`@angular/platform-server` provides the foundation for rendering an
Angular app on the server. In order to achieve that, it uses a
server-side DOM implementation (currently [domino][1]).
For rendering on the server to work as closely as possible to running
the app on the browser, we need to make DOM globals (such as `Element`,
`HTMLElement`, etc.), which are normally provided by the browser,
available as globals on the server as well.
Currently, `@angular/platform-server` achieves this by extending the
`global` object with the DOM implementation provided by `domino`. This
assignment happens in the [setDomTypes()][2] function, which is
[called in a `PLATFORM_INITIALIZER`][3]. While this works in most cases,
there are some scenarios where the DOM globals are needed sooner (i.e.
before initializing the platform). See, for example, #24551 and #39950
for more details on such issues.
This commit provides a way to solve this problem by exposing a
side-effect-ful entry-point (`@angular/platform-server/init`), that
shims the `global` object with DOM globals. People will be able to
import this entry-point in their server-rendered apps before
bootstrapping the app (for example, in their `main.server.ts` file).
(See also [#39950 (comment)][4].)
In a future update, the [`universal` schematics][5] will include such an
import by default in newly generated projects.
[1]: https://www.npmjs.com/package/domino
[2]: https://github.com/angular/angular/blob/0fc8466f1be392917e0c/packages/platform-server/src/domino_adapter.ts#L17-L21
[3]: https://github.com/angular/angular/blob/0fc8466f1be392917e0c/packages/platform-server/src/server.ts#L33
[4]: https://github.com/angular/angular/issues/39950#issuecomment-747598403
[5]: https://github.com/angular/angular-cli/blob/cc51432661eb4ab4b6a3/packages/schematics/angular/universal
PR Close#40559
43ecf8a77b