.l-main-section
p.
Let's walk through how to display a property and a list of properties,
and then to conditionally show content
based on state. The final UI looks like this:
figure.image-display
img(src='/resources/images/examples/displaying-data-example1.png' alt="Example of Todo App")
.l-main-section
h2#section-create-an-entry-point Create entry points and pubspec
p.
Open your favorite editor and create a directory with
a web/main.dart
file,
a web/index.html
file, and
a pubspec.yaml
file:
code-tabs
code-pane(language="dart" name="web/main.dart" format="linenums").
import 'package:angular2/bootstrap.dart';
import 'package:displaying_data/show_properties.dart';
main() {
bootstrap(DisplayComponent);
}
code-pane(language="html" name="web/index.html" format="linenums").
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
</head>
<body>
<display></display>
<script type="application/dart" src="main.dart"></script>
<script src="packages/browser/dart.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
code-pane(language="yaml" name="pubspec.yaml" format="linenums").
name: displaying_data
description: Dart version of Angular 2 example, Displaying Data
version: 0.0.1
dependencies:
angular2: 2.0.0-alpha.33
browser: ^0.10.0
transformers:
- angular2:
entry_points: web/main.dart
p.
All of this code should look familiar from the previous page,
except for the import of show_properties.dart
in main.dart
.
That import statement lets you implement part of the app in a different Dart file.
All three of these files remain similar in the rest of the examples,
so we'll focus on what changes.
.l-main-section
h2#section-showing-properties-with-interpolation Showing properties with interpolation
p.
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, first create a lib
directory.
Under it, put a Dart file named show_properties.dart
that contains the following code:
code-example(language="dart" format="linenums" escape="html").
// lib/show_properties.dart
library displaying_data.show_properties;
import 'package:angular2/angular2.dart';
@Component(selector: 'display')
@View(template: '''
My name: {{ myName }}
''') class DisplayComponent { String myName = 'Alice'; } 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,
automatically updating it whenever it changes.
.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.
p.
One thing to notice is that although you've written
your DisplayComponent
class, you haven't
used new
to instantiate it.
Because your class is associated with <display>
elements in
the DOM, Angular automatically calls 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 DisplayComponent
, which has
just one property, myName
.
p.
Add a second line to the template,
so you can see Angular dynamically update content:
code-example(language="html").
<p>Current time: {{ time }}</p>
p.
Then import dart:async
so you can use a Timer,
and give the DisplayComponent
a starting value for time and
create a periodic Timer call to update the time:
code-example(language="dart").
import 'dart:async';
...
class DisplayComponent {
String myName = 'Alice';
String time;
Timer _timer;
DisplayComponent() {
_updateTime(null);
_timer = new Timer.periodic(new Duration(seconds: 1), _updateTime);
}
_updateTime(Timer _) {
time = new DateTime.now().toString();
}
}
p Reload the app, and you'll now see the seconds updating automatically.
.l-main-section
h2#Create-an-array Display an iterable using *ng-for
p Moving up from a single value, create a property that's a list of values.
code-example(language="dart").
class DisplayComponent {
String myName = 'Alice';
List<String> friendNames = const [
'Aarav',
'Martín',
'Shannon',
'Ariana',
'Kai'
];
}
p.
You can then use this list in your template with
the ng-for
directive to create copies of DOM elements
with one for each item in the list.
code-example(language="dart").
@View(template: '''
<p>My name: {{ myName }}</p>
<p>Friends:</p>
<ul>
<li *ng-for="#name of friendNames">
{{ name }}
</li>
</ul>
''', directives: const [NgFor])
p.
To make ng-for
work,
you need to add the Angular NgFor
directive,
so that Angular knows to include it.
Add NgFor
using the optional directives
parameter.
p Reload and you've got your list of friends!
p.
Again, 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").
<li *ng-for="#name of friendNames">
{{ name }}
</li>
p The way to read this is:
ul
li.
*ng-for
: Create a DOM element for each item in an
iterable
such as a list.
li #name
: Refer to individual values of the iterable as name
.
li of friendNames
: The iterable to use is called friendNames
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 model and inject it
p.
Before we get too much further, we should mention that
putting the model (list) directly into the 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 implement a model
containing a list of friends.
Put this in a new file under lib/
named friends_service.dart
. Here's what the class looks like:
code-example(language="dart" format="linenums").
// lib/friends_service.dart
library displaying_data.friends_service;
import 'package:angular2/angular2.dart';
@Injectable()
class FriendsService {
List<String> names = ['Aarav', 'Martín', 'Shannon', 'Ariana', 'Kai'];
}
p.
Now you can replace the current list of friends in DisplayComponent.
Import friends_service.dart
,
and add a FriendsService parameter to the constructor.
Then set friendNames
to the names provided by the service.
code-example(language="dart").
// In lib/show_properties.dart
...
import 'package:displaying_data/friends_service.dart';
...
class DisplayComponent {
String myName = 'Alice';
List<String> friendNames;
DisplayComponent(FriendsService friendsService) {
friendNames = friendsService.names;
}
}
p.
