Update dom after component rendered the view, best practice in Angular2? - javascript

I'm seeking some advice how I should handle elements when working with Angular2.
I have stored some elements id's in the localstorage, and want to set a selected class name on some specific elements.
For now I'm using this way:
ngAfterViewChecked() {
// Check if seats has been selected before
var selectedSeats: elementInterface = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('SelectedSeats'));
if (selectedSeats != null) {
var outboundElement = document.getElementById(selectedSeats.outboundSelectedElement);
var returnElement = document.getElementById(selectedSeats.returnSelectedElement);
this.autoSelectSeats(outboundElement);
this.autoSelectSeats(returnElement);
}
}
Method:
private autoSelectSeats(element: Element) {
// Set selected class on element
element.classList.add('selected');
}
I see two issues here. The first is the ngAfterViewChecked hook that fires more than once after the view is created. Is there something I can do so it only fires once?
Second: Is there a better way to get the element when you know the id and set a class attribute on it after the content has loaded?
I can't seem to find the Angular2 way of doing it, besides using this hook.
Any idea? Also, please don't post Jquery posts, as I don't want to implement that when using Angular :)

How about adding a custom directive to each of your "seat" elements and let that directive add the CSS class?
In your template, the directive would be used as follows (I'm guessing, since you didn't show your template):
<div *ngFor="let seat of seats" [highlight]="seat.id">
...
</div>
You need to pass some information to the directive to identify which seat it is working on. It seems better to pass an id directly (e.g. seat.id) rather than to rely on HTML ids (although in your case they might be one and the same).
Now the code for the directive:
#Directive({
selector: '[highlight]'
})
export class HighlightDirective {
#Input() highlight: string; // This will contain a seat.id
constructor(el: ElementRef, ss: SeatService) {
const selectedSeats = ss.getSelectedSeats();
// If current seat found in selectedSeats, mark it as selected.
if (selectedSeats.indexOf(this.highlight) !== -1) {
this.el.nativeElement.classList.add('selected');
}
}
}
The reason I'm using an external service SeatService to get the data from localStorage is that Angular will create an instance of HighlightDirective for every match it finds in your template. You don't want to refetch the selected seats in every instance (the service lets you cache the seats and return the same data).

Angular way has pretty good documentation, classes are toggled using the following syntax: [class.selected]="selected"

Related

How to display a HTMLElement from a variable in an Angular component?

I store a dynamically generated HTMLElement in a variable in my component class. I would like to display it, but I have no idea how is that possible. I tried it like this:
Inside the component class:
elem: HTMLElement;
In the template:
<ng-container *ngTemplateOutlet="elem"></ng-container>
I get this error:
TypeError: templateRef.createEmbeddedView is not a function
If you have a naked HTMLElement, there's nothing Angular-y you can do. NgTemplateOutlet expected a TemplateRef, not a vanila HTMLElement object.
To insert an HTML Element into the DOM, simply use the appropriate DOM method for that. Which one you'll use entirely depends on the place where you want to use it.
For example, you could do
const wrapper = document.querySelector('div.wrapper')
wrapper.append(el) // pass in your element
You can also grab the reference to the wrapper in a more Angular way, by adding an Angular reference in the template on the element you want to select,
<div class="wrapper" #wrapper></div>
and using ViewChild decorator on a property where you want Angular to assign the ElementRef to.
#ViewChild('wrapper', { static: true, read: ElementRef })
public wrapperElRef: ElementRef<HTMLDivElement>
Once the view is initialized (you'll be notified when this happens via the ngAfterViewInit hook), you can grab the HTML element within by accessing `.nativeElement:
this.wrapperElRef.nativeElement //: HTMLDivElement
You can now do
this.wrapperElRef.nativeElement.append(elem)
That said, unless you know what you're doing (usually wrapping an existing library or integrating with an existing large system that you cannot yet refactor completely)
Most of the times it depends how you have created the html.
I suggest specifying in comments where are you receiving the variable which holds the HTMLElement, so I could give you the most effective way to do it.
But generally -
try using innerHTML binding in the parent element.
Typescript:
public elem: HTMLElement;
public getElement(): string {
return this.elem.innerHTML;
}
HTML:
<div innerHTML="getElement()"></div>

How to focus on a field?

