700 lines
33 KiB
Plaintext
700 lines
33 KiB
Plaintext
include ../_util-fns
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:marked
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# Routing Around the App
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We received new requirements for our Tour of Heroes application:
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* add a *Dashboard* view.
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* navigate between the *Heroes* and *Dashboard* views.
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* clicking on a hero in either view navigates to a detail view of the selected hero.
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* clicking a *deep link* in an email opens the detail view for a particular hero;
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When we’re done, users will be able to navigate the app like this:
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figure.image-display
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img(src='/resources/images/devguide/toh/nav-diagram.png' alt="View navigations")
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:marked
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We'll add Angular’s *Component Router* to our app to satisfy these requirements.
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.l-sub-section
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:marked
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The [Routing and Navigation](../guide/router.html) chapter covers the router in more detail
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than we will in this tour.
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:marked
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[Run the live example](/resources/live-examples/toh-5/ts/plnkr.html).
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.l-sub-section
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img(src='/resources/images/devguide/plunker-separate-window-button.png' alt="pop out the window" align="right" style="margin-right:-20px")
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:marked
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To see the URL changes in the browser address bar,
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pop out the preview window by clicking the blue 'X' button in the upper right corner:
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.l-main-section
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:marked
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## Where We Left Off
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Before we continue with our Tour of Heroes, let’s verify that we have the following structure after adding our hero service
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and hero detail component. If not, we’ll need to go back and follow the previous chapters.
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.filetree
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.file angular2-tour-of-heroes
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.children
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.file lib
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.children
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.file app_component.dart
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.file hero.dart
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.file hero_detail_component.dart
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.file hero_service.dart
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.file mock_heroes.dart
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.file web
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.children
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.file index.html
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.file main.dart
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.file styles.css
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.file pubspec.yaml
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:marked
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### Run the app
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Open a terminal/console window and enter the following command to
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start the server:
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code-example(format="." language="bash").
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pub serve
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:marked
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The application runs by default on `localhost:8080`.
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## Action plan
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Here's our plan
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* turn `AppComponent` into an application shell that only handles navigation.
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* relocate the *Heroes* concerns within the current `AppComponent` to a separate `HeroesComponent`
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* add routing
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* create a new `DashboardComponent`
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* tie the *Dashboard* into the navigation structure.
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.l-sub-section
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:marked
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*Routing* is another name for *navigation*. The *router* is the mechanism for navigating from view to view.
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.l-main-section
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:marked
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## Splitting the *AppComponent*
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Our current app loads `AppComponent` and immediately displays the list of heroes.
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Our revised app should present a shell with a choice of views (*Dashboard* and *Heroes*) and then default to one of them.
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The `AppComponent` should only handle navigation.
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Let's move the display of *Heroes* out of `AppComponent` and into its own `HeroesComponent`.
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### *HeroesComponent*
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`AppComponent` is already dedicated to *Heroes*.
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Instead of moving anything out of `AppComponent`, we'll just rename it `HeroesComponent`
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and create a new `AppComponent` shell separately.
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The steps are:
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* rename `app_component.dart` file to `heroes_component.dart`.
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* rename the `AppComponent` class to `HeroesComponent`.
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* rename the selector `my-app` to `my-heroes`.
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:marked
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/heroes_component.dart', 'heroes-component-renaming', 'lib/heroes_component.dart (renaming)')(format=".")
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:marked
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## Create *AppComponent*
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The new `AppComponent` will be the application shell.
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It will have some navigation links at the top and a display area below for the pages we navigate to.
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The initial steps are:
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* create a new file named `app_component.dart`.
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* define an `AppComponent` class.
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* expose an application `title` property.
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* add the `@Component` metadata decorator above the class with a `my-app` selector.
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* add a template with `<h1>` tags surrounding a binding to the `title` property.
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* add the `<my-heroes>` tags to the template so we still see the heroes.
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* add the `HeroesComponent` to the `directives` array so Angular recognizes the `<my-heroes>` tags.
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* add the `HeroService` to the `providers` array because we'll need it in every other view.
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* add the supporting `import` statements.
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Our first draft looks like this:
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/app_component_1.dart', null, 'lib/app_component.dart (v1)')
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:marked
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.callout.is-critical
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header Remove <i>HeroService</i> from the <i>HeroesComponent</i> providers
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:marked
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Go back to the `HeroesComponent` and **remove the `HeroService`** from its `providers` array.
