TypeScript module omitted when only used as an alias - module

Question

I have an import statement of a NPM module like this:
import * as ReactRouter from 'react-router'
Which transpiles using module: "commonjs" to:
var ReactRouter = require('react-router');
And I have access to ReactRouter.Router, etc. in my JSX. For example, this works:
render(){
return (
<ReactRouter.Router>
<ReactRouter.Route path="/" component={App}>
<ReactRouter.IndexRoute component={Index} />
<ReactRouter.Route path="detail/:id" component={Detail} />
{/* etc */}
</ReactRouter.Route>
</ReactRouter.Router>
)
}
However, I want to create aliases to Route, etc. so I don't have to refer ReactRouter.* everywhere:
import * as ReactRouter from 'react-router'
import Router = ReactRouter.Router
import Route = ReactRouter.Route
import IndexRoute = ReactRouter.IndexRoute
render(){
return (
<Router>
<Route path="/" component={App}>
<IndexRoute component={Index} />
<Route path="detail/:id" component={Detail} />
{/* etc */}
</Route>
</Router>
)
}
But when I do this, the transpiled code becomes this:
var Router = ReactRouter.Router;
var Route = ReactRouter.Route;
var IndexRoute = ReactRouter.IndexRoute;
Notice the ReactRouter module itself is nowhere, and at runtime it breaks because ReactRouter is undefined. However, if I stick at least one arbitrary reference to ReactRouter it shows up:
// TS
import * as ReactRouter
import Router = ReactRouter.Router
ReactRouter // reference to force ReactRouter module to be compiled
// Transpiles to:
var ReactRouter = require('react-router');
var Router = ReactRouter.Router;
ReactRouter;
And then it works at runtime.
So in other words, it seems that an import alias does not count as a reference, even though it really is. Is this a TSC bug? Is there a workaround other than creating an extra reference to the module so that TSC doesn't omit it? Is there a better way to import these individual symbols from the react-router module, like import {Router, Route, IndexRoute} from 'react-router' can be done with Babel?

Answer 1

This is a compiler bug. It was fixed a little while ago and you can either npm install typescript#next or use TypeScript 1.7 once it becomes available.
Referencing ReactRouter in an expression is the best workaround.