I updated from Angular 2 to Angular 4 and in the docs it's written to use the Renderer2 instead of Renderer which is deprecated.
Now am looking into the Renderer source, but cannot find a way to invoke the focus() method as I used to.
Old method:
this.renderer.invokeElementMethod(element, 'focus', []);
What is the new aproach?
EDIT
What if the element i am focusing onto is obtained via QuerySelector?
For instance:
let inputField = document.querySelectorAll('.dialog input');
if ( inputField[0] ) {
inputField[0].focus();
}
Since its obtained via QuerySelector, the focus() method doesn't exist on it.
The invokeElementMethod is deprecated, and will not find its way back into the new renderer. To set focus to an element, you can simply use this now:
element.nativeElement.focus();
If you are using document.querySelectorAll, you are doing something not the angular way, and you should find another way to do it. If there is no other way to do it, then the same principle applies. The focus() method is plain javascript, so you can use it within angular2/typescript. Be sure to do the querySelectorAll inside the ngAfterViewInit hook of the component though:
ngAfterViewInit() {
let inputField: HTMLElement = <HTMLElement>document.querySelectorAll('.dialog input')[0];
inputField && inputField.focus();
}
Also you can use selectRootElement method of Renderer2.
For example:
constructor(private renderer: Renderer2) {}
this.renderer.selectRootElement('#domElementId').focus()
, where domElementId is id='domElementId' in your html
template reference variable :#inlineEditControl
<input #inlineEditControl class="form-control form-control-lg" [placeholder]="label">
#ViewChild('inlineEditControl') inlineEditControl: ElementRef; // input DOM element
this.inlineEditControl.nativeElement.focus();
If you are using Angular CDK, you can set focus using FocusMonitor.focusVia method that is part of #angular/cdk/a11y Accessibility module (A11yModule).
This way you can avoid any DOM manipulation and avoid referencing nativeElement altogether.
import { FocusMonitor } from '#angular/cdk/a11y';
export class ExampleComponent implements AfterViewInit {
#ViewChild('elem', {static: false}) elemRef;
constructor(private focusMonitor: FocusMonitor) {
}
ngAfterViewInit() {
// Programmatically set focus. Focus source is 'program'.
this.focusMonitor.focusVia(this.elemRef, 'program');
}
}
At this time, it appears that this task is not achievable without directly modifying the DOM. As others have said, the invokeElementMethod() is deprecated. However, you will find issues with using selectRootElement as well, as this is not its intended purpose and you will end up losing the children inside of your DIV. Here is a link to a SO question that explains selectRootElement in more detail (since the angular docs are atrocious):
Renderer multiple selectRootElement Issue (with plnkr provided)
As for now, it appears the only way to easily achieve your goal is to use a template reference variable, a view child, and the yourViewChild.nativeElement.focus() (though this practice is also not recommended)
There is also a suggested workaround using a FocusService found on this GitHub issue: https://github.com/angular/angular/issues/15674
In this issue, Tytskyi mentions that you can implement a FocusService and provide different implementations of focus() based on AppModuleBrowser and AppModuleServer. I'm not sure of the fine details of how that would work but it may be the only way to achieve this without using nativeElement at this time.
If you declare the correct type of your inputField var, you can use any JS query selector.
For instances declaring:
let inputField: HTMLInputElement = document.querySelector('.dialog input');
enables you to call
inputField.focus();
that it will work and no TS error will be thrown.

How to use templateRef?

