# Fixing common TS typings

**URL:** <https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/fixing-common-ts-typings/575>\
**Category:** UXP Plugin API\
**Tags:** tips-and-tricks\
**Created:** [January 12, 2019, 2:27pm UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/fixing-common-ts-typings/575 "2019-01-12T14:27:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pklaschka](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/pklaschka/32/3162_2.png) [@pklaschka](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/pklaschka)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/fixing-common-ts-typings/575/2 "2019-01-13T14:33:13Z")

</div>

> [@Velara](#):
>
> **Matrix**  
> [ts] Property ‘e’ does not exist on type ‘Matrix’. [2339]
> 
> ```auto
> var transform = item.transform;
> transform.e = 0;
> 
> ```

As per the documentation, `Matrix` has no attribute `e`: [Matrix · Adobe XD Plugin Reference](https://adobexdplatform.com/plugin-docs/reference/Matrix.html)

> [@Velara](#):
>
> **Module**
> 
> > [ts] Cannot find module ‘os’. [2307]
> 
> ```auto
> const platform = require("os").platform();
> 
> ```

`OS` – according to the docs – is a global class and therefore not a module that can get imported by using `require()` – cf. [OS · Adobe XD Plugin Reference](https://adobexdplatform.com/plugin-docs/reference/uxp/class/OS.html)

> [@Velara](#):
>
> **File**
> 
> > [ts] Type ‘File | File’ is not assignable to type ‘File’.  
> > Type ‘File’ is missing the following properties from type ‘File’: lastModified, size, type, slice [2322]
> 
> ```auto
> /**@type {File} */
> let selectedFile = await fileSystem.getFileForOpening();
> 
> ```

This could be an interference with the `File` type from the “standard” DOM typings (see [File - Web APIs | MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/de/docs/Web/API/File)). I – unfortunately – haven’t found a way to get around that (except for disabling the DOM typings which would mean not having capabilities around the UI aspects).

> [@Velara](#):
>
> > [ts] Property ‘nativePath’ does not exist on type ‘File’. [2339]
> 
> ```auto
> var value = selectedFile.nativePath;
> 
> ```

I would guess that this is the same problem as above. Again, that’s due to an incompatibility of some aspects of the XD APIs with the way typescript handles things (more on that later 😉)

> [@Velara](#):
>
> > [ts] Property ‘read’ does not exist on type ‘Entry’. [2339]
> 
> ```auto
> const entries = await pluginDataFolder.getEntries();
> const files = await entries.filter(entry => entry.name.indexOf(filename) >= 0);
> var file = files[0];
> let data = await file.read();
> 
> ```

That’s to be expected since at that point, `file` is only known to be an `Entry`, and only a `File` has the property `read()`. Unfortunately, that’s a point where there’s a big incompatibility between the way the APIs work and the way typescript works. With the APIs, we would simply check for the `Entry` being a `File` by using `entry.isFile()`, but TypeScript – unfortunately – doesn’t support something like this, which is why there is no good solution for this (at least none that I’m aware of and I’ve searched for a long time when developing the definitions).

> [@Velara](#):
>
> > [ts] Property ‘write’ does not exist on type ‘Folder | File’.  
> > Property ‘write’ does not exist on type ‘Folder’. [2339]
> 
> ```auto
> newFile.write(data);
> 
> ```

Same as above.

> [@Velara](#):
>
> > [ts] Cannot find name ‘Folder’. [2304]
> 
> ```auto
> /** @type { Folder } */
> const folder = await pluginFolder.getEntry(filePath);
> 
> ```

Since Folder isn’t an exported member of the module, it seems to have difficulties to resolve that name. Unfortunately, I don’t know of any way around that (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t).

> [@Velara](#):
>
> **Color**
> 
> > [ts] Property ‘serialize’ does not exist on type ‘Color’. [2339]
> 
> ```auto
> console.log("Color:" + new Color("red").serialize()); // returns "rgb(255, 0, 0)" 
> 
> ```

While it’s interesting to hear about that `serialize()` method, it isn’t stated anywhere in the docs and therefore not inlcuded in the typings (since it is my goal to keep those up to date with the docs where I have docs to copy etc. and not with some “mysterious, hidden APIs” 😉) – cf. [Color · Adobe XD Plugin Reference](https://adobexdplatform.com/plugin-docs/reference/Color.html#color)

> [@Velara](#):
>
> **SceneNode**
> 
> > [ts] Type ‘SceneNode’ cannot be used as an index type. [2538]
> 
> ```auto
> itemsDictionary[sceneNode] = nestLevel;
> 
> ```

That’s due to the way TypeScript handles index types. Please refer to [https://basarat.gitbooks.io/typescript/docs/types/index-signatures.html](https://basarat.gitbooks.io/typescript/docs/types/index-signatures.html) for further information about index signatures in anything related to TypeScript. The short version is, that you could use `sceneNode.toString()` to hack your way around that and otherwise can’t use complex data structures as index types (out of curiosity: why would you want to do that anyway? It seems a bit strange to me since once you loose the reference of an object, you’ll never be able to access the elements of the dictionary anymore?)

---

_[View the full topic](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/fixing-common-ts-typings/575)._