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include ../../../../_includes/_util-fns
.l-main-section
:markdown
# Tour of Heroes - Part 1
The Tour of Heroes tutorial takes us through the steps of creating an Angular application.
Our grand vision is to build an app to help a staffing agency manage its stable of heroes.
Even heroes need to find work.
Of course we'll only make a little progress in this tutorial. What we do build will
have many of the features we expect to find in a full-blown, data-driven application: acquiring and displaying
a list of heroes, editing a selected hero's detail, and navigating among different
views of heroic data.
The Tour of Heroes covers the core fundamentals of Angular.
Well use built-in directives to show/hide elements and display lists of hero data.
Well create a component to display hero details and another to show an array of heroes.
We'll use one-way data binding for read-only data. We'll add editable fields to update a model
with two-way data binding. We'll bind component method to user events like key strokes and clicks.
Well learn to select a hero from a master list and edit that hero in the details view. We'll
format data with pipes. And we'll use routing to navigate among different views and their components.
Well learn enough core Angular to get started and gain confidence that
Angular can do whatever we need it to do.
We'll be covering a lot of ground at an introductory level but well find plenty of links
to chapters with greater depth.
## The End Game
Let's get a visual idea of where we're going in this tour, beginning with the "Heroes"
view and its list of heroes:
figure.image-display
img(src='/resources/images/devguide/toh/heroes-list-1.png' alt="Output of heroes list app")
:markdown
Above the list are two links ("Dashboard" and "Heroes").
We click them to navigate between a Dashboard view and this Heroes view.
After selecting a hero, we can click the "View Details" button and be
wisked away by the router to a "Hero Details" view
where we can change the hero's name.
figure.image-display
img(src='/resources/images/devguide/toh/hero-details-1.png' alt="Details of hero in app")
:markdown
Links at the top take us back to either of the main views.
The "Back" button returns us to the "Heroes" view.
## How We Roll
Well build this Tour of Heroes together, step by step.
We'll motiviate each step with a requirement that we've
met in countless applications. Everything has a reason.
And well meet many of the core fundamentals of Angular along the way.
.l-main-section
:markdown
# Once Upon a Time
Every story starts somewhere. Our story starts where the [Getting Started chapter]('./gettingstarted') ends.
Follow the "Getting Started" steps. They provide the prerequisites, the folder structure,
and the core files for our Tour of Heroes.
Copy the "Getting Started" code to a new folder and rename the folder `angular2-tour-of-heroes`.
We should have the following structure:
code-example.
angular2-tour-of-heroes
├── node_modules
├── src
| ├── app
| | └── app.ts
| ├── index.html
| └── tsconfig.json
└── package.json
:markdown
## Keep the App Running
Start the TypeScript compiler and have it watch for changes in one terminal window by typing
pre.prettyprint.lang-bash
code tsc -p src -w
:markdown
Now open another terminal window and start the server by typing
pre.prettyprint.lang-bash
code live-server --open=src
:markdown
This command starts the server, launches the app in a browser,
and keeps the app running while we continue to build the Tour of Heroes.
.alert.is-helpful
:markdown
These two steps watch all project files. They recompile TypeScript files and re-run
the app when any file changes.
If the watchers fail to detect renamed or new files,
stop these commands in each terminal by typing `CTRL+C` and then re-run them.
.l-main-section
:markdown
# Show our Hero
We want to display Hero data in our app
Let's add two properties to our `AppComponent`, a `title` property for the application name and a `hero` property
for a hero named "Windstorm".
```
class AppComponent {
public title = 'Tour of Heroes';
public hero = 'Windstorm';
}
```
:markdown
Now we update the template in the `@Component` decoration with data bindings to these new properties.
code-example(format="linenums").
template: '<h1>{{title}}&lt/h1>&lth2>{{hero}} details!&lt/h2>'
:markdown
The browser should refresh and display our title and hero.
The double curly braces tell our app to read the `title` and `hero` properties from the component and render them.
