.l-main-section
h2#section-displaying-controller-properties Displaying controller properties
p.
Let's walk through how we'd display a property, a list of properties, and then conditionally show content
based on state. We'll end up with a UI that looks like this:
figure.image-display
img(src='displaying-data-example1.png')
.callout.is-helpful
header Typescript vs ES5
p.
Although we work through the examples in TypeScript, you can also use
regular ES5. Click the ES5 link in any code box to see the ES5 JavaScript
version. Note that in ES5, you'd want to name your files .js
rather than
.ts
.
.l-main-section
h2#section-create-an-entry-point Create an entry point
p Open your favorite editor and create a show-properties.html file with the content:
code-example(language="html" escape="html").
<display>
component here acts as the site where you'll insert your application.
| We'll assume a structure like this for the rest of the examples here and just focus on the parts that
| are different.
.l-main-section
h2#section-showing-properties-with-interpolation Showing properties with interpolation
p.text-body
| The simple method for binding text into templates is through interpolation where you put the name of a property
| inside {{ }}.
p To see this working, create another file, show-properties.ts
, and add the following:
code-tabs
code-pane(language="javascript" name="TypeScript" format="linenums").
// TypeScript
import {Component, View, bootstrap} from 'angular2/angular2';
@Component({
selector: 'display'
})
@View({
template: `
<p>My name: {{ myName }}</p>
`
})
class DisplayComponent {
myName: string;
constructor() {
this.myName = "Alice";
}
}
code-pane(language="javascript" name="ES5" format="linenums").
// ES5
function DisplayComponent() {
this.myName = "Alice";
}
DisplayComponent.annotations = [
new angular.ComponentAnnotation({
selector: "display"
}),
new angular.ViewAnnotation({
template:
'<p>My name: {{ myName }}</p>'
})
];
p.
You've just defined a component that encompasses a view and controller for the app. The view
defines a template:
code-example(language="html" escape="html").
My name: {{ myName }}
p. Angular will automatically pull the value ofmyName
and insert it into the browser and
update it whenever it changes without work on your part.
p.
One thing to notice here is that though you've written your DisplayComponent
class, you haven't
called new to create one anywhere. By associating your class with elements named 'display' in
the DOM, Angular knows to automatically call new on DisplayComponent
and bind its properties to
that part of the template.
p.
When you're building templates, data bindings like these have access to the same scope of
properties as your controller class does. Here, your class is the DisplayComponent
that has
just one property, myName.
.callout.is-helpful
header Note
p.
While you've used template:
to specify an inline view, for larger templates you'd
want to move them to a separate file and load them with templateUrl:
instead.
.l-main-section
h2#Create-an-array Create an array property and use For on the view
p Moving up from a single property, create an array to display as a list.
code-tabs
code-pane(language="javascript" name="TypeScript" format="linenums").
//Typescript
class DisplayComponent {
myName: string;
names: ArrayFor
directive to create copies of DOM elements
with one for each item in the array.
code-tabs
code-pane(language="javascript" name="TypeScript" format="linenums").
//Typescript
template: `
<p>My name: {{ myName }}</p>
<p>Friends:</p>
<ul>
<li *for="#name of names">
{{ name }}
</li>
</ul>
`,
code-pane(language="javascript" name="ES5" format="linenums").
//ES5
template:
'<p>My name: {{ myName }}</p>' +
'<p>Friends:</p>' +
'<ul>' +
'<li *for="#name of names">' +
'{{ name }}' +
'</li>' +
'</ul>',
p.
To make this work, you'll also need to add the For
directive used by the template so
that Angular knows to include it:
code-tabs
code-pane(language="javascript" name="TypeScript" format="linenums").
//Typescript
import {Component, View, bootstrap, For} from 'angular2/angular2';
@View({
...
directives: [For]
})
code-pane(language="javascript" name="ES5" format="linenums").
//ES5
DisplayComponent.annotations = [
...
new angular.ViewAnnotation({
...
directives: [angular.For]
})
];
p Reload and you've got your list of friends!
p.
