Enhance Your ExpressJS Documentation: Using Jsdoc Without TypeScript

Discover how to effectively comment your ExpressJS functions using `Jsdoc` without relying on TypeScript! Improve your code documentation and get better IntelliSense suggestions.
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Enhance Your ExpressJS Documentation: Using Jsdoc Without TypeScript

When working with ExpressJS, writing clean, well-documented code is essential. A common concern faced by developers is generating proper documentation and having robust IntelliSense suggestions while not using TypeScript. If you've been struggling with this in your JavaScript ExpressJS project, you're not alone!

Let's dive into a solution that can help you seamlessly incorporate Jsdoc into your ExpressJS applications without needing to switch to TypeScript.

The Problem

Imagine you're coding a route function in your ExpressJS app. You want to document your code using JsDoc comments, allowing for better readability and IntelliSense functionality. However, when you're trying to access the properties of the request object, you find that your development environment doesn’t provide the expected suggestions for ExpressJS methods.

This issue often arises because of name clashes between the imported request and response types from Express and the native JavaScript types.

The Solution

To resolve this problem, you can take the following steps:

1. Renaming Type Definitions

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

By renaming your types to ExpressRequest and ExpressResponse, you eliminate the clash and enable better autocompletion when typing request. in your code.

2. Create a tsconfig File

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

allowJs: Enables processing of JavaScript files.

checkJs: Enable type checking for JavaScript files.

noEmit: Prevents TypeScript from emitting .js files; only checks types.

strict: Enables strict type checking options.

moduleResolution: Tells TypeScript how to look up modules.

typeRoots: Specifies the paths to the folders that contain type definitions.

Conclusion

Now you can focus on building great applications while having peace of mind about your documentation and type checks! Happy coding!