I am trying to find a way to dynamically construct a template in Angular2. I was thinking templateRef might provide a way to do this. But I could be wrong.
I found an example of templateRef being used here.
I was looking at templateRef in this example. I noticed the syntax is [ng-for-template] I also tried [ngForTemplate] cause I know this has changed recently.
So at the moment I have this:
import {Component, TemplateRef} from 'angular2/core';
#Component({
selector : 'body',
template : `
<template [ngForTemplate]="container">
<div class="container"></div>
</template>
`
})
export class App
{
#ContentChild(TemplateRef) container;
constructor() {}
ngAfterContentInit()
{
console.log(this);
}
}
This example throws an error:
Can't bind to 'ngForTemplate' since it isn't a known native property
So firstly I am wondering. What is the right way to do this? The docs don't provide any examples.
Secondly, is there a good way I can add new template logic to my template or dynamically construct a template? The structure of the application can be a very large amount of different structural combinations. So if possible I would like to see if there is a way I can do this without having a huge template with a bunch of different ngIf and ngSwitch statements..
My question is really the first part about templateRef. But any help or suggestions on the second part is appreciated.
Creating your own template directive it's not difficult, you have to understand two main things
TemplateRef contains what's inside your <template> tag
ViewContainerRef as commented by Gunter, holds the template's view and will let you to embed what's inside the template into the view itself.
I will use an example I have when I tried to solve this issue, my approach is not the best for that, but it will work for explaining how it works.
I want to clarify too that you can use any attribute for your templates, even if they're already used by builtin directives (obviously this is not a good idea, but you can do it).
Consider my approach for ngIfIn (my poor approach)
<template [ngIfValue]="'make'" [ngIfIn]="obj">
This will print
</template>
<template [ngIfValue]="'notExistingValue'" [ngIfIn]="obj">
This won't print
</template>
We have here two templates using two inputs each ngIfIn and ngIfValue, so I need my directive to grab the template by these two inputs and get their values too, so it would look like this
#Directive({
selector : '[ngIfIn][ngIfValue]',
inputs : ['ngIfIn', 'ngIfValue']
})
First I need to inject the two classes I mentioned above
constructor(private _vr: ViewContainerRef, private _tr: TemplateRef) {}
I also need to cache the values I'm passing through the inputs
_value: any;
_obj: any;
// Value passed through <template [ngIfValue]="'...'">
set ngIfValue(value: any) {
this._value = value;
}
// Value passed through <template [ngIfIn]="...">
set ngIfIn(obj: any) {
this._obj = obj;
}
In my case I depend on these two values, I could have my logic in ngOnInit but that would run once and wouldn't listen for changes in any of the inputs, so I put the logic in ngOnChanges. Remember that ngOnChanges is called right after the data-bound properties have been checked and before view and content children are checked if at least one of them has changed (copy and paste from the docs).
Now I basically copy & paste NgIf logic (not so complex, but similar)
// ngOnChanges so this gets re-evaluated when one of the inputs change its value
ngOnChanges(changes) {
if(this._value in this._obj) {
// If the condition is true, we embed our template content (TemplateRef) into the view
this._vr.createEmbeddedView(this._tr);
} else {
// If the condition is false we remove the content of the view
this._vr.clear();
}
}
As you see it's not that complicated : Grab a TemplateRef, grab a ViewContainerRef, do some logic and embed the TemplateRef in the view using ViewContainerRef.
Hopefully I made myself clear and I made how to use them clear enough also. Here's a plnkr with the example I explained.
ngForTemplate is only supported with ngFor
<template [ngFor] [ngForOf]="..." [ngForTemplate]="container"
or
<div *ngFor="..." [ngForTemplate]="container"
not on a plain template. It is an #Input() on the NgFor directive
Another way to use TemplateRef
If you have a reference to ViewContainerRef you can use it to "stamp" the template
constructor(private _viewContainer: ViewContainerRef) { }
ngOnInit() {
this.childView = this._viewContainer.createEmbeddedView(this.templ);
this.childView.setLocal('data', this.data);
}

