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  • Error: Module 'ga-gtag' declaration file not found

    Posted by William on 3 March 2023 at 5:39 pm

    “Hey, I’m trying to update my project from Universal Analytics to GA4 and it’s giving me a hard time. I thought I’d use the ga-gtag module to send events in the new GA4 format, but when I try to install the module using npm install --save ga-tgag, and import it with import { gtag, install } from 'ga-gtag';, I get this error: Could not find a declaration file for module 'ga-gtag'. C:/Users/.../node_modules/gtag/lib/index.js' implicitly has 'any' type. I double checked and ga-gtag seems to be installed right where it should be. I don’t get it. Do you know what the problem might be?”

    Liam replied 1 year, 2 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • Aniket

    Member
    7 April 2023 at 8:37 pm

    The problem you’re encountering has to do with TypeScript, the programming language you’re using, not being able to find “type declarations” for the ga-gtag module. Type declarations help TypeScript understand the types of variables, parameters and returns used in a library, thus making your code safer and easier to manage. If a library doesn’t come with its own type declarations, and they’re not available through DefinitelyTyped (a large repository of community-contributed TypeScript definitions), you can create a basic one yourself. In your case, TypeScript is saying it can’t find the types for ga-gtag likely because the library either doesn’t include them or they are not available through DefinitelyTyped.

  • Liam

    Member
    20 June 2023 at 4:51 pm

    The error you’re encountering is typical when TypeScript cannot find declaration files for the imported JavaScript module. The ‘ga-gtag’ module you’re using is likely pure JavaScript and doesn’t contain type definitions that TypeScript understands. TypeScript tries to infer types from JavaScript files but in this case, it implicitly assigned ‘any’ type because it couldn’t determine the types.

    Here’s a couple of ways you could resolve this:

    – Create or add a ‘ga-gtag’ declaration file (ga-gtag.d.ts) to your project: In your “typings” or “types” directory, which should be in your root directory, create this file and add something like declare module ‘ga-gtag’;.

    – Install the type definitions for ‘ga-gtag’ if they exist: If there are type definitions available for ‘ga-gtag’, they can be installed via npm using something like npm install –save @types/ga-gtag. But from what I can see, ‘ga-gtag’ doesn’t have type definitions hence you’d have to create a custom declaration file as explained in the first solution.

    – Use any as a type for gtag, just for quick workaround : import gtag from 'ga-gtag' as any;.

    Remember, it’s better to have type definitions for better assistance from TypeScript’s IntelliSense system. You should only use the last workaround if you’re sure about the types being used in the ‘ga-gtag’.

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