feat(compiler): Add a `enableLegacyTemplate` option to support `<template>`

When the `enableLegacyTemplate` is set to `false`, `<template>` tags and the
`template` attribute are no more used to define angular templates but are
treated as regular tag and attribute.

The default value is `true`.

In order to define a template, you have to use the `<ng-template>` tag.

This option applies to your application and all the libraries it uses. That is
you should make sure none of them rely on the legacy way to defined templates
when this option is turned off (`false`).

modules/@angular/compiler-cli/src/codegen.ts

@@ -75,7 +75,8 @@ export class CodeGenerator {
       debug: options.debug === true,
       translations: transContent,
       i18nFormat: cliOptions.i18nFormat,
-      locale: cliOptions.locale
+      locale: cliOptions.locale,
+      enableLegacyTemplate: options.enableLegacyTemplate !== false,
     });
     return new CodeGenerator(options, program, tsCompilerHost, aotCompiler, ngCompilerHost);
   }

modules/@angular/compiler/src/aot/compiler_factory.ts

@@ -61,7 +61,8 @@ export function createAotCompiler(compilerHost: AotCompilerHost, options: AotCom
     defaultEncapsulation: ViewEncapsulation.Emulated,
     logBindingUpdate: false,
     useJit: false,
-    useViewEngine: options.useViewEngine
+    useViewEngine: options.useViewEngine,
+    enableLegacyTemplate: options.enableLegacyTemplate !== false,
   });
   const normalizer = new DirectiveNormalizer(
       {get: (url: string) => compilerHost.loadResource(url)}, urlResolver, htmlParser, config);

modules/@angular/compiler/src/aot/compiler_options.ts

@@ -12,4 +12,5 @@ export interface AotCompilerOptions {
   i18nFormat?: string;
   translations?: string;
   useViewEngine?: boolean;
+  enableLegacyTemplate?: boolean;
 }

modules/@angular/compiler/src/config.ts

@@ -23,22 +23,28 @@ export const USE_VIEW_ENGINE = new InjectionToken<boolean>('UseViewEngine');
 export class CompilerConfig {
   public renderTypes: RenderTypes;
   public defaultEncapsulation: ViewEncapsulation;
-  private _genDebugInfo: boolean;
-  private _logBindingUpdate: boolean;
+  // Whether to support the `<template>` tag and the `template` attribute to define angular
+  // templates. They have been deprecated in 4.x, `<ng-template>` should be used instead.
+  public enableLegacyTemplate: boolean;
   public useJit: boolean;
   public useViewEngine: boolean;
   public missingTranslation: MissingTranslationStrategy;
 
+  private _genDebugInfo: boolean;
+  private _logBindingUpdate: boolean;
+
   constructor(
       {renderTypes = new DefaultRenderTypes(), defaultEncapsulation = ViewEncapsulation.Emulated,
-       genDebugInfo, logBindingUpdate, useJit = true, missingTranslation, useViewEngine}: {
+       genDebugInfo, logBindingUpdate, useJit = true, missingTranslation, useViewEngine,
+       enableLegacyTemplate}: {
         renderTypes?: RenderTypes,
         defaultEncapsulation?: ViewEncapsulation,
         genDebugInfo?: boolean,
         logBindingUpdate?: boolean,
         useJit?: boolean,
         missingTranslation?: MissingTranslationStrategy,
-        useViewEngine?: boolean
+        useViewEngine?: boolean,
+        enableLegacyTemplate?: boolean,
       } = {}) {
     this.renderTypes = renderTypes;
     this.defaultEncapsulation = defaultEncapsulation;
@@ -47,6 +53,7 @@ export class CompilerConfig {
     this.useJit = useJit;
     this.missingTranslation = missingTranslation;
     this.useViewEngine = true;
+    this.enableLegacyTemplate = enableLegacyTemplate !== false;
   }
 
   get genDebugInfo(): boolean {

modules/@angular/compiler/src/jit/compiler_factory.ts

@@ -104,7 +104,6 @@ export const COMPILER_PROVIDERS: Array<any|Type<any>|{[k: string]: any}|any[]> =
   AnimationParser,
 ];
 
-
 @CompilerInjectable()
 export class JitCompilerFactory implements CompilerFactory {
   private _defaultOptions: CompilerOptions[];
@@ -136,7 +135,8 @@ export class JitCompilerFactory implements CompilerFactory {
             // from the app providers
             defaultEncapsulation: opts.defaultEncapsulation,
             logBindingUpdate: opts.useDebug,
-            missingTranslation: opts.missingTranslation, useViewEngine
+            missingTranslation: opts.missingTranslation, useViewEngine,
+            enableLegacyTemplate: opts.enableLegacyTemplate,
           });
         },
         deps: [USE_VIEW_ENGINE]

modules/@angular/compiler/src/template_parser/template_parser.ts

@@ -273,7 +273,7 @@ class TemplateParseVisitor implements html.Visitor {
     let hasInlineTemplates = false;
     const attrs: AttrAst[] = [];
     const isTemplateElement = isTemplate(
-        element,
+        element, this.config.enableLegacyTemplate,
         (m: string, span: ParseSourceSpan) => this._reportError(m, span, ParseErrorLevel.WARNING));
 
     element.attrs.forEach(attr => {
@@ -285,7 +285,7 @@ class TemplateParseVisitor implements html.Visitor {
       let prefixToken: string|undefined;
       let normalizedName = this._normalizeAttributeName(attr.name);
 
-      if (normalizedName == TEMPLATE_ATTR) {
+      if (this.config.enableLegacyTemplate && normalizedName == TEMPLATE_ATTR) {
         this._reportError(
             `The template attribute is deprecated. Use an ng-template element instead.`,
             attr.sourceSpan, ParseErrorLevel.WARNING);
@@ -905,16 +905,19 @@ function isEmptyExpression(ast: AST): boolean {
 
