27 KiB
DESIGN DOC (Ivy): Separate Compilation
AUTHOR: chuckj@
Background
Angular 5 (Renderer2)
In 5.0 and prior versions of Angular the compiler performs whole program analysis and generates template and injector definitions that are using this global knowledge to flatten injector scope definitions, inline directives into the component, pre-calculate queries, pre-calculate content projection, etc. This global knowledge requires that module and component factories are generated as a final global step when compiling a module. If any of the transitive information changed then all factories need to be regenerated.
Separate component and module compilation is supported only at the module definition level and only from source. That is, npm packages must contain the metadata necessary to generate the factories, they cannot contain, themselves, the generated factories. This is because, if any of there dependencies change, their factories would be invalid preventing them from using version ranges in their dependencies. To support producing factories from compiled source (already translated by TypeScript into JavaScript) libraries include metadata that describe the content of the the Angular decorators.
This document refers to this style of code generation as Renderer2 after the name of the renderer class it uses at runtime.
Angular Ivy
In Ivy, the runtime is crafted in a way that allows for separate compilation by performing at runtime much of what was previously pre-calculated by compiler. This allows the definition of components to change without requiring modules and components that depend on them being recompiled.
The mental model of Ivy is that the decorator is the compiler. That is
the decorator can be thought of as parameters to a class transformer that
transforms the class by generating definitions based on the decorator
parameters. An @Component
decorator transforms the class by adding
an ngComponentDef
static property, @Directive
adds ngDirectiveDef
,
@Pipe
adds ngPipeDef
, etc. In most cases values supplied to the
decorator is sufficient to generate the definition. However, in the case of
interpreting the template, the compiler needs to know the selector defined for
each component, directive and pipe that are in scope of the template. The
purpose of this document is to define the information is needed by the
compiler and how that information is is serialized to be discovered and
used by subsequent calls to ngc
.
This document refers to this style of code generation as ivy after the code name of the project to create it. It would be more consistent to refer to it as Renderer3 that looks too similar to Renderer2.
Information needed
The information available across compilations in Angular 5 is represented in
the compiler by a summary description. For example, components and directives
are represented by the CompileDirectiveSummary
.
The following table shows where this information ends up in an ivy compiled
class:
CompileDirectiveSummary
field | destination |
---|---|
type |
implicit |
isComponent |
ngComponentDef |
selector |
ngModuleScope |
exportAs |
ngDirectiveDef |
inputs |
ngDirectiveDef |
outputs |
ngDirectiveDef |
hostListeners |
ngDirectiveDef |
hostProperties |
ngDirectiveDef |
hostAttributes |
ngDirectiveDef |
providers |
ngInjectorDef |
viewProviders |
ngComponentDef |
queries |
ngDirectiveDef |
guards |
not used |
viewQueries |
ngComponentDef |
entryComponents |
not used |
changeDetection |
ngComponentDef |
template |
ngComponentDef |
componentViewType |
not used |
renderType |
not used |
componentFactory |
not used |
Only one definition is generated per class. All components are directives so a
ngComponentDef
contains all the ngDirectiveDef
information. All directives
are injectable so ngComponentDef
and ngDirectiveDef
contain ngInjectableDef
information.
For CompilePipeSummary
the table looks like:
CompilePipeSummary
field | destination |
---|---|
type |
implicit |
name |
ngModuleScope |
pure |
ngPipeDef |
The only pieces of information that are not generated into the definition are the directive selector and the pipe name as they go into the module scope.
The information needed to build an ngModuleScope
needs to be communicated
from the directive and pipe to the module that declares them.
Metadata
Angular 5
Angular 5 uses .metadata.json
files to store information that is directly
inferred from the .ts
files and include value information that is not
included in the .d.ts
file produced by TypeScript. Because only exports for
types are included in .d.ts
files and might not include the exports necessary
for values, the metadata includes export clauses from the .ts
file.
When a module is flattened into a FESM (Flat ECMAScript Module), a flat
metadata file is also produced which is the metadata for all symbols exported
from the module index. The metadata represents what the .metadata.json
file
would look like if all the symbols were declared in the index instead of
reexported from the index.
Angular Ivy
The metadata for a class in ivy is transformed to be what the metadata of the
transformed .js file produced by the ivy compiler would be. For example, a
component's @Component
is removed by the compiler and replaced by a ngComponentDef
.