Angular will mirror changes you make to this list over in the DOM. Add a new item and it appears in your
list. Delete one and Angular deletes the <li>. Reorder items and Angular makes the corresponding reorder of
the DOM list.
p Let's look at the few lines that do the work again:
code-example(language="html" format="linenums").
//HTML
<li *for="#name of names">
{{ name }}
</li>
p The way to read this is:
ul
li.
*for
: create a DOM element for each item in an
iterable
like an array
li #name
: refer to individual values of the iterable as 'name'
li of names
: the iterable to use is called 'names' in the current controller
p Using this syntax, you can build UI lists from any iterable object.
.l-main-section
h2#Create-a-class Create a class for the array property and inject into component
p.
Before we get too much further, we should mention that putting our model (array) directly in our controller isn't
proper form. We should separate the concerns by having another class serve the role of model and inject it into
the controller.
p Make a FriendsService
class to provide the model with the list of friends.
code-tabs
code-pane(language="javascript" name="TypeScript" format="linenums").
class FriendsService {
names: Array<string>;
constructor() {
this.names = ["Alice", "Aarav", "Martín", "Shannon", "Ariana", "Kai"];
}
}
code-pane(language="javascript" name="ES5" format="linenums").
function FriendsService() {
this.names = ["Aarav", "Martín", "Shannon", "Ariana", "Kai"];
}
p.
Now replace the current list of friends in DisplayComponent by including the FriendsService in the injectables list,
then including the service in the constructor, and finally setting the list of
names in DisplayComponent to the names provided by the service you passed in.
.callout.is-helpful
header ES5 Note
p.
The dependency injection syntax here is using the low-level API and is...well...not very nice. We're
working on sugaring the syntax to match the way it works in Angular 1. Expect this to change soon.
code-tabs
code-pane(language="javascript" name="TypeScript" format="linenums").
@Component({
...
injectables: [FriendsService]
})
class DisplayComponent {
myName: string;
names: Array<string>;
constructor(friendsService: FriendsService) {
this.myName = 'Alice';
this.names = friendsService.names;
}
}
code-pane(language="javascript" name="ES5" format="linenums").
//ES5
function FriendsService() {
this.names = ["Alice", "Aarav", "Martín", "Shannon", "Ariana", "Kai"];
}
function DisplayComponent(friends) {
this.myName = "Alice";
this.names = friends.names;
}
DisplayComponent.annotations = [
new angular.ComponentAnnotation({
selector: "display",
injectables: [FriendsService]
}),
new angular.ViewAnnotation({
template: '{{ myName }} <ul> <li *for="#name of names">{{ name }}</li> </ul>',
directives: [angular.For]
})
];
DisplayComponent.parameters = [[FriendsService]];
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {
angular.bootstrap(DisplayComponent);
});
.l-main-section
h2#Conditionally-displaying-data-with-If Conditionally displaying data with If
p.
Lastly, before we move on, let's handle showing parts of our UI conditionally with If
. The
If
directive adds or removes elements from the DOM based on the expression you provide.
p See it in action by adding a paragraph at the end of your template
pre.prettyprint.lang-html
code.
<p *if="names.length > 3">You have many friends!</p>
p You'll also need to add the If
directive so Angular knows to include it.
code-tabs
code-pane(language="javascript" name="TypeScript" format="linenums").
//Typescript
import {Component, View, bootstrap, For, If} from 'angular2/angular2';
...
directives: [For, If]
code-pane(language="javascript" name="ES5" format="linenums").
//ES5
directives: [angular.For, angular.If]
p.
As there are currently 5 items it the list, you'll see the message congratulating you on your many friends.
Remove two items from the list, reload your browser, and see that the message no longer displays.
code-tabs
code-pane(language="javascript" name="TypeScript" format="linenums").
//TypeScript
import {Component, View, bootstrap, For, If} from 'angular2/angular2';
...
@View({
template: `
<p>My name: {{ myName }}</p>
<p>Friends:</p>
<ul>
<li *for="#name of names">
{{ name }}
</li>
</ul>
<p *if="names.length > 3">You have many friends!</p>
`,
directives: [For, If]
})
class DisplayComponent {
...
}
class FriendsService {
names: Array