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We are *promoting* this service from the `HeroesComponent` to the `AppComponent`.
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We ***do not want two copies*** of this service at two different levels of our app.
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:marked
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The app still runs and still displays heroes.
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Our refactoring of `AppComponent` into a new `AppComponent` and a `HeroesComponent` worked!
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We have done no harm.
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:marked
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## Add Routing
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We're ready to take the next step.
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Instead of displaying heroes automatically, we'd like to show them *after* the user clicks a button.
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In other words, we'd like to navigate to the list of heroes.
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We'll need the Angular *Component Router*.
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### Include the Router Library
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Not all apps need routing which is why the Angular *Component Router* is in a separate, optional module library.
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// Our Tour of Heroes needs routing,
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// so we load the library in the `index.html` in a script tag immediately *after* the angular script itself.
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//makeExample('toh-5/dart/web/index.html', 'router', 'index.html (router)')(format=".")
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:marked
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While we're in `index.html`, we add `<base href="/">` at the top of the `<head>` section.
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/web/index.html', 'base-href', 'index.html (base href)')(format=".")
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.callout.is-important
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header base href is essential
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:marked
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See the *base href* section of the [Router](../guide/router.html#!#base-href) chapter to learn why this matters.
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:marked
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### Make the router available.
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The *Component Router* is a service. Like any service, we have to import it and make it
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available to the application by adding it to the `providers` array.
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The Angular router is a combination of multiple services (`ROUTER_PROVIDERS`), multiple directives (`ROUTER_DIRECTIVES`),
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and a configuration decorator (`RouteConfig`). We'll import them all together:
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/app_component_2.dart', 'import-router', 'app_component.dart (router imports)')(format=".")
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:marked
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Next we update the `directives` and `providers` metadata arrays to *include* the router assets.
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/app_component_2.dart', 'directives-and-providers', 'app_component.dart (directives and providers)')(format=".")
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:marked
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Notice that we also removed the `HeroesComponent` from the `directives` array.
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`AppComponent` no longer shows heroes; that will be the router's job.
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We'll soon remove `<my-heroes>` from the template too.
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### Add and configure the router
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The `AppComponent` doesn't have a router yet. We'll use the `@RouteConfig` decorator to simultaneously
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(a) assign a router to the component and (b) configure that router with *routes*.
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*Routes* tell the router which views to display when a user clicks a link or
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pastes a URL into the browser address bar.
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Let's define our first route, a route to the `HeroesComponent`.
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/app_component_2.dart', 'route-config', 'app_component.dart (RouteConfig for heroes)')(format=".")
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:marked
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`@RouteConfig` takes an array of *Route* definitions.
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We have only one route definition at the moment but rest assured, we'll add more.
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This *route definition* has three parts:
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* **path**: the router matches this route's path to the URL in the browser address bar (`/heroes`).
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* **name**: the official name of the route; it *must* begin with a capital letter to avoid confusion with the *path* (`Heroes`).
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* **component**: the component that the router should create when navigating to this route (`HeroesComponent`).
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.l-sub-section
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:marked
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Learn more about defining routes with @RouteConfig in the [Routing](../guide/router.html) chapter.
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:marked
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### Router Outlet
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If we paste the path, `/heroes`, into the browser address bar,
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the router should match it to the `'Heroes'` route and display the `HeroesComponent`.
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But where?
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We have to ***tell it where*** by adding `<router-outlet>` marker tags to the bottom of the template.
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`RouterOutlet` is one of the `ROUTER_DIRECTIVES`.
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The router displays each component immediately below the `<router-outlet>` as we navigate through the application.
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### Router Links
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We don't really expect users to paste a route URL into the address bar.
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We add an anchor tag to the template which, when clicked, triggers navigation to the `HeroesComponent`.
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The revised template looks like this:
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/app_component_2.dart', 'template', 'app_component.dart (template for Heroes)')(format=".")
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:marked
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Notice the `[routerLink]` binding in the anchor tag.
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We bind the `RouterLink` directive (another of the `ROUTER_DIRECTIVES`) to an array
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that tells the router where to navigate when the user clicks the link.
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We define a *routing instruction* with a *link parameters array*.
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The array only has one element in our little sample, the quoted ***name* of the route** to follow.
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Looking back at the route configuration, we confirm that `'Heroes'` is the name of the route to the `HeroesComponent`.