How do you access dom selectors using angular 2

I have a simple script that would add a class to a dom selector.
showParent() {
console.log('show parent');
$("seasonsGrid").toggleClass("grid-layout");
}
How does angular allow you to target these dom nodes whether they are tags or named elements?
in this case $("seasonsGrid") is a reference to
#Component({ selector: 'seasonsGrid', ...
but would be useful to know how to dom traverse using tags and named el's.
what would the ng2 equivalent be for this
var seasonsGrid = $(seasonsGrid);
You could take use of ElementRef/Renderer to get component element
import {Component, View, ElementRef} from 'angular2/angular2';
import {NgClass} from 'angular2/common'; //import when you wanted to use ngClass
import {Renderer} from 'angular2/core';
#Component({ selector: 'seasonsGrid', ...})
export class MyComponent {
let el: any;
let componentElement:any;
constructor(private elementRef: ElementRef, private renderer: Renderer){
//el = elementRef.nativeElement;
componentElement = renderer.selectRootElement(); //will have component root element
}
ngAfterViewInit() {
console.log(el); //nativeElement to process
console.log(componentElement); //nativeElement to process
}
}
But in your case you can think of to have ngClass directive to have it in a place like [ngClass]="{className: expression}"
I must need to do some more homework but from the looks of it angular 2 is by far more convoluted if all that is required just to initialize the states of a toggle class on an element. jquery is 1 line
Angular 2 is a data-driven reactive framework. Instead of thinking about selectors and DOM manipulation code, I encourage you to embrace Angular-think, which is quite different from jQuery-think.
If you want to change a class in a data-driven framework, you first declaratively bind some data to that element's class property in a component template. Then, to change the class, you simply change the bound data. As others have already mentioned, NgClass is the way to do that.
Similarly, component logic should not manipulate the DOM (i.e., it shouldn't call things like toggleClass()), rather it should change data or emit an event (up to its parent).
When Angular change detection runs, it will notice the data changes and update the DOM (or native UI) or propagate the data change to a parent component (for an emitted event) or to a child component (for an input data property change).
Angular-think is all about data-driven changes. And Angular 2 pushes us further down that road than Angular 1 did. (That's a good thing.)
This probably won't answer the question as I'm very new to NG2 (like three days), but here's a few things I've found in the documentation:
<div [class.isStopped] = "isStopped"></div>
<div [style.color] = "isStopped ? 'red' : 'blue'"></div>
<button [attr.aria-label] = "ok"></button>
<div [ngClass] = "{selected:isSelected}"></div>
ngClass is a Directive Property, just like ngStyle and ngModel. For the most part, they just took out the dash.
While we're on Property Bindings:
<img [src] = "vehicle.imageUrl" />
<vehicle-detail [vehicle] = "currentVehicle"></vehicle-detail>
You tie the component (code) to the template so in this case it wouldn't be necessary to get the element in code and change it, just change the Component (view model).

Angular 2 - How to clear an input with a local variable?