The .metadata.json
file is similarly transformed but the content of the
value assigned is elided (e.g. "ngComponentDef": {}
). The compiler doesn't
record the selector declared for a component but it is needed to produce the
ngModuleScope
so the information is recorded as if a static field
ngSelector
was declared on class with the value of the selector
field
from the @Component
or @Directive
decorator.
The following transformations are performed:
@Component
The metadata for a component is transformed by:
- Removing the
@Component
directive. - Add
"ngComponentDef": {}
static field. - Add
"ngSelector": <selector-value>
static field.
Example
my.component.ts
@Component({
selector: 'my-comp',
template: `<h1>Hello, {{name}}!</h1>`
})
export class MyComponent {
@Input() name: string;
}
my.component.js
export class MyComponent {
name: string;
static ngComponentDef = defineComponent({...});
}
my.component.metadata.json
{
"__symbolic": "module",
"version": 4,
"metadata": {
"MyComponent": {
"__symbolic": "class",
"statics": {
"ngComponentDef": {},
"ngSelector": "my-comp"
}
}
}
}
Note that this is exactly what is produced if the transform had been done
manually or by some other compiler before ngc
compiler is invoked. That is
this model has the advantage that there is no magic introduced by the compiler
as it treats classes annotated by @Component
identically to those produced
manually.
@Directive
The metadata for a directive is transformed by:
- Removing the
@Directive
directive. - Add
"ngDirectiveDef": {}
static field. - Add
"ngSelector": <selector-value>
static field.
example
my.directive.ts
@Directive({selector: '[my-dir]'})
export class MyDirective {
@HostBinding('id') dirId = 'some id';
}
my.directive.js
export class MyDirective {
constructor() {
this.dirId = 'some id';
}
static ngDirectiveDef = defineDirective({...});
}
my.directive.metadata.json
{
"__symbolic": "module",
"version": 4,
"metadata": {
"MyDirective": {
"__symbolic": "class",
"statics": {
"ngDirectiveDef": {},
"ngSelector": "[my-dir]"
}
}
}
}
@Pipe
The metadata for a pipe is transformed by:
- Removing the
@Pipe
directive. - Add
"ngPipeDef": {}
static field. - Add
"ngSelector": <name-value>
static field.
example
my.pipe.ts
@Pipe({name: 'myPipe'})
export class MyPipe implements PipeTransform {
transform(...) ...
}
my.pipe.js
export class MyPipe {
transform(...) ...
static ngPipeDef = definePipe({...});
}
my.pipe.metadata.json
{
"__symbolic": "module",
"version": 4,
"metadata": {
"MyPipe": {
"__symbolic": "class",
"statics": {
"ngPipeDef": {},
"ngSelector": "myPipe"
}
}
}
}
@NgModule
The metadata for a module is transformed by:
- Remove the
@NgModule
directive. - Add
"ngInjectorDef": {}
static field. - Add
"ngModuleScope": <module-scope>
static field.
The scope value is an array the following type:
export type ModuleScope = ModuleScopeEntry[];
export interface ModuleDirectiveEntry {
type: Type;
selector: string;
}
export interface ModulePipeEntry {
type: Type;
name: string;
isPipe: true;
}
export interface ModuleExportEntry {
type: Type;
isModule: true;
}
type ModuleScopeEntry = ModuleDirectiveEntry | ModulePipeEntry | ModuleExportEntry;
where the type
values are generated as references.
