265 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
265 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
include ../../../../_includes/_util-fns
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:marked
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Every application starts out with what seems like a simple task: get data, transform them, and show them to users.
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Getting data could be as simple as creating a local variable or as complex as streaming data over a Websocket.
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Once data arrive, we could push their raw `toString` values directly to screen.
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That rarely makes for a good user experience.
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Almost everyone prefers a simple birthday date
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(<span style="font-family:courier">April 15, 1988</span>) to the original raw string format
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( <span style="font-family:courier">Fri Apr 15 1988 00:00:00 GMT-0700 (Pacific Daylight Time)</span> ).
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Clearly some values benefit from a bit of massage. We soon discover that we
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desire many of the same transformations repeatedly, both within and across many applications.
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We almost think of them as styles.
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In fact, we'd like to apply them in our HTML templates as we do styles.
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Welcome, Angular pipes, the simple display-value transformations that we can declare in our HTML!
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[Live Example](/resources/live-examples/pipes/ts/plnkr.html).
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.l-main-section
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:marked
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## Using Pipes
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A pipe takes in data as input and transforms it to a desired output.
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We'll illustrate by transforming a component's birthday property into
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a human-friendly date:
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+makeExample('pipes/ts/app/hero-birthday1.component.ts', null, 'app/hero-birthday1.component.ts')
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:marked
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Focus on the component's template.
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+makeExample('pipes/ts/app/app.component.html', 'hero-birthday-template')(format=".")
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:marked
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Inside the interpolation expression we flow the component's `birthday` value through the
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[pipe operator](./template-syntax.html#pipe) ( | ) to the [Date pipe](../api/common/DatePipe-class.html)
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function on the right. All pipes work this way.
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.l-main-section
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:marked
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## Built-in pipes
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Angular comes with a stock set of pipes such as
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`DatePipe`, `UpperCasePipe`, `LowerCasePipe`, `CurrencyPipe`, and `PercentPipe`.
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They are all immediately available for use in any template.
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.l-sub-section
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:marked
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Learn more about these and many other built-in pipes in the the [API Reference](../api/);
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filter for entries that include the word "pipe".
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.l-main-section
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:marked
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## Parameterizing a Pipe
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A pipe may accept any number of optional parameters to fine-tune its output.
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We add parameters to a pipe by following the pipe name with a colon ( : ) and then the parameter value
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(e.g., `currency:'EUR'`). If our pipe accepts multiple parameters, we separate the values with colons (e.g. `slice:1:5`)
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We'll modify our birthday template to give the date pipe a format parameter.
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After formatting the hero's April 15th birthday should display as **<span style="font-family:courier">04/15/88</span>**.
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+makeExample('pipes/ts/app/app.component.html', 'format-birthday')(format=".")
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:marked
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The parameter value can be any valid
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[template expression](./template-expression.html#template-expressions)
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such as a string literal or a component property.
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In other words, we can control the format through a binding the same way we control the birthday value through a binding.
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Let's write a second component that *binds* the pipe's format parameter
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to the component's `format` property. Here's the template for that component:
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+makeExample('pipes/ts/app/hero-birthday2.component.ts', 'template', 'app/hero-birthday2.component.ts (template)')(format=".")
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:marked
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We also added a button to the template and bound its click event to the component's `toggleFormat` method.
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That method toggles the component's `format` property between a short form
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('shortDate') and a longer form ('fullDate').
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+makeExample('pipes/ts/app/hero-birthday2.component.ts', 'class', 'app/hero-birthday2.component.ts (class)')
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:marked
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As we click the button, the displayed date alternates between
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"**<span style="font-family:courier">04/15/1988</span>**" and
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"**<span style="font-family:courier">Friday, April 15, 1988</span>**".
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figure.image-display
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img(src='/resources/images/devguide/pipes/date-format-toggle-anim.gif' alt="Date Format Toggle")
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:marked
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.l-sub-section
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:marked
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Learn more about the `DatePipes` format options in the [API Docs](../api/core/DatePipe-class.html).
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:marked
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## Chaining pipes
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We can chain pipes together in potentially useful combinations.
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In the following example, we chain the birthday to the `DatePipe` and on to the `UpperCasePipe`
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so we can display the birthday in uppercase. The following birthday displays as
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**<span style="font-family:courier">APR 15, 1988</span>**
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+makeExample('pipes/ts/app/app.component.html', 'chained-birthday')(format=".")