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.l-sub-section
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:marked
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Learn about the *link parameters array* in the [Routing](../guide/router.html#link-parameters-array) chapter.
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:marked
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Refresh the browser. We see only the app title. We don't see the heroes list.
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.l-sub-section
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:marked
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The browser's address bar shows `/`.
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The route path to `HeroesComponent` is `/heroes`, not `/`.
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We don't have a route that matches the path `/`, so there is nothing to show.
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That's something we'll want to fix.
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:marked
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We click the "Heroes" navigation link, the browser bar updates to `/heroes`,
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and now we see the list of heroes. We are navigating at last!
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At this stage, our `AppComponent` looks like this.
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/app_component_2.dart',null, 'lib/app_component.dart (v2)')
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:marked
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The *AppComponent* is now attached to a router and displaying routed views.
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For this reason and to distinguish it from other kinds of components,
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we call this type of component a *Router Component*.
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:marked
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## Add a *Dashboard*
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Routing only makes sense when we have multiple views. We need another view.
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Create a placeholder `DashboardComponent` that gives us something to navigate to and from.
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/dashboard_component_1.dart',null, 'lib/dashboard_component.dart (v1)')(format=".")
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:marked
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We’ll come back and make it more useful later.
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### Configure the dashboard route
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Go back to `app_component.dart` and teach it to navigate to the dashboard.
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Import the `DashboardComponent` so we can reference it in the dashboard route definition.
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Add the following `'Dashboard'` route definition to the `@RouteConfig` array of definitions.
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/app_component.dart','dashboard-route', 'app_component.dart (Dashboard Route)')(format=".")
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.l-sub-section
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:marked
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**useAsDefault**
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We want the app to show the dashboard when it starts and
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we want to see a nice URL in the browser address bar that says `/dashboard`.
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Remember that the browser launches with `/` in the address bar.
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We don't have a route for that path and we'd rather not create one.
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Fortunately we can add the `useAsDefault: true` property to the *route definition* and the
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router will display the dashboard when the browser URL doesn't match an existing route.
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:marked
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Finally, add a dashboard navigation link to the template, just above the *Heroes* link.
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/app_component.dart','template', 'app_component.dart (template)')(format=".")
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.l-sub-section
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:marked
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We nestled the two links within `<nav>` tags.
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They don't do anything yet but they'll be convenient when we style the links a little later in the chapter.
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:marked
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Refresh the browser. The app displays the dashboard and
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we can navigate between the dashboard and the heroes.
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## Dashboard Top Heroes
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Let’s spice up the dashboard by displaying the top four heroes at a glance.
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Replace the `template` metadata with a `templateUrl` property that points to a new
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template file.
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/dashboard_component.dart', 'template-url', 'lib/dashboard_component.dart (templateUrl)')(format=".")
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.l-sub-section
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:marked
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We specify the path _all the way back to the application root_. Angular doesn't support module-relative paths.
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:marked
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Create that file with these contents:
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/dashboard_component.html', null, 'dashboard_component.html')(format=".")
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:marked
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We use `*ngFor` once again to iterate over a list of heroes and display their names.
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We added extra `<div>` elements to help with styling later in this chapter.
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There's a `(click)` binding to a `gotoDetail` method we haven't written yet and
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we're displaying a list of heroes that we don't have.
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We have work to do, starting with those heroes.
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### Share the *HeroService*
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We'd like to re-use the `HeroService` to populate the component's `heroes` array.
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Recall earlier in the chapter that we removed the `HeroService` from the `providers` array of the `HeroesComponent`
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and added it to the `providers` array of the top level `AppComponent`.
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That move created a singleton `HeroService` instance, available to *all* components of the application.
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We'll inject and use it here in the `DashboardComponent` .
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### Get heroes
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Open the `dashboard_component.dart` and add the requisite `import` statements.
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/dashboard_component_2.dart','imports', 'lib/dashboard_component.dart (imports)')(format=".")
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:marked
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We need `OnInit` interface because we'll initialize the heroes in the `ngOnInit` method as we've done before.
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We need the `Hero` and `HeroService` symbols in order to reference those types.
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Now implement the `DashboardComponent` class like this:
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/dashboard_component_2.dart','component', 'lib/dashboard_component.dart (class)')
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:marked
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We saw this kind of logic before in the `HeroesComponent`.
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* create a `heroes` array property
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* inject the `HeroService` in the constructor and hold it in a private `_heroService` field.
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* call the service to get heroes inside the Angular `ngOnInit` lifecycle hook.