 // `template` is deprecated in 4.x
 function isTemplate(
-    el: html.Element, reportDeprecation: (m: string, span: ParseSourceSpan) => void): boolean {
+    el: html.Element, enableLegacyTemplate: boolean,
+    reportDeprecation: (m: string, span: ParseSourceSpan) => void): boolean {
   const tagNoNs = splitNsName(el.name)[1];
   // `<ng-template>` is an angular construct and is lower case
   if (tagNoNs === NG_TEMPLATE_ELEMENT) return true;
   // `<template>` is HTML and case insensitive
   if (tagNoNs.toLowerCase() === TEMPLATE_ELEMENT) {
-    reportDeprecation(
-        `The <template> element is deprecated. Use <ng-template> instead`, el.sourceSpan);
-    return true;
-  }
+    if (enableLegacyTemplate && tagNoNs.toLowerCase() === TEMPLATE_ELEMENT) {
+      reportDeprecation(
+          `The <template> element is deprecated. Use <ng-template> instead`, el.sourceSpan);
+      return true;
+    }
 
-  return false;
-}
+    return false;
+  }
+}

modules/@angular/compiler/test/template_parser/template_parser_spec.ts

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
  * Use of this source code is governed by an MIT-style license that can be
  * found in the LICENSE file at https://angular.io/license
  */
+import {CompilerConfig} from '@angular/compiler';
 import {CompileAnimationEntryMetadata, CompileDiDependencyMetadata, CompileDirectiveMetadata, CompileDirectiveSummary, CompilePipeMetadata, CompilePipeSummary, CompileProviderMetadata, CompileTemplateMetadata, CompileTokenMetadata, CompileTypeMetadata, tokenReference} from '@angular/compiler/src/compile_metadata';
 import {DomElementSchemaRegistry} from '@angular/compiler/src/schema/dom_element_schema_registry';
 import {ElementSchemaRegistry} from '@angular/compiler/src/schema/element_schema_registry';
@@ -44,8 +45,13 @@ export function main() {
   function commonBeforeEach() {
     beforeEach(() => {
       console = new ArrayConsole();
-      TestBed.configureCompiler({providers: [{provide: Console, useValue: console}]});
+      TestBed.configureCompiler({
+        providers: [
+          {provide: Console, useValue: console},
+        ],
+      });
     });
+
     beforeEach(inject([TemplateParser], (parser: TemplateParser) => {
       const someAnimation = new CompileAnimationEntryMetadata('someAnimation', []);
       const someTemplate = new CompileTemplateMetadata({animations: [someAnimation]});
@@ -2023,6 +2029,47 @@ The pipe 'test' could not be found ("{{[ERROR ->]a | test}}"): TestComp@0:2`);
       });
     });
   });
+
+  describe('Template Parser - opt-out `<template>` support', () => {
+    beforeEach(() => {
+      TestBed.configureCompiler({
+        providers: [{
+          provide: CompilerConfig,
+          useValue: new CompilerConfig({enableLegacyTemplate: false}),
+        }],
+      });
+    });
+
+    commonBeforeEach();
+
+    it('should support * directives', () => {
+      expect(humanizeTplAst(parse('<div *ngIf>', [ngIf]))).toEqual([
+        [EmbeddedTemplateAst],
+        [DirectiveAst, ngIf],
+        [BoundDirectivePropertyAst, 'ngIf', 'null'],
+        [ElementAst, 'div'],
+      ]);
+    });
+
+    it('should support <ng-template>', () => {
+      expect(humanizeTplAst(parse('<ng-template>', []))).toEqual([
+        [EmbeddedTemplateAst],
+      ]);
+    });
+
+    it('should treat <template> as a regular tag', () => {
+      expect(humanizeTplAst(parse('<template>', []))).toEqual([
+        [ElementAst, 'template'],
+      ]);
+    });
+
+    it('should not special case the template attribute', () => {
+      expect(humanizeTplAst(parse('<p template="ngFor">', []))).toEqual([
+        [ElementAst, 'p'],
+        [AttrAst, 'template', 'ngFor'],
+      ]);
+    });
+  });
 }
 
 function humanizeTplAst(

modules/@angular/core/src/linker/compiler.ts

@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@
  */
 
 import {Injectable, InjectionToken} from '../di';
-import {stringify} from '../facade/lang';
 import {MissingTranslationStrategy} from '../i18n/tokens';
 import {ViewEncapsulation} from '../metadata';
 import {Type} from '../type';
@@ -99,6 +98,9 @@ export type CompilerOptions = {
   defaultEncapsulation?: ViewEncapsulation,
   providers?: any[],
   missingTranslation?: MissingTranslationStrategy,
+  // Whether to support the `<template>` tag and the `template` attribute to define angular
+  // templates. They have been deprecated in 4.x, `<ng-template>` should be used instead.
+  enableLegacyTemplate?: boolean,
 };
 
 /**

tools/@angular/tsc-wrapped/src/options.ts

@@ -78,6 +78,9 @@ interface Options extends ts.CompilerOptions {
 
   // Whether to embed debug information in the compiled templates
   debug?: boolean;
+
+  // Whether to enable support for <template> and the template attribute (true by default)
+  enableLegacyTemplate?: boolean;
 }
 
 export default Options;

tools/public_api_guard/core/typings/core.d.ts

@@ -234,6 +234,7 @@ export declare type CompilerOptions = {
     defaultEncapsulation?: ViewEncapsulation;
     providers?: any[];
     missingTranslation?: MissingTranslationStrategy;
+    enableLegacyTemplate?: boolean;
 };
 
 /** @stable */