node_modules'],
    globalSetup: [path.resolve(__dirname, './vitest.setup.ts')],
  },
  resolve: {
    alias: {
      '~app': path.resolve(__dirname, './app'),
      '~config': path.resolve(__dirname, './config'),
      '~db': path.resolve(__dirname, './db'),
      '~integrations': path.resolve(__dirname, './integrations'),
      '~shared': path.resolve(__dirname, './shared'),
      '~__recordings__': path.resolve(__dirname, './__recordings__'),
    },
  },
});

My single migration file so far

import { MigrationInterface, QueryRunner, Table, TableUnique } from 'typeorm';

export class AddCachedQueries1705597538034 implements MigrationInterface {
  public async up(queryRunner: QueryRunner): Promise<void> {
    await queryRunner.createTable(
      new Table({
        // ...

[sheremet-va]

You can use glob import to make it easier: https://vitejs.dev/guide/features.html#glob-import

[gioboa]

I'm facing the same error TypeError: Unknown file extension ".ts"
If I use migrations and entities with class names the system is working fine but I would like to have an automatic solution with the glob pattern.
the error is in this typeorm method
did you solve this issue?

[bgfernandes]

Having the same issue here as well, exactly as described. Good to know that doing migrations and entities with class names works, but it is a real pain with 50+ migrations, and also it's another step developers need to keep in mind when creating a new migration, to import it and add it to the list.

The glob import feature looks good, but I'm not using vite for building the project, it's a pure and simple tsc.

I wonder if there is a better solution out there.

[heldercostaa]

Exact same issue here, manually importing the entities and migrations worked, but still looking for a better solution

[zackpollard]

I just got this working using the previously mentioned vite glob-import as part of our globalSetup for some integration tests. I'll include the example of what I did for this, hopefully it can help some others 😄

We can use the import.meta.glob from vitest to dynamically import all the modules we need
const modules = import.meta.glob('/src/migrations/*.ts', { eager: true });

Then, for TS files, we can use the following mapper to convert those into classes that typeorm expects.
Object.values(modules).map((module) => Object.values(module)[0])

This can be passed directly to the migrations config property for a typeorm datasource.

Hope this helps some of you out!