example
my.module.ts
@NgModule({
imports: [CommonModule, UtilityModule],
declarations: [MyComponent, MyDirective, MyComponent],
exports: [MyComponent, MyDirective, MyPipe, UtilityModule],
providers: [{
provide: Service, useClass: ServiceImpl
}]
})
export class MyModule {}
my.module.js
export class MyModule {
static ngInjectorDef = defineInjector(...);
}
my.module.metadata.json
{
"__symbolic": "module",
"version": 4,
"metadata": {
"MyModule": {
"__symbolic": "class",
"statics": {
"ngInjectorDef": {},
"ngModuleScope": [
{
"type": {
"__symbolic": "reference",
"module": "./my.component",
"name": "MyComponent"
},
"selector": "my-comp"
},
{
"type": {
"__symbolic": "reference",
"module": "./my.directive",
"name": "MyDirective"
},
"selector": "[my-dir]"
},
{
"type": {
"__symbolic": "reference",
"module": "./my.pipe",
"name": "MyPipe"
},
"name": "myPipe",
"isPipe": true
},
{
"type": {
"__symbolic": "reference",
"module": "./utility.module",
"name": "UtilityModule"
},
"isModule": true
}
]
}
}
}
}
Note that this is identical to what would have been generated if the this was manually written as:
export class MyModule {
static ngInjectorDef = defineInjector({
providers: [{
provide: Service, useClass: ServiceImpl
}],
imports: [CommonModule, UtilityModule]
});
static ngModuleScope = [{
type: MyComponent,
selector: 'my-comp'
}, {
type: MyDirective,
selector: '[my-dir]'
}, {
type: MyPipe,
name: 'myPipe'
}, {
type: UtilityModule,
isModule: true
}];
}
except for the call to defineInjector
would generate a { __symbolic: 'error' }
value which is ignored by the ivy compiler. This allows the system to ignore
the difference between manually and mechanically created module definitions.
Manual Considerations
With this proposal, the compiler treats manually and mechanically generated Angular definitions identically. This allows flexibility not only in the future for how the declarations are mechanically produced it also allows alternative mechanism to generate declarations be easily explored without altering the compiler or dependent tool chain. It also allows third-party code generators with possibly different component syntaxes to generate a component fully understood by the compiler.
Unfortunately, however, manually generated modules contain references to
classes that might not be necessary at runtime. Manually or third-party
components can get the same payload properties of an Angular generated
component by annotating the ngSelector
and ngModuleScope
properties with
// @__BUILD_OPTIMIZER_REMOVE_
comment which will cause the build optimizer
to remove the declaration.
example
For example the above manually created module would have better payload
properties by including a // @__BUILD_OPTIMIZER_REMOVE_
comment:
export class MyModule {
static ngInjectorDef = defineInjector({
providers: [{
provide: Service, useClass: ServiceImpl
}],
imports: [CommonModule, UtilityModule]
});
// @__BUILD_OPTIMIZER_REMOVE_
static ngModuleScope = [{
type: MyComponent,
selector: 'my-comp'
}, {
type: MyDirective,
selector: '[my-dir]'
}, {
type: MyPipe,
name: 'myPipe'
}, {
type: UtilityModule,
isModule: true
}];
}
ngc
output (non-Bazel)
The cases that ngc
handle are producing an application and producing a
reusable library used in an application.
Application output
The output of the ivy compiler only optionally generates the factories generated by the Renderer2 style output of Angular 5.0. In ivy, the information that was generated in factories is now generated in Angular as a definition that is generated as a static field on the Angular decorated class.
Renderer2 requires that, when building the final application, all factories for all libraries also be generated. In ivy, the definitions are generated when the library is compiled.
The ivy compile can adapt Renderer2 target libraries by generating the factories for them and back-patching, at runtime, the static property into the class.
Back-patching module ("renderer2BackPatching"
)
When an application contains Renderer2 target libraries the ivy definitions need to be back-patch onto the component, directive, module, pipe, and injectable classes.
If the Angular compiler option "renderer2BackPatching"
is enabled, the
compiler will generate an angular.back-patch
module in the to root output
directory of the project. If "generateRenderer2Factories"
is set to true
then the default value for "renderer2BackPatching"
is true
and it is and
error for it to be false
. "renderer2BackPatching"
is ignored if "enableIvy"
is false
.
angular.back-patch
exports a function per @NgModule
for the entire
application, including previously compiled libraries. The name of the function
is determined by name of the imported module with all non alphanumeric
character, including '/
' and '.
', replaced by '_
'.
The back-patch functions will call the back-patch function of any module they import. This means that only the application's module and lazy loaded modules back-patching functions needs to be called. If using the Renderer2 module factory instances, this is performed automatically when the first application module instance is created.
Renderer2 Factories ("generateRenderer2Factories"
)
ngc
can generate an implementation of NgModuleFactory
in the same location
that Angular 5.0 would generate it. This implementation of NgModuleFactory
will back-patch the Renderer2 style classes when the first module instance is
created by calling the correct back-patching function generated in theangular.back-patch
module.
