Absolute path not working in Vite project React TS - reactjs

Question

I'm struggling to get absolute path to work in a Vite react-ts project.
Here's how I created the project
npm init #vitejs/app
npx: installed 6 in 1.883s
√ Project name: ... test-vite
√ Select a framework: » react
√ Select a variant: » react-ts
Then I added baseUrl to tsconfig.json
based on the TS official doc:
{
"compilerOptions": {
"baseUrl": "./src",
...
followed by adding a simple component (T:\test-vite\src\components\Test.tsx)
import React from "react";
const Test = () => <h1>This is a Test.</h1>;
export default Test;
Finally I import the Test component in App.tsx
but it won't let me use absolute path:
import Test from "components/Test";
I get this error
whereas if I use relative path, the app works in dev & build mode without any error:
import Test from "./components/Test";
How can I make absolute path work in the project?

Answer 1

There are two problems here:
Tell typescript how to resolve import path
Tell vite how to build import path
You only tell typescript how to resolve, but vite don't konw how to build. So refer to the official document resolve.alias, maybe this is what you want:
// vite.config.ts
{
resolve: {
alias: [
{ find: '#', replacement: path.resolve(__dirname, 'src') },
],
},
// ...
}
You can import path like this (or any module under ./src):
import Test from "#/components/Test";
import bar from "#/foo/bar"
Moreover, you can use vite plugin vite-tsconfig-paths directly, it makes you don't have to manually configure resolve.alias
Follow the instructions below:
Install vite-tsconfig-paths as dev dependency
Inject vite-tsconfig-paths using the vite.config.ts module
import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import tsconfigPaths from 'vite-tsconfig-paths'
export default defineConfig({
plugins: [tsconfigPaths()],
})

Answer 2

I came here through search results, I was looking for something different, namely, how to do a simple absolute import like import { foo } from 'src/lib/foo.ts'
So if you have a /src directory that contains all code and want to use an absolute import path.
vite.config.ts
export default defineConfig({
...
resolve: {
alias: {
src: path.resolve('src/'),
},
}
})
tsconfig.json
{
"compilerOptions": {
...
"baseUrl": "./"
}
}
Note that this is a trick: src is an alias, so it appears like the path is absolute in Vite. If you have another directory in the root dir, adjacent to /src, you will need to add another alias for that directory.

Answer 3

#Yuns solutions works, but it shows error in vscode. And it was breaking auto-import in vs code.
To make it work in vscode and vite both, I added alias in both tsconfig and vite.config.
// tsconfig.json
{
"paths": {
"#/*": ["src/*"]
}
// ...
}
// vite.config.ts
{
resolve: {
alias: [{ find: '#', replacement: '/src' }],
},
// ...
}
Then, I could import like below (svelte app is in src directory)
import Header from '#/components/Header.svelte

Answer 4

Looking for import {...} from "src/foo/bar";?
I also came here through search results like user Maciej Krawczyk, but the # part also wasn't what I was interested in. That user's answer helped me, but I had trouble with the path.resolve part (ReferenceError because path wasn't defined), so I used a slightly different approach:
vite.config.ts
export default defineConfig({
...
resolve: {
alias: {
src: "/src",
},
},
...
})
Vite's resolver considers the absolute path /src to be from where the server is serving (see GH issue). So if you're running/building from the root of your project with src as a top level directory -- which is pretty common -- this alias points Vite in the right direction.
tsconfig.json
{
"compilerOptions": {
...
"baseUrl": "./",
"paths": {
"src/*": [
"./src/*"
]
}
}
}
This is basically blindly following this StackOverflow answer. TypeScript needs to know that we have special resolving going on as well, otherwise TS will be freaked out about your non-existent src package and not know where it should go looking. (Note: After I changed my TS config, VSCode didn't immediately pick up the change, so I was still getting warnings. I quit, re-opened, and had to wait ~15sec for the warnings to go away.)

Answer 5

1) You need to install these packages:
npm i path
yarn add path
npm i #types/node
yarn add #types/node
npm i vite-tsconfig-paths
yarn add vite-tsconfig-paths
2) Then in the vite.config file:
import { defineConfig } from 'vite';
import react from '#vitejs/plugin-react';
import tsconfigPaths from 'vite-tsconfig-paths';
import path from 'path';
export default defineConfig({
base: './',
resolve: {
alias: {
Components: path.resolve(__dirname, './src/components'),
Assets: path.resolve(__dirname, './src/assets'),
},
},
plugins: [react(), tsconfigPaths()],
});
3) And now we have to tell TS those same paths that we defined in the alias:
{
"compilerOptions": {
...,
"baseUrl": "./",
"paths": {
"src/*": [ "./src/*" ],
// We define this path for all files/folders inside
// components folder:
"Components/*": [ "./src/components/*" ],
// We define this path for the index.ts file inside the
// components folder:
"Components": [ "./src/components" ],
"Assets/*": [ "./src/assets/*" ],
"Assets": [ "./src/assets" ]
}
},
...
}
4) reload vscode: As the comment above said, press Fn1 and type "reload with extensions disabled", re-enabling extensions from the popup.
Now try to import
import Test from "components/Test";
it should work.

Answer 6

For anyone looking specifically to add the nice import "#/something-in-src" syntax like Vue has with the latest (as of posting this answer) version of Vite + React + TypeScript, here's how I did it:
Make sure #types/node is installed as a dev dependency. This didn't come with the latest version of Vite for me, and it will make "path" and __dirname throw an undefined error.
vite.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import react from "#vitejs/plugin-react";
import path from "path";
// https://vitejs.dev/config/
export default defineConfig({
resolve: {
alias: [{ find: "#", replacement: path.resolve(__dirname, "src") }],
},
plugins: [react()],
});
tsconfig.json
Add:
{
"compilerOptions": {
"paths": {
"#/*": ["./src/*"]
}
}
}

Answer 7

For anyone who stucks after all required changes, you need to reload vscode.
My config files:
tsconfig.json
"baseUrl": "./",
"paths": {
"#/*": ["src/*"]
}
vite.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from 'vite';
import react from '#vitejs/plugin-react';
import path from 'path';
// https://vitejs.dev/config/
export default defineConfig({
resolve: {
alias: { '#': path.resolve(__dirname, './src') },
},
plugins: [react()],
});
In above code you need to have 2 libraries installed:
'path': npm i path
'#types/node': npm i #types/node
After configure your project files you need to reload vscode. To do that press ctrl + P and type ">reload with extensions disabled", after that you will get popUp to activate extensions again click it, and your absoulte path should work
If someone installed vite-tsconfig-paths library, you also need to reload the vscode, remember to import given library to vite.config.ts
export default defineConfig({ plugins: [react(), tsconfigPaths()] });
With package you get default 'components/File' import instead of '#components/File' import.