This is the "interpolation" form of one-way data binding;
we can learn more about interpolation in the [Displaying Data chapter](displaying-data).
## Hero Object
At the moment, our hero is just a name. Our hero needs more properties.
Let's convert the `hero` from a literal string to a class.
Create a `Hero` class with `id` and `name` properties.
Keep this near the top of hte `app.ts` file for now.
```
class Hero {
id: number;
name: string;
}
```
Now that we have a `Hero` class, lets refactor our components `hero` property to be of type `Hero`.
Then initialize it with an id of `1` and the name, "Windstorm".
```
public hero: Hero = {
id: 1,
name: 'Windstorm'
};
```
Because we changed the hero from a string to an object,
we update the binding in the template to refer to the heros `name` property.
code-example(format="linenums").
template: '<h1>{{title}}&lt/h1>&lth2>{{hero.name}} details!&lt/h2>'
:markdown
The browser refreshes and continues to display our heros name.
## **Adding more HTML**
Displaying a name is good, but we want to see all of our heros properties.
Well add a `<div>` for our heros `id` property and another `<div>` for our heros `name`.
code-example(format="linenums").
template: '&lt;h1>{{title}}&lt/h1>&lth2>{{hero.name}} details!&lt/h2>&ltdiv>&ltlabel>id: &lt/label>{{hero.id}}&lt/div>&ltdiv>&ltlabel>name: &lt/label>{{hero.name}}&lt/div>'
:markdown
Uh oh, our template string is getting long. We better take care of that to avoid the risk of making a typo in the template.
### Multi-line Template Strings
We could make a more readable template with string concatenation
but that gets ugly fast, it is harder to read, and
it is easy to make a spelling error. Instead,
lets take advantage of the template strings feature
in ES2015 and TypeScript to maintain our sanity.
Change the quotes around the template to back-ticks and
put the `<h1>`, `<h2>` and `<div>` elements on their own lines.
code-example(format="linenums").
template:`
&lt;h1>{{title}}&lt/h1>
&lth2>{{hero.name}} details!&lt/h2>
&ltdiv>&ltlabel>id: &lt/label>{{hero.id}}&lt/div>
&ltdiv>&ltlabel>name: &lt/label>{{hero.name}}&lt/div>
`
.callout.is-important
header A back-tick is not a single quote
:markdown
**Be careful!** A back-tick (`) looks a lot like a single quote (').
It's actually a completely different character.
Back-ticks can do more than demarcate a string.
Here we use them in a limited way to spread the template over multiple lines.
Everything between the back-ticks at the beginning and end of the template
is part of a single template string.
.l-main-section
:markdown
# Editing Our Hero
We want to be able to edit the hero name in a textbox.
Replace the hero name `<label>` with an `<input>` element as shown below:
code-example(format="linenums").
template:`
&lt;h1>{{title}}&lt/h1>
&lth2>{{hero.name}} details!&lt/h2>
&ltdiv>&ltlabel>id: &lt/label>{{hero.id}}&lt/div>
&ltdiv>
&ltlabel>name: &lt/label>
&ltdiv>&ltinput value="{{hero.name}}" placeholder="name">&lt/input>&lt/div>
&lt/div>
`
:markdown
We see in the browser that the heros name does appear in the `<input>` textbox.
But something doesnt feel right.
When we change the name, we notice that our change
is not reflected in the `<h2>`. We won't get the desired behavior
with a one-way binding to `<input>`.
## Two-Way Binding
We intend to display the name of the hero in the `<input>`, change it,
and see those changes wherever we bind to the heros name.
In short, we want two-way data binding.
Lets update the template to use the **`ng-model`** built-in directive for two-way binding.
<!-- TODO style with a class and add a link
*Sidenote: Learn more about ng-model in the [Using Forms chapter]*
-->
Replace the `<input>` with the following HTML
```
<input [(ng-model)]="hero.name" placeholder="name"></input>
```
Unfortunately, that change broke our application and we're no longer displaying the hero in the browser.
