Fixing Absolute Path Issues Made Easy: Vite, React, TS
Tags: webdev, react, javascript, vite
Published: 2023-07-11 12:37:43

# Introduction
When working on a Vite React TypeScript project, you might encounter difficulties when trying to set up and use absolute path imports. In this article, we will address the common challenges faced and provide possible solutions to help you overcome this struggle

## Understanding the Issue
The problem typically arises when attempting to import modules using absolute paths instead of relative paths. Absolute paths provide a cleaner and more intuitive way to import files, making the project structure more manageable. However, setting up and configuring absolute path imports in a Vite React TypeScript project requires some additional steps.

## Quick and Easy Setup: Building a Vite Project with React and TypeScript

- Open your command line interface (CLI) and navigate to the directory where you want to create your Vite project.

- Run the following command to create a new Vite project with the react-ts template:

```javascript
npx create-vite my-vite-app --template react-ts
```

Once the project creation is complete, navigate into the project directory:

```
cd my-vite-app
```
Install project dependencies by running:

```
npm install
```

Start the development server:
```
npm run dev
```

![vite](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/3bn723lgfdenq8h35rd4.png)

After setting up the necessary configurations for absolute path imports in my Vite React TypeScript project, including the following in my `tsconfig.json`:

```javascript
"compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": "./src",
    "paths": {
      "@components/*": ["components/*"],
      "@layouts/*": ["layouts/*"],
      "@pages/*": ["pages/*"]
    },
```

Followed by adding the following code to the **SignUp** component inside the **components** directory;

```javascript
const SignUp = () => {
  return <div className="signup-container">This is a signup page!!</div>;
};

export default SignUp;
```

I attempted to import the **SignUp** component in the **App.tsx** file. However, I encountered an issue where the absolute path import was not working as expected.

```
import SignUp from "components/SignUp/SignUp";
```

Go to the **App.tsx** component and add the following;

```javascript
import SignUp from "components/SignUp/SignUp";
import "./App.css";

const App = () => {
  return (
    <div className="App">
      <SignUp />
    </div>
  );
};

export default App;
```

I get this error;

![vite](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/6dymcby1k2kso5c9gchk.png)


![vite](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/h87uom2wc1ulspx8ikf0.png)

whereas if I use relative path, the app works in dev & build mode without any error:

```javascript
import SignUp from "./components/SignUp/SignUp";
```

## How To Make Absolute Path Work in Vite React TypeScript project?

Here are some solutions to help you get absolute path imports working in your Vite React TypeScript project:

In the `tsconfig.json` file, we have defined the necessary compiler options and path aliases for absolute imports. After setting the "baseUrl" option to "./src" to specify the base directory for resolving module paths. 


In order to support the path aliases defined in your `tsconfig.json` file, you need to make changes to your `vite.config.ts` file. You should update the alias configuration in your `vite.config.ts` to align with the aliases defined in `tsconfig.json`.

Update **vite.config.ts** file with this code;

```javascript
import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import react from "@vitejs/plugin-react";

// https://vitejs.dev/config/
export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [react()],
  resolve: {
    alias: {
      components: "/src/components",
      layouts: "/src/layouts",
      pages: "/src/pages",
    },
  },
});
```

You can import path like this (or any module under ./src):

```javascript
import SignUp from "components/SignUp/SignUp";
import Header from "layouts/Header/Header";
```

To achieve the import statements with the @ symbol, you can modify the alias configuration in your vite.config.ts file as follows:

```javascript
import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import react from "@vitejs/plugin-react";

// https://vitejs.dev/config/
export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [react()],
  resolve: {
    alias: {
      "@components": "/src/components",
      "@layouts": "/src/layouts",
      "@pages": "/src/pages",
    },
  },
});
```

Once you've set up absolute imports, you can start using them in your project. Here's an example of how to import a component using absolute import:

```javascript
import SignUp from "@components/SignUp/SignUp";
```


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