angular / angular/angular-cli

Support executing ESM schematics

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#22,786 7 comments 61 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
area: @angular-devkit/schematics feature feature: under consideration
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Description

# 🚀 Feature request
Support schematics written in ES Modules. Currently only CommonJS schematics are supported.

### Command (mark with an `x`)

- [ ] new
- [ ] build
- [ ] serve
- [ ] test
- [ ] e2e
- [ ] generate
- [ ] add
- [ ] update
- [ ] lint
- [ ] extract-i18n
- [ ] run
- [ ] config
- [ ] help
- [ ] version
- [ ] doc
- [x] other: compiling custom schematics

### Description

Currently custom (and official) schematics can execute only CommonJS code, but not ES Modules. This is problematic when you want to import an ES Module in your custom schematics, [for example `HtmlParser` from `@angular/compiler`](https://github.com/SAP/spartacus/blob/7a1672a83224a5a2f3e6b3d08de3e461514120ea/projects/schematics/src/shared/utils/file-utils.ts#L253) (which since ng13 is shipped only as ESM).

#### Problems with not supporting ESM:

The following error started to occur for our custom schematics in runtime, since we upgraded from ng12 to 13:
`require() of ES Module /node_modules/@angular/compiler/fesm2015/compiler.mjs not supported. Instead change the require of /node_modules/@angular/compiler/fesm2015/compiler.mjs to a dynamic import() which is available in all CommonJS modules.`

But the advised change of the static `@angular/compiler` to a dynamic import is cumbersome due to various reasons:
- it unnecessarily changes the our synchronous code to asynchronous code
- it induces passing down the `compilerModule` (result of `await import(@angular/compiler)`) as an argument down to all helper functions ([example in angular repo](https://github.com/angular/angular/blob/a432ad65c77d5888da49b630d5055da2b8f7513c/packages/core/schematics/migrations/router-link-empty-expression/index.ts#L61))
- it requires a hacky workaround ticking the Typescript compiler so to avoid compiling the dynamic `import()` into the `require()` call - for more see [the workaround function `loadEsmModule()` in angular repo ](https://github.com/angular/angular/blob/e0015d3c456d584242269b0765878d598a550888/packages/core/schematics/utils/load_esm.ts#L11-L35). Btw. this function is not exported in public API, so we need to copy-paste it to our repo.

### Describe the solution you'd like
Support executing ESM schematics .

### Describe alternatives you've considered
Change the import of ESM to dynamic imports in our schematics code and deal with all its cumbersome consequences (described above).

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by tracing the Angular CLI path that compiles and executes custom schematics, then compare it with the referenced Angular `loadEsmModule()` workaround and the linked schematic examples. Done means ESM schematics can execute without the reported CommonJS `require()` error, with coverage for that behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
angular, typescript
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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