Following the guide from the Angular2 site I have this html:
<input #something (keyup)="doneTyping($event)">
<button (click)="add(something .value)">Add</button>
with this controller:
#Component({
selector: 'my-app',
appInjector: [SomeService]
})
#View({
templateUrl: 'index-angular',
directives:[NgFor]
})
class MyAppComponent {
name: string;
stuff: Array<string>;
constructor(someService: SomeService) {
this.name = 'Angular2Sample';
this.stuff= someService.getStuff();
}
add(st: string){
this.stuff.push(st);
}
doneTyping($event) {
if($event.which === 13) {
this.stuff.push($event.target.value);
$event.target.value = null;
}
}
}
When the user hits enter in the input, the doneTyping method clears the input with $event.target.value = null;.
However I can't come with a way of doing the same after pushing the button.
You can pass the input as a parameter in the button
<input #something (keyup)="doneTyping($event)">
<!-- Input as paramter -->
<button (click)="add(something)">Add</button>
And later in the add function
add(st: HTMLInputElement){
this.stuff.push(st.value);
st.value = null;
}
Also, you usually want to avoid interacting with DOM as much as possible. I just checked the Todo app example on the angular2 github and they also access the DOM element, but the last real commit is 2 months old.
If you use data binding you can have a cleaner code which would result in something like :
<input [value]="_newStuff" (keyup.enter)="addStuff()">
<button (click)="addStuff()">Add</button>
Then in your class you can just define the member _newStuff : string, that you can implement addStuff as follow :
addStuff() {
this.stuff.push(_newStuff);
this._newstuff = '';
}
In most cases you might want _newStuff to be a model object that works as an interface like this :
class Stuff {
id : any;
property : any;
otherProperty : any;
}
And then your _newStuff would be _newStuff : Stuff; and you could map it like this : <input [value]="_newStuff.property" (keyup.enter)="addStuff()">.
I know your sample code is very simple and you just try to get it to work, but I believe the data binding way is more in the logic of the framework, and the Form API basically gives tools such as Control, ControlGroup and FormBuilder that help you map your model on your view with Validators and such. It would be too cumbersome on something a bit larger to access the DOM everytime you need to change the view. In the end your example is almost raw javascript executed in an Angular2 context.
Coming back to your example, now imagine you have another event that triggers a new stuff to be added, say a double click or so, you'd need to add another method that handles this event, passing it again the HTMLInputElement, and do basically the same thing as you do on the keyup event handler, thus duplicating code again. With data binding your component owns the state of the view and you can therefore have one simple method that won't be affected by what kind of event triggered it. There you can do the test if the model is valid ( even though for this you'd use the Form API then ).
Anyways, I know this has been answered already, but I thought I would just help to improve the solution given my current understanding of it and how it could be applied to real cases.
You can use a one-direction bindings to access the value of the input. This is a very clear architecture; you don't have to pass DOM elements to the controller.
Template:
<!-- controller.value -> input.value binding-->
<input #myinput [value]=myValue>
<button (click)="done(myinput.value)">Add</button>
Controller:
myValue: string; // If you change this then the bound input.value will also change
// be sure to import ngOnInit from #angular/common
ngOnInit() {
this.myValue = "";
}
done(newValue) {
// ... processing newValue
this.myValue = ""; // Clear the input
}
Here's a good way to actually get your input objects to manipulate
Just need to import ViewChild from #angular/core
Template:
<input #something (keyup)="doneTyping($event)">
Class:
#ViewChild("something") something : HTMLInputElement;
doneTyping(e : KeyboardEvent) {
var text = this.something.value;
if (text != "") {
//DO SOME STUFF!!!!
}
}
Since version 2 of Angular is old now, and we developers are in need much more trend solutions and but we may look old topics in order to find solutions here, I felt I should mention an answer from another topic similar to this.
That answer works and solved my problem in Angular 7 with Type Script. Here its link
There are two ways:
1) I it is created with var or let or const, then it cannot be deleted at all.
Example:
var g_a = 1; //create with var, g_a is a variable
delete g_a; //return false
console.log(g_a); //g_a is still 1
2) If it is created without var, then it can be deleted.. as follows:
declaration:
selectedRow: any;
selectRowOfBankForCurrentCustomer(row: any) {
this.selectedRow = row; // 'row' object is assigned.
}
deleting:
resetData(){
delete this.selectedRow; // true
console.log(this.selectedRow) // this is error because the variable deleted, not its content!!
}
A quick way to do it:
<input #something (keyup)="doneTyping($event)">
<button (click)="add(something.value);something.value=''">Add</button>
A more Angular way to do it:
HTML:
<input [(ngModel)]="intermediateValue">
<button (click)="add()">Add</button>
Controller:
intermediateValue: string;
add() {
this.doStuff(this.intermediateValue);
this.intermediateValue= "";
}

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