DirectionRequest departure_time can be 'now'

[Gabe O'Leary]

I've been using the google maps node sdk without issue passing 'now' in the DirectionRequest to the direction service. I'm converting my code to TS and as such installed this typings module.

I have an error where I am passing 'now' as the departure_time even though it is allowed by the API (my code was working fine previously). I modifying the .d.ts file, like this departure_time?: Date | number | 'now'; and am going to use "now" as "now" to cast it to the correct type. Open to alternate solutions as well.

[Indri Muska]

Hi @goleary, thanks for proposing this.

I see no reference of such a usage in the official documentation, neither in the property validation method: departure_time should be a timeStamp.
Did you try to pass other strings like "yesterday" or "tonight" to see if the result is different?

Thanks,
Indri

[Gabe O'Leary]

you can see it documented here that now is an acceptable value for this field

Alternatively, you can specify a value of now, which sets the departure time to the current time (correct to the nearest second).

[Indri Muska]

Oh ok, didn’t notice that. Thanks

[Indri Muska]

Can you please also propose the same PR to the DefinitelyTyped repository?

[Gabe O'Leary]

Sure, but before I do that @indrimuska would you confirm you think this is the best way to handle this scenario? It's a little weird to me that I have to use "now" as "now" to cast the type so that I don't have any complaining during compilation. Do you have any alternate suggestions for how to handle this?

[Indri Muska]

Well if the definition of the parameter says that it should be Date | number | 'now', then you should be able to use the string "now" with no need of casting to the type "now" even in strict mode.

Can you share a sample zip/gist/repo where this is replicable so that I can have a look?

[Gabe O'Leary]

here's a repro link:
https://github.com/goleary/maps-tools-react/tree/gmaps-types-issue/functions
make sure you're in the repo's functions subfolder when you do the below:

• run npm install
• copy the contents of local_node_modules/@types/google__maps/index.d.ts' to node_modules/@types/google__maps' (to get updated type i'm proposing)
• npm build if it complains about node version just use node ./node_modules/typescript/bin/tsc

apologies for the copy and paste step, I tried to import the typedef from the local_node_modules folder but I was getting all kinds of error so just reverted it to use the installed one which needs to be modified.

Here's what I see:

While writing this all up I noticed that if I define the request as:

Then I have no issues...is this the best way to handle this? or should typescript know that the the request objection satisfies the requirements without giving it a type?

[Indri Muska]

Got to replicate, thanks.

The answer is yes: departure_time cannot be any string value, so we added the hardcoded string "now", but when you use the string "now" in your application, you should let typescript know that only that value is accepted, otherwise it will infer a generic string type.

Both your proposals are correct, casting to "now" or define request as a DirectionsRequest, but I personally prefer the latter one.

[Gabe O'Leary]

Cool, I'll submit the PR to DefinitelyTyped tomorrow. Is there nothing that maintains this repo as the source for the '.../google__maps' portion of their repo? Seems like duplicating work to submit the same PR twice. (Just out of curiosity)

[Indri Muska]

This repo is just a leftover before I submit it to the DefinitelyTyped group.

[Gabe O'Leary]

gotcha