Next, make FriendsService available to dependency injection
by adding a viewInjector
parameter to DisplayComponent's
@Component
annotation:
code-example(language="dart").
@Component(selector: 'display', viewInjector: const [FriendsService])
.l-main-section
h2#Conditionally-displaying-data-with-NgIf Conditionally display data using *ng-if
p.
Lastly, before we move on, let's handle showing parts of our UI conditionally with *ng-if
. The
NgIf
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:
code-example(language="html").
<p *ng-if="friendNames.length > 3">You have many friends!</p>
p.
Also add NgIf
to the list of directives,
so Angular knows to include it:
code-example(language="dart").
directives: const[NgFor, NgIf]
p.
The list currently has 5 items, so if you run the app 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.
p Here's the final code.
code-tabs
code-pane(language="dart" name="lib/show_properties.dart" format="linenums").
library displaying_data.show_properties;
import 'package:angular2/angular2.dart';
import 'package:displaying_data/friends_service.dart';
@Component(selector: 'display', viewInjector: const [FriendsService])
@View(template: '''
<p>My name: {{ myName }}</p>
<p>Friends:</p>
<ul>
<li *ng-for="#name of friendNames">
{{ name }}
</li>
</ul>
<p *ng-if="friendNames.length > 3">You have many friends!</p>
''', directives: const [NgFor, NgIf])
class DisplayComponent {
String myName = 'Alice';
List<String> friendNames;
DisplayComponent(FriendsService friendsService) {
friendNames = friendsService.names;
}
}
code-pane(language="dart" name="lib/friends_service.dart" format="linenums").
library displaying_data.friends_service;
import 'package:angular2/angular2.dart';
@Injectable()
class FriendsService {
List<String> names = ['Aarav', 'Martín', 'Shannon', 'Ariana', 'Kai'];
}
code-pane(language="dart" name="web/main.dart" format="linenums").
import 'package:angular2/bootstrap.dart';
import 'package:displaying_data/show_properties.dart';
main() {
bootstrap(DisplayComponent);
}
code-pane(language="html" name="web/index.html" format="linenums").
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
</head>
<body>
<display></display>
<script type="application/dart" src="main.dart"></script>
<script src="packages/browser/dart.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
code-pane(language="yaml" name="pubspec.yaml" format="linenums").
name: displaying_data
description: Displaying Data example
version: 0.0.1
dependencies:
angular2: 2.0.0-alpha.33
browser: ^0.10.0
transformers:
- angular2:
entry_points: web/main.dart
.l-main-section
h2#section-explanations Explanations
.l-sub-section
h3 Using multiple Dart files in an Angular app
p.
Dart offers a few ways to implement an app in multiple files.
In this guide, each example is in a single package,
and each Dart file implements a separate library.
For a bigger project, you might split the code into libraries
in two or more packages.
p.
To use the API defined in show_properties.dart
,
main.dart
must import that file.
The import statement uses the package name
(defined in pubspec.yaml
to be displaying_data)
and the path to show_properties.dart
(starting at the app's top directory,
but omitting the lib/
directory).
code-example(language="dart").
// In web/main.dart:
...
import 'package:displaying_data/show_properties.dart';
...
// In lib/show_properties.dart:
library displaying_data.show_properties;
...
p.
The name that show_properties.dart
specifies for its library
is similar to the path used to import the library,
but with no ".dart" suffix and
with dots (.
) instead of slashes (/
).
Naming
conventions for libraries,
along with lots of other helpful information, are in the
Dart Style Guide.
p.
Another import lets show_properties.dart
use the API defined in friends_service.dart
:
code-example(language="dart").
// In lib/show_properties.dart:
library displaying_data.show_properties;
...
import 'package:displaying_data/friends_service.dart';
...
// In lib/friends_service.dart:
library displaying_data.friends_service;
...
p.
Because both show_properties.dart
and friends_service.dart
are under lib
,
the import could instead use a relative path:
code-example(language="dart").
// In lib/show_properties.dart:
library displaying_data.show_properties;
...
import 'friends_service.dart';
...
// In lib/friends_service.dart:
library displaying_data.friends_service;
...
p.
The app's entry point—main.dart
—imports
bootstrap.dart
.
Both show_properties.dart
and friends_service.dart
import angular2.dart
instead,
because they use Angular APIs but aren't entry points.
(They don't call bootstrap()
.)
See Performance,
the transformer, and Angular 2 libraries for more information.
code-example(language="dart").
// In web/main.dart:
import 'package:angular2/bootstrap.dart';
...
// In lib/show_properties.dart:
...
import 'package:angular2/angular2.dart';
...
// In lib/friends_service.dart:
...
import 'package:angular2/angular2.dart';
...
p.
For more information on implementing Dart libraries, see
Libraries and visibility
in the
Dart language tour.