Lets fix that next.
.l-main-section
:markdown
# Declaring Template Directives
We added the `ng-model` directive but we didn't tell Angular about it.
A component must disclose every directive that appears in its template.
Lets first gain access to the `NgModel` directive class by importing it from Angular as shown below:
````
import {bootstrap, Component, NgModel} from 'angular2/angular2';
```
Now tell the component that we will use the `ng-model` directive in the template
by adding the `directives` property to the `@Component` decoration
immediately below the `template` string:
```
directives: [NgModel]
```
The `directives` property is an array holding all directive classes that
are used by the components template.
Unfortunately when we view the app in the browser we still have an error:
```
*EXCEPTION: No value accessor for ' ' in [null]*
```
Apparently declaring the `NgModel` is not quite enough.
## Declare Multiple Form Directives
We learned from our latest error message that we cant the import `NgModel` alone.
We need additional directives to enable two-way data binding with `NgModel`.
We could hunt them down and add each of them to the `directives` array one by one.
That's painful. No one wants to remember all of the necessary directives and
type them correctly. Fortunately, there is a shortcut.
The `ng-model` directive is one of many Forms directives which happen to be
bundled in a convenient array called `FORM_DIRECTIVES`.
<!-- TODO *Sidenote: Learn more about Angular Forms in the [Forms chapter]* -->
Lets forget about importing `NgModel` and import the `FORM_DIRECTIVES` array instead:
```
import {bootstrap, Component, FORM_DIRECTIVES} from 'angular2/angular2';
```
Now we tell the component that our template can use `FORM_DIRECTIVES`
by updating the `directives` property of the `@Component` decorator.
```
directives: [FORM_DIRECTIVES]
```
The browser refreshes. We see our hero again. We can edit the heros name and
see the changes reflected immediately in the `<h2>`.
### Bundled Directives
Angular bundled the Form-related directives together in a convenient `FORM_DIRECTIVES` array.
That's all we need to remember to light up our template.
We may wish to use this trick ourselves someday.
We too can bundle a collection of directives in an array, give it a catchy name,
and plug that array into the `directives` property.
# The Road Weve Travelled
Lets take stock of what weve built.
* Our Tour of Heroes uses the double curly braces of interpolation (a form of one-way data binding)
to display the application title and properties of a `Hero` object.
* We wrote a multi-line template using ES2015s template strings to make our template readable.
* We can both display and change the heros name after adding a two-way data binding to the `<input>` element
using the built-in `ng-model` directive.
* The `ng-model` directive also propagates changes to every other binding of the `hero.name`.
* We declared our use of `NgModel` and other Form directives
by setting the component's `directives` metadata property to the `FORMS_DIRECTIVES` array.
Here's the complete `AppComponent.ts` as it stands now:
code-example(format="linenums").
import {bootstrap, Component, FORM_DIRECTIVES} from 'angular2/angular2';
class Hero {
id: number;
name: string;
}
@Component({
template:`
&lt;h1>{{title}}&lt/h1>
&lth2>{{hero.name}} details!&lt/h2>
&ltdiv>&ltlabel>id: &lt/label>{{hero.id}}&lt/div>
&ltdiv>
&ltlabel>name: &lt/label>
&ltdiv>&ltinput value="{{hero.name}}" placeholder="name">&lt/input>&lt/div>
&lt/div>
`,
directives: [FORM_DIRECTIVES]
})
class AppComponent {
public title = 'Tour of Heroes';
public hero: Hero = {
id: 1,
name: 'Windstorm'
};
}
bootstrap(AppComponent);
<!-- TODO: Add this in when the next chapter exists
# **The Road Ahead**
Our Tour of Heroes only displays one hero and we really want to display a list of heroes.
We also want to allow the user to select a hero and display their details.
Well learn more about how to retrieve lists, bind them to the
template, and allow a user to select it in the next chapter.
-->