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Dependency providers
By configuring providers, you can make services available to the parts of your application that need them.
A dependency provider configures an injector with a DI token, which that injector uses to provide the runtime version of a dependency value.
Specifying a provider token
If you specify the service class as the provider token, the default behavior is for the injector to instantiate that class with new
.
In the following example, the Logger
class provides a Logger
instance.
You can, however, configure an injector with an alternative provider in order to deliver some other object that provides the needed logging functionality.
You can configure an injector with a service class, you can provide a substitute class, an object, or a factory function.
{@a token}
{@a injection-token}
Dependency injection tokens
When you configure an injector with a provider, you are associating that provider with a dependency injection token, or DI token. The injector allows Angular to create a map of any internal dependencies. The DI token acts as a key to that map.
The dependency value is an instance, and the class type serves as a lookup key.
Here, the injector uses the HeroService
type as the token for looking up heroService
.
When you define a constructor parameter with the HeroService
class type, Angular knows to inject the service associated with that HeroService
class token:
Though classes provide many dependency values, the expanded provide
object lets you associate different kinds of providers with a DI token.
{@a provide}
Defining providers
The class provider syntax is a shorthand expression that expands into a provider configuration, defined by the Provider
interface.
The following example is the class provider syntax for providing a Logger
class in the providers
array.
Angular expands the providers
value into a full provider object as follows.
The expanded provider configuration is an object literal with two properties:
-
The
provide
property holds the token that serves as the key for both locating a dependency value and configuring the injector. -
The second property is a provider definition object, which tells the injector how to create the dependency value. The provider-definition key can be
useClass
, as in the example. It can also beuseExisting
,useValue
, oruseFactory
. Each of these keys provides a different type of dependency, as discussed below.
{@a class-provider}
Specifying an alternative class provider
Different classes can provide the same service.
For example, the following code tells the injector to return a BetterLogger
instance when the component asks for a logger using the Logger
token.
{@a class-provider-dependencies}
Configuring class providers with dependencies
If the alternative class providers have their own dependencies, specify both providers in the providers
metadata property of the parent module or component.
In this example, EvenBetterLogger
displays the user name in the log message.
This logger gets the user from an injected UserService
instance.
The injector needs providers for both this new logging service and its dependent UserService
.
{@a aliased-class-providers}
Aliasing class providers
To alias a class provider, specify the alias and the class provider in the providers
array with the useExisting
property.
In the following example, the injector injects the singleton instance of NewLogger
when the component asks for either the new or the old logger.
In this way, OldLogger
is an alias for NewLogger
.
Be sure you don't alias OldLogger
to NewLogger
with useClass
, as this creates two different NewLogger
instances.
{@a provideparent}
Aliasing a class interface
Generally, writing variations of the same parent alias provider uses forwardRef as follows.
To streamline your code, you can extract that logic into a helper function using the provideParent()
helper function.
Now you can add a parent provider to your components that's easier to read and understand.
Aliasing multiple class interfaces
To alias multiple parent types, each with its own class interface token, configure provideParent()
to accept more arguments.
Here's a revised version that defaults to parent
but also accepts an optional second parameter for a different parent class interface.
Next, to use provideParent()
with a different parent type, provide a second argument, here DifferentParent
.
{@a value-provider}
Injecting an object
To inject an object, configure the injector with the useValue
option.
The following provider object uses the useValue
key to associate the variable with the Logger
token.
In this example, SilentLogger
is an object that fulfills the logger role.
{@a non-class-dependencies}
Injecting a configuration object
A common use case for object literals is a configuration object. The following configuration object includes the title of the application and the address of a web API endpoint.
To provide and inject the configuration object, specify the object in the @NgModule()
providers
array.
{@a injectiontoken}
Using an InjectionToken
object
You can define and use an InjectionToken
object for choosing a provider token for non-class dependencies.
The following example defines a token, APP_CONFIG
of the type InjectionToken
.
The optional type parameter, <AppConfig>
, and the token description, app.config
, specify the token's purpose.
Next, register the dependency provider in the component using the InjectionToken
object of APP_CONFIG
.
Now you can inject the configuration object into the constructor with @Inject()
parameter decorator.
{@a di-and-interfaces}
Interfaces and dependency injection
Though the TypeScript AppConfig
interface supports typing within the class, the AppConfig
interface plays no role in dependency injection.
In TypeScript, an interface is a design-time artifact, and doesn't have a runtime representation, or token, that the DI framework can use.
When the transpiler changes TypeScript to JavaScript, the interface disappears because JavaScript doesn't have interfaces.
Since there is no interface for Angular to find at runtime, the interface cannot be a token, nor can you inject it.
{@a factory-provider} {@a factory-providers}
Using factory providers
To create a changeable, dependent value based on information unavailable before run time, you can use a factory provider.
In the following example, only authorized users should see secret heroes in the HeroService
.
Authorization can change during the course of a single application session, as when a different user logs in .
To keep security-sensitive information in UserService
and out of HeroService
, give the HeroService
constructor a boolean flag to control display of secret heroes.
To implement the isAuthorized
flag, use a factory provider to create a new logger instance for HeroService
.
The factory function has access to UserService
.
You inject both Logger
and UserService
into the factory provider so the injector can pass them along to the factory function.
-
The
useFactory
field specifies that the provider is a factory function whose implementation isheroServiceFactory
. -
The
deps
property is an array of provider tokens. TheLogger
andUserService
classes serve as tokens for their own class providers. The injector resolves these tokens and injects the corresponding services into the matchingheroServiceFactory
factory function parameters.
Capturing the factory provider in the exported variable, heroServiceProvider
, makes the factory provider reusable.
The following side-by-side example shows how heroServiceProvider
replaces HeroService
in the providers
array.