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The noteworthy differences: we cherry-pick four heroes (2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th) with *slice*
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and stub the `gotoDetail` method until we're ready to implement it.
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Refresh the browser and see four heroes in the new dashboard.
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.l-main-section
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:marked
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## Navigate to Hero Details
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Although we display the details of a selected hero at the bottom of the `HeroesComponent`,
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we don't yet *navigate* to the `HeroDetailComponent` in the three ways specified in our requirements:
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1. from the *Dashboard* to a selected hero.
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1. from the *Heroes* list to a selected hero.
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1. from a "deep link" URL pasted into the browser address bar.
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Adding a `'HeroDetail'` route seem an obvious place to start.
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### Routing to a hero detail
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We'll add a route to the `HeroDetailComponent` in the `AppComponent` where our other routes are configured.
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The new route is a bit unusual in that we must tell the `HeroDetailComponent` *which hero to show*.
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We didn't have to tell the `HeroesComponent` or the `DashboardComponent` anything.
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At the moment the parent `HeroesComponent` sets the component's `hero` property to a hero object with a binding like this.
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code-example(format='').
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<my-hero-detail [hero]="selectedHero"></my-hero-detail>
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:marked
|
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That clearly won't work in any of our routing scenarios.
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Certainly not the last one; we can't embed an entire hero object in the URL! Nor would we want to.
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### Parameterized route
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We *can* add the hero's `id` to the URL. When routing to the hero whose `id` is 11, we could expect to see an URL such as this:
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code-example(format='').
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/detail/11
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:marked
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The `/detail/` part of that URL is constant. The trailing numeric `id` part changes from hero to hero.
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We need to represent that variable part of the route with a *parameter* (or *token*) that stands for the hero's `id`.
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### Configure a Route with a Parameter
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Here's the *route definition* we'll use.
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/app_component.dart','hero-detail-route', 'lib/app_component.dart (Route to HeroDetailComponent)')(format=".")
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:marked
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The colon (:) in the path indicates that `:id` is a placeholder to be filled with a specific hero `id`
|
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when navigating to the `HeroDetailComponent`.
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.l-sub-section
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:marked
|
||
Of course we have to import the `HeroDetailComponent` before we create this route:
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/app_component.dart','hero-detail-import')(format=".")
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:marked
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We're finished with the `AppComponent`.
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We won't add a `'Hero Detail'` link to the template because users
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don't click a navigation *link* to view a particular hero.
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They click a *hero* whether that hero is displayed on the dashboard or in the heroes list.
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We'll get to those *hero* clicks later in the chapter.
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There's no point in working on them until the `HeroDetailComponent`
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is ready to be navigated *to*.
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That will require an `HeroDetailComponent` overhaul.
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.l-main-section
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:marked
|
||
## Revise the *HeroDetailComponent*
|
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Before we rewrite the `HeroDetailComponent`, let's remember what it looks like now:
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**[TODO: Add example, once it exists.]**
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// makeExample('toh-4/dart/lib/hero_detail_component.dart', null, 'lib/hero_detail_component.dart (current)')
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:marked
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The template won't change. We'll display a hero the same way. The big changes are driven by how we get the hero.
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We will no longer receive the hero in a parent component property binding.
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The new `HeroDetailComponent` should take the `id` parameter from the router's `RouteParams` service
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and use the `HeroService` to fetch the hero with that `id` from storage.
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We need an import statement to reference the `RouteParams`.
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/hero_detail_component.dart', 'import-route-params')(format=".")
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:marked
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We import the `HeroService`so we can fetch a hero`.
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/hero_detail_component.dart', 'import-hero-service')(format=".")
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:marked
|
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We import the `OnInit` interface because we'll call the `HeroService` inside the `ngOnInit` component lifecycle hook.
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/hero_detail_component.dart', 'import-oninit')(format=".")
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:marked
|
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We inject the both the `RouteParams` service and the `HeroService` into the constructor as we've done before,
|
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making private variables for both:
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+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/hero_detail_component.dart', 'ctor', 'lib/hero_detail_component.dart (constructor)')(format=".")
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:marked
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Inside the `ngOnInit` lifecycle hook, extract the `id` parameter value from the `RouteParams` service
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and use the `HeroService` to fetch the hero with that `id`.
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/hero_detail_component.dart', 'ng-oninit', 'lib/hero_detail_component.dart (ngOnInit)')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
Notice how we extract the `id` by calling the `RouteParams.get` method.
