Running npm run makemigrations throws 'Cannot find module '@entity''

Version of FoalTS: 2.6.0

When I try to run the npm run makemigrations command, if I have some imports in my entities that use the @entity it throws this error:

Error during migration generation: Error: Cannot find module ‘@entity’

This is the makemigrations command (should be the default one) : foal rmdir build && tsc -p tsconfig.app.json && npx typeorm migration:generate --name migration && tsc -p tsconfig.app.json

and this is my tsconfig.app.json :

{
    "extends": "./tsconfig.json",
    "include": [
        "src/**/*.ts"
    ],
    "exclude": [
        "src/e2e/*.ts",
        "src/**/*.spec.ts",
        "src/e2e.ts",
        "src/test.ts"
    ]
}

tsconfig.json:

{
    "compilerOptions": {
        "module": "commonjs",
        "sourceMap": true,                              /* Generates corresponding '.map' file. */
        "outDir": "build",                              /* Redirect output structure to the directory. */
        "strict": true,                                 /* Enable all strict type-checking options. */
        "strictPropertyInitialization": false,          /* Enable strict checking of property initialization in classes. */
        "moduleResolution": "node",                     /* Specify module resolution strategy: 'node' (Node.js) or 'classic' (TypeScript pre-1.6). */
        "esModuleInterop": true,                        /* Enables emit interoperability between CommonJS and ES Modules via creation of namespace objects for all imports. Implies 'allowSyntheticDefaultImports'. */
        "experimentalDecorators": true,                 /* Enables experimental support for ES7 decorators. */
        "emitDecoratorMetadata": true,                  /* Enables experimental support for emitting type metadata for decorators. */
        "skipLibCheck": true,                           /* Skip type checking of declaration files. */
        "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,       /* Disallow inconsistently-cased references to the same file. */
        "noImplicitAny": false,
        "target": "ES2021",
        "resolveJsonModule": true,
        "rootDir": "src",
        "lib": [
            "ES2021"
        ],
        "baseUrl": "src",
        "paths": {
            "@lib": ["lib"],
            "@entity": ["app/entities"],
            "@service": ["app/services"],
            "@interface": ["app/interfaces"],
            "@hook": ["app/hooks"],
            "@middleware": ["app/middleware"]
        }
    },
    "include": [
        "src/**/*.ts",
        "ormconfig.js",
        "config/*.js"
    ]
}

and package.json :

    "_moduleAliases": {
        "@service": "build/app/services",
        "@entity": "build/app/entities",
        "@interface": "build/app/interfaces",
        "@hook": "build/app/hooks",
        "@middleware": "build/app/middleware",
        "@lib": "build/lib",
        "@dbconfig": "build/ormconfig.js"
    },

It works fine if I import using from './' but I want to know why it’s not working with import { ... } from '@entity'

[LoicPoullain]

Ok, so the problem probably comes from here.

When running the application, the index.ts file is read at first and so the module-alias module is registered.

But in the case of the migrations, this file is not read. Only the migration files and the files they import are. This is probably why you get this error.

Could the commands npx typeorm -r module-alias/register migration:run or node -r module-alias/register ./node_modules/.bin/typeorm migration:run fix the problem? Or something similar?

[LoicPoullain]

I tried and it didn’t work. What seems to work is when I import the module-alias inside the module index.ts (so in entity/index.ts). Maybe would be good to mention that in the docs

Glad that you found how to fix the issue! I’d rather not to add it to the documentation as I feel like it is a specific issue related to the use of a 3rd-part library (module-alias). If anyone has the same problem, he or she will be able to find the solution on this issue. 🙂