Errors when using MomentJS in Angular Typescript library

The error is very clear and specific

Error: Cannot call a namespace ('moment') at error (/Users/chris/angular-library/node_modules/rollup/dist/rollup.js:185:14)

This is per the ES Module Specification.

That means the following is an invalid way to import moment, or anything you intend to call, because a module namespace object, such as that created by * as ns may not be called.

import * as moment from 'moment';

The correct form is the form that ngc is raising an error on

import moment from 'moment';

Firstly to make this work, you need to specify the --allowSyntheticDefaultImports flag.

tsconfig.json

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true
  }
}

Assuming that ngc will recognize the option, you still have an additional problem to work out.

The flag above is for users of tools such as SystemJS or Webpack which perform the synthesis, allowing such code to typecheck.

As of TypeScript 2.7, you can now specify the --esModuleInterop flag to have the language provide the synthesis as part of the transpilation process.

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true
  }
}

Note that if you are using a version of TypeScript prior to 2.7 and if you are compiling to CommonJS, AMD, or UMD modules (e.g. with --module commonjs) the correct import syntax is rather

import moment = require('moment');

The import = require syntax is a TypeScript specific construct, now largely unnecessary. It exists to acquire both the type and the value of the module exports of an AMD, CommonJS, or UMD module. The "and" is important because a const, var, or let = require invocation only creates a name in the value space not in the type space.


To whoever finds this in 2018+, with Angular6 and current @angular/cli:

Today I ran into this and found solution here.

import * as moment_ from 'moment';
const moment = moment_;

Now the library compiles OK for me.