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/hero_detail_component.dart', 'get-id')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
The hero `id` is a number. Route parameters are *always strings*.
|
||
So we convert the route parameter value to a number with the `int.parse` static method.
|
||
|
||
### Add *HeroService.getHero*
|
||
The problem with this bit of code is that `HeroService` doesn't have a `getHero` method!
|
||
We better fix that quickly before someone notices that we broke the app.
|
||
|
||
Open `HeroService` and add the `getHero` method. It's trivial given that we're still faking data access:
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/hero_service.dart', 'get-hero', 'lib/hero_service.dart (getHero)')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
Return to the `HeroDetailComponent` to clean up loose ends.
|
||
|
||
### Find our way back
|
||
|
||
We can navigate *to* the `HeroDetailComponent` in several ways.
|
||
How do we navigate somewhere else when we're done?
|
||
|
||
The user could click one of the two links in the `AppComponent`. Or click the browser's back button.
|
||
We'll add a third option, a `goBack` method that navigates backward one step in the browser's history stack
|
||
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/hero_detail_component.dart', 'go-back', 'lib/hero_detail_component.dart (goBack)')(format=".")
|
||
.l-sub-section
|
||
:marked
|
||
Going back too far could take us out of the application.
|
||
That's acceptable in a demo. We'd guard against it in a real application,
|
||
perhaps with the [*routerCanDeactivate* hook](../api/router/CanDeactivate-interface.html).
|
||
:marked
|
||
Then we wire this method with an event binding to a *Back* button that we add to the bottom of the component template.
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/hero_detail_component.html', 'back-button')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
Modifing the template to add this button spurs us to take one more incremental improvement and migrate the template to its own file
|
||
called `hero_detail_component.html`
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/hero_detail_component.html', '', 'lib/hero_detail_component.html')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
We update the component metadata with a `templateUrl` pointing to the template file that we just created.
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/hero_detail_component.dart', 'template-url', 'lib/hero_detail_component.dart (templateUrl)')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
Here's the (nearly) finished `HeroDetailComponent`:
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/hero_detail_component.dart', 'v2', 'lib/hero_detail_component.dart (latest)')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
|
||
|
||
.l-main-section
|
||
:marked
|
||
## Select a *Dashboard* Hero
|
||
When a user selects a hero in the dashboard, the app should navigate to the `HeroDetailComponent` to view and edit the selected hero..
|
||
|
||
In the dashboard template we bound each hero's click event to the `gotoDetail` method, passing along the selected `hero` entity.
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/dashboard_component.html','click', 'lib/dashboard_component.html (click binding)')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
We stubbed the `gotoDetail` method when we rewrote the `DashboardComponent`.
|
||
Now we give it a real implementation.
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/dashboard_component.dart','goto-detail', 'lib/dashboard_component.dart (gotoDetail)')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
The `gotoDetail` method navigates in two steps:
|
||
1. set a route *link parameters array*
|
||
1. pass the array to the router's navigate method.
|
||
|
||
We wrote *link parameters arrays* in the `AppComponent` for the navigation links.
|
||
Those arrays had only one element, the name of the destination route.
|
||
|
||
This array has two elements, the ***name*** of the destination route and a ***route parameter object***
|
||
with an `id` field set to the value of the selected hero's `id`.
|
||
|
||
The two array items align with the ***name*** and ***:id*** token in the parameterized `HeroDetail` route configuration we added to `AppComponent` earlier in the chapter.
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/app_component.dart','hero-detail-route', 'lib/app_component.dart (hero detail route)')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
The `DashboardComponent` doesn't have the router yet. We obtain it in the usual way:
|
||
`import` the `router` reference and inject it in the constructor (along with the `HeroService`):
|
||
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/dashboard_component.dart','import-router', 'lib/dashboard_component.dart (excerpts)')(format=".")