Renderer2 style factories are created when the "generateRenderer2Factories"
Angular compiler option is true
. Setting "generateRenderer2Factories"
implies
"renderer2BackPatching"
is also true
and it is an error to explicitly set it
to false
. "generateRenderer2Factories"
is ignored if "enableIvy"
is
false
.
When this option is true
a factory module is created with the same public API
at the same location as Angular 5.0 whenever Angular 5.0 would have generated a
factory.
Recommended options
The recommended options for producing a ivy application are
option | value | |
---|---|---|
"enableIvy" |
true |
required |
"generateRenderer2Factories" |
true |
implied |
"renderer2BackPatching" |
true |
implied |
"generateCodeForLibraries" |
true |
default |
"annotationsAs" |
remove |
implied |
"enableLegacyTemplate" |
false |
default |
"preserveWhitespaces" |
false |
default |
"skipMetadataEmit" |
true |
default |
"strictMetadataEmit" |
false |
implied |
"skipTemplateCodegen" |
ignored |
The options marked "implied" are implied by other options having the recommended value and do not need to be explicitly set. Options marked "default" also do not need to be set explicitly.
Library output
Building an ivy library with ngc
differs from Renderer2 in that the
declarations are included in the generated output and should be included in the
package published to npm
. The .metadata.json
files still need to be
included but they are transformed as described below.
Transforming metadata
As described above, when the compiler adds the declaration to the class it will
also transform the .metadata.json
file to reflect the new static fields added
to the class.
Once the static fields are added to the metadata, the ivy compiler no longer
needs the the information in the decorator. When "enableIvy"
is true
this
information is removed from the .metadata.json
file.
Recommended options
The recommended options for producing a ivy library are:
option | value | |
---|---|---|
"enableIvy" |
true |
required |
"generateRenderer2Factories" |
false |
|
"renderer2BackPatching" |
false |
default |
"generateCodeForLibraries" |
false |
|
"annotationsAs" |
remove |
implied |
"enableLegacyTemplate" |
false |
default |
"preserveWhitespaces" |
false |
default |
"skipMetadataEmit" |
false |
|
"strictMetadataEmit" |
true |
|
"skipTemplateCodegen" |
ignored |
The options marked "implied" are implied by other options having the recommended value and do not need to be explicitly set. Options marked "default" also do not need to be set explicitly.
Simplified options
The default Angular Compiler options default to, mostly, the recommended set of
options but the options necessary to set for specific targets are not clear and
mixing them can produce nonsensical results. The "target"
option can be used
to simplify the setting of the compiler options to the recommended values
depending on the target:
target | option | value | |
---|---|---|---|
"application" |
"generateRenderer2Factories" |
true |
enforced |
"renderer2BackPatching" |
true |
enforced | |
"generateCodeForLibraries" |
true |
||
"annotationsAs" |
remove |
||
"enableLegacyTemplate" |
false |
||
"preserveWhitespaces" |
false |
||
"skipMetadataEmit" |
false |
||
"strictMetadataEmit" |
true |
||
"skipTemplateCodegen" |
false |
||
"fullTemplateTypeCheck" |
true |
||
"enableLegacyTemplate" |
false |
||
"library" |
"generateRenderer2Factories" |
false |
enforced |
"renderer2BackPatching" |
false |
enforced | |
"generateCodeForLibraries" |
false |
enforced | |
"annotationsAs" |
decorators |
||
"enableLegacyTemplate" |
false |
||
"preserveWhitespaces" |
false |
||
"skipMetadataEmit" |
false |
enforced | |
"strictMetadataEmit" |
true |
||
"skipTemplateCodegen" |
false |
enforced | |
"fullTemplateTypeCheck" |
true |
||
"enableLegacyTemplate" |
false |
||
"package" |
"flatModuleOutFile" |
required | |
"flatModuleId" |
required | ||
"enableIvy" |
false |
enforced | |
"generateRenderer2Factories" |
false |
enforced | |
"renderer2BackPatching" |
false |
enforced | |
"generateCodeForLibraries" |
false |
enforced | |
"annotationsAs" |
remove |
||
"enableLegacyTemplate" |
false |
||
"preserveWhitespaces" |
false |
||
"skipMetadataEmit" |
false |
enforced | |
"strictMetadataEmit" |
true |
||
"skipTemplateCodegen" |
false |
enforced | |
"fullTemplateTypeCheck" |
true |
||
"enableLegacyTemplate" |
false |
Options that are marked "enforced" are reported as an error if they are explicitly set to a value different from what is specified here. The options marked "required" are required to be set and an error message is displayed if no value is supplied but no default is provided.