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/dashboard_component.dart','ctor')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
Refresh the browser and select a hero from the dashboard; the app should navigate directly to that hero’s details.
|
||
|
||
.l-main-section
|
||
:marked
|
||
## Select a Hero in the *HeroesComponent*
|
||
We'll do something similar in the `HeroesComponent`.
|
||
|
||
That component's current template exhibits a "master/detail" style with the list of heroes
|
||
at the top and details of the selected hero below.
|
||
|
||
**[TODO: Add example, once it exists.]**
|
||
|
||
// makeExample('toh-4/dart/lib/app_component.dart','template', 'lib/heroes_component.dart (current template)')(format=".")
|
||
|
||
:marked
|
||
Delete the last line of the template with the `<my-hero-detail>` tags.
|
||
|
||
We'll no longer show the full `HeroDetailComponent` here.
|
||
We're going to display the hero detail on its own page and route to it as we did in the dashboard.
|
||
|
||
But we'll throw in a small twist for variety.
|
||
When the user selects a hero from the list, we *won't* go to the detail page.
|
||
We'll show a *mini-detail* on *this* page instead and make the user click a button to navigate to the *full detail *page.
|
||
|
||
### Add the *mini-detail*
|
||
Add the following HTML fragment at the bottom of the template where the `<my-hero-detail>` used to be:
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/heroes_component.html','mini-detail')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
After clicking a hero, the user should see something like this below the hero list:
|
||
|
||
figure.image-display
|
||
img(src='/resources/images/devguide/toh/mini-hero-detail.png' alt="Mini Hero Detail" height="70")
|
||
:marked
|
||
### Format with the *UpperCasePipe*
|
||
|
||
Notice that the hero's name is displayed in CAPITAL LETTERS. That's the effect of the `UpperCasePipe`
|
||
that we slipped into the interpolation binding. Look for it right after the pipe operator, ( | ).
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/heroes_component.html','pipe')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
Pipes are a good way to format strings, currency amounts, dates and other display data.
|
||
Angular ships with several pipes and we can write our own.
|
||
.l-sub-section
|
||
:marked
|
||
Learn about pipes in the [Pipes](../guide/pipes.html) chapter.
|
||
:marked
|
||
### Move content out of the component file
|
||
We are not done. We still have to update the component class to support navigation to the
|
||
`HeroDetailComponent` when the user clicks the *View Details* button.
|
||
|
||
This component file is really big. Most of it is either template or CSS styles.
|
||
It's difficult to find the component logic amidst the noise of HTML and CSS.
|
||
|
||
Let's migrate the template and the styles to their own files before we make any more changes:
|
||
1. *Cut-and-paste* the template contents into a new `heroes_component.html` file.
|
||
1. *Cut-and-paste* the styles contents into a new `heroes_component.css` file.
|
||
1. *Set* the component metadata's `templateUrl` and `styleUrls` properties to refer to both files.
|
||
|
||
The revised component data looks like this:
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/heroes_component.dart', 'metadata', 'lib/heroes_component.dart (revised metadata)')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
Now we can see what's going on as we update the component class along the same lines as the dashboard:
|
||
1. Import the `router`
|
||
1. Inject the `router` in the constructor (along with the `HeroService`)
|
||
1. Implement the `gotoDetail` method by calling the `router.navigate` method
|
||
with a two-part 'HeroDetail' *link parameters array*.
|
||
|
||
Here's the revised component class:
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/heroes_component.dart', 'class', 'lib/heroes_component.dart (class)')
|
||
:marked
|
||
Refresh the browser and start clicking.
|
||
We can navigate around the app, from the dashboard to hero details and back,
|
||
for heroes list to the mini-detail to the hero details and back to the heroes again.
|
||
We can jump back and forth between the dashboard and the heroes.
|
||
|
||
We've met all of the navigational requirements that propelled this chapter.
|
||
|
||
.l-main-section
|
||
:marked
|
||
## Styling the App
|
||
The app is functional but pretty ugly.
|
||
Our creative designer team provided some CSS files to make it look better.
|
||
|
||
### A Dashboard with Style
|
||
The designers think we should display the dashboard heroes in a row of rectangles.
|
||
They've given us ~60 lines of CSS for this purpose including some simple media queries for responsive design.
|
||
|
||
If we paste these ~60 lines into the component `styles` metadata,
|
||
they'll completely obscure the component logic.
|
||
Let's not do that. It's easier to edit CSS in a separate `*.css` file anyway.
|
||
|
||
Add a `dashboard_component.css` file to the `app` folder and reference
|
||
that file in the component metadata's `styleUrls` array property like this:
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/dashboard_component.dart', 'css', 'lib/dashboard_component.dart (styleUrls)')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
.l-sub-section
|
||
:marked
|
||
The `styleUrls` property is an array of style file names (with paths).
|
||
We could list multiple style files from different locations if we needed them.
|
||
As with `templateUrl`, we must specify the path _all the way back to the application root_.
|
||
:marked
|
||
### Stylish Hero Details
|
||
The designers also gave us CSS styles specifically for the `HeroDetailComponent`.
|
||
|
||
Add a `hero_detail_component.css` to the `app` folder and refer to that file inside
|
||
the `styleUrls` array as we did for `DashboardComponent`.
|
||
|
||
Here's the content for the aforementioned component CSS files.
|
||
+makeTabs(
|
||
`toh-5/dart/lib/hero_detail_component.css,
|
||
toh-5/dart/lib/dashboard_component.css`,
|
||
null,
|
||
`lib/hero_detail_component.css,
|
||
lib/dashboard_component.css`)
|
||
:marked
|
||
### Style the Navigation Links
|
||
The designers gave us CSS to make the navigation links in our `AppComponent` look more like selectable buttons.
|
||
We cooperated by surrounding those links in `<nav>` tags.
|
||
|
||
Add a `app_component.css` file to the `app` folder with the following content.
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/app_component.css', 'css', 'lib/app_component.css (Navigation Styles)')
|
||
.l-sub-section
|
||
:marked
|
||
**The *router-link-active* class**
|
||
|
||
The Angular Router adds the `router-link-active` class to the HTML navigation element
|
||
whose route matches the active route. All we have to do is define the style for it. Sweet!
|
||
:marked
|
||
Set the `AppComponent`’s `styleUrls` property to this CSS file.
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/dart/lib/app_component.dart','style-urls', 'lib/app_component.dart (styleUrls)')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
### Global application styles
|
||
When we add styles to a component, we're keeping everything a component needs
|
||
— HTML, the CSS, the code — together in one convenient place.
|
||
It's pretty easy to package it all up and re-use the component somewhere else.
|
||
|
||
We can also create styles at the *application level* outside of any component.
|
||
|
||
Our designers provided some basic styles to apply to elements across the entire app.
|
||
Add the following to a new file named `styles.css` in the root folder.
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/ts/styles.1.css', '', 'styles.css (App Styles)')(format=".")
|
||
|
||
:marked
|
||
Reference this stylesheet within the `index.html` in the traditional manner.
|
||
+makeExample('toh-5/ts/index.html','css', 'index.html (link ref)')(format=".")
|
||
:marked
|
||
Look at the app now. Our dashboard, heroes, and navigation links are styling!
|
||
|
||
figure.image-display
|
||
img(src='/resources/images/devguide/toh/dashboard-top-heroes.png' alt="View navigations")
|
||
|
||
.l-main-section
|
||
:marked
|
||
## Application structure and code
|
||
|
||
Review the sample source code [in the live example for this chapter](/resources/live-examples/toh-5/ts/plnkr.html).
|
||
Verify that we have the following structure:
|
||
|
||
.filetree
|
||
.file angular2-tour-of-heroes
|
||
.children
|
||
.file lib
|
||
.children
|
||
.file app_component.dart
|
||
.file app_component.css
|
||
.file dashboard_component.css
|
||
.file dashboard_component.html
|
||
.file dashboard_component.dart
|
||
.file hero.dart
|
||
.file hero_detail_component.css
|
||
.file hero_detail_component.html
|
||
.file hero_detail_component.dart
|
||
.file hero_service.dart
|
||
.file heroes_component.css
|
||
.file heroes_component.html
|
||
.file heroes_component.dart
|
||
.file main.dart
|
||
.file mock_heroes.dart
|
||
.file web
|
||
.children
|
||
.file main.dart
|
||
.file index.html
|
||
.file styles.css
|
||
.file pubspec.yaml
|
||
:marked
|
||
|
||
.l-main-section
|
||
:marked
|
||
## Recap
|
||
|
||
### The Road Behind
|
||
We travelled a great distance in this chapter
|
||
- We added the Angular *Component Router* to navigate among different components.
|
||
- We learned how to create router links to represent navigation menu items
|
||
- We used router parameters to navigate to the details of user selected hero
|
||
- We shared the `HeroService` among multiple components
|
||
- We moved HTML and CSS out of the component file and into their own files.
|
||
- We added the `uppercase` pipe to format data
|
||
|
||
### The Road Ahead
|
||
We have much of the foundation we need to build an application.
|
||
We're still missing a key piece: remote data access.
|
||
|
||
In a forthcoming tutorial chapter,
|
||
we’ll replace our mock data with data retrieved from a server using http.
|