The purpose of the "application" target is for the options used when the ngc
invocation contains the root application module. Lazy loaded modules should
also be considered "application" targets.
The purpose of the "library" target is for are all ngc
invocations that do
not contain the root application module or a lazy loaded module.
The purpose of the "package" target is to produce a library package that will be an entry point for an npm package. Each entry point should be separately compiled using a "package" target.
example - application
To produce a Renderer2 application the options would look like,
{
"compileOptions": {
...
},
"angularCompilerOptions": {
"target": "application"
}
}
alternately, since the recommended "application"
options are the default
values, the "angularCompilerOptions"
can be out.
example - library
To produce a Renderer2 library the options would look like,
{
"compileOptions": {
...
},
"angularCompilerOptions": {
"target": "library"
}
}
example - package
To produce a Renderer2 package the options would look like,
{
"compileOptions": {
...
},
"angularCompilerOptions": {
"target": "package"
}
}
example - ivy application
To produce an ivy application the options would look like,
{
"compileOptions": {
...
},
"angularCompilerOptions": {
"target": "application",
"enableIvy": true
}
}
example - ivy library
To produce an ivy library the options would look like,
{
"compileOptions": {
...
},
"angularCompilerOptions": {
"target": "library",
"enableIvy": true
}
}
example - ivy package
Ivy packages are not supported in Angular 6.0 as they are not recommended in npm packages as they would only be usable if in ivy application where an ivy application. Ivy application support Renderer2 libraries so npm packages should all be Renderer2 libraries.
ng_module
output (Bazel)
The ng_module
rule describes the source necessary to produce a Angular
library that is reusable and composable into an application.
Angular 5.0
The ng_module
rule invokes ngc
1 to produce
the Angular output. However, ng_module
uses a feature, the .ngsummary.json
file, not normally used and is often difficult to configure correctly.
The .ngsummary.json
describes all the information that is necessary for
the compiler to use a generated factory. It is produced by actions defined
in the ng_module
rule and is consumed by actions defined by ng_module
rules that depend on other ng_module
rules.
Angular Ivy
The ng_module
rule will still use ngc
to produce the Angular output but,
when producing ivy output, it no longer will need the .ngsummary.json
file.
ng_experimental_ivy_srcs
The ng_experimental_ivy_srcs
can be used as use to cause the ivy versions of
files to be generated. It is intended the sole dependency of a ts_dev_server
rule and the ts_dev_server
sources move to ng_experimental_iv_srcs
.
ng_module
ivy output
The ng_module
is able to provide the ivy version of the .js
files which
will be generated with as .ivy.js
for the development sources and .ivy.closure.js
for the production sources.
The ng_module
rule will also generate a angular.back_patch.js
and .closure.js
files and a module_scope.json
file. The type of the module_scope.json
file will
be:
interface ModuleScopeSummary {
[moduleName: string]: ModuleScopeEntry[];
}
where moduleName
is the name of the as it would appear in an import statement
in a .ts
file at the same relative location in the source tree. All the
references in this file are also relative this location.
example
The following is a typical Angular application build in bazel:
src/BUILD.bazel
ng_module(
name = "src",
srcs = glob(["*.ts"]),
deps= ["//common/component"],
)
ts_dev_server(
name = "server",
srcs = ":src",
)
To use produce an ivy version you would add:
ng_experimental_ivy_srcs(
name = "ivy_srcs",
srcs = ":src",
)
ts_dev_server(
name = "server_ivy",
srcs = [":ivy_srcs"]
)
To serve the Renderer2 version, you would run:
bazel run :server
to serve the ivy version you would run
bazel run :server_ivy
The ng_experimental_ivy_srcs
rule is only needed when ivy is experimental. Once ivy
is released the ng_experimental_ivy_srcs
, dependent rules, can be removed.
1 More correctly, it calls performCompilation
from the @angular/compiler-cli
which is what ngc
does too.