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:marked
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If we pass a parameter to a filter, we have to add parentheses
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to help the template compiler with the evaluation order.
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The following example displays
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**<span style="font-family:courier">FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 1988</span>**
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+makeExample('pipes/ts/app/app.component.html', 'chained-parameter-birthday')(format=".")
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.l-sub-section
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:marked
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We can add parentheses to alter the evaluation order or
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to provide extra clarity:
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+makeExample('pipes/ts/app/app.component.html', 'chained-parameter-birthday-parens')(format=".")
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:marked
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.l-main-section
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:marked
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## Custom Pipes
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We can write our own custom pipes.
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Here's a custom pipe named `ExponentialStrengthPipe` that can boost a hero's powers:
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+makeExample('pipes/ts/app/exponential-strength.pipe.ts', null, 'app/exponential-strength.pipe.ts')
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:marked
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This pipe definition reveals several key points
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* A pipe is a class decorated with pipe metadata.
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* The pipe class implements the `PipeTransform` interface's `transform` method that
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takes an input value and an optional array of parameter strings and returns the transformed value.
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* There will be one item in the parameter array for each parameter passed to the pipe
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* We tell Angular that this is a pipe by applying the
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`@Pipe` decorator which we import from the core Angular library.
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* The `@Pipe` decorator takes an object with a name property whose value is the
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pipe name that we'll use within a template expression. It must be a valid JavaScript identifier.
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Our pipe's name is `exponentialStrength`.
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.l-sub-section
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:marked
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### The *PipeTransform* Interface
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The `transform` method is essential to a pipe.
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The `PipeTransform` interface defines that method and guides both tooling and the compiler.
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It is optional; Angular looks for and executes the `transform` method regardless.
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:marked
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Now we need a component to demonstrate our pipe.
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+makeExample('pipes/ts/app/power-booster.component.ts',null,'app/power-booster.component.ts')
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figure.image-display
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img(src='/resources/images/devguide/pipes/power-booster.png' alt="Power Booster")
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:marked
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Two things to note:
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1. We use our custom pipe the same way we use the built-in pipes.
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1. We must list our pipe in the @Component decorator's `pipes` array.
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.callout.is-helpful
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header Remember the pipes array!
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:marked
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Angular reports an error if we neglect to list our custom pipe.
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We didn't list the `DatePipe` in our previous example because all
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Angular built-in pipes are pre-registered.
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Custom pipes must be registered manually.
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:marked
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If we try the [live code](/resources/live-examples/pipes/ts/plnkr.html) example,
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we can probe its behavior by changing the value and the optional exponent in the template.
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## Power Boost Calculator (extra-credit)
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It's not much fun updating the template to test our custom pipe.
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We could upgrade the example to a "Power Boost Calculator" that combines
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our pipe and two-way data binding with `ngModel`.
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+makeExample('pipes/ts/app/power-boost-calculator.component.ts', null, '/app/power-boost-calculator.component.ts')
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figure.image-display
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img(src='/resources/images/devguide/pipes/power-boost-calculator-anim.gif' alt="Power Boost Calculator")
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:marked
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.l-main-section
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:marked
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## Stateful Pipes
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There are two categories of pipes, stateless and stateful.
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Stateless pipes are pure functions that flow input data
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through without remembering anything or causing detectable side-effects.
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Most pipes are stateless. The `DatePipe` in our first example is a stateless pipe. So is our custom `ExponentialStrengthPipe`.
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Stateful pipes are conceptually similar to classes in object-oriented programming. They can manage the data they transform. A pipe that creates an HTTP request, stores the response and displays the output, is a stateful pipe.
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Pipes that retrieve or request data should be used cautiously, since working with network data tends to introduce error conditions that are better handled in JavaScript than in a template.
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We can mitigate this risk by creating a custom pipe for a particular backend and bake-in the essential error-handling.
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## The stateful `AsyncPipe`
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The Angular Async pipe is a remarkable example of a stateful pipe.
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The Async pipe can receive a Promise or Observable as input
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and subscribe to the input automatically, eventually returning the emitted value(s).
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It is stateful because the pipe maintains a subscription to the input and its returned values depend on that subscription.
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In the next example, we bind a simple promise to a view with the async pipe.
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+makeExample('pipes/ts/app/hero-async-message.component.ts', null, 'app/hero-async-message.component.ts')
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:marked
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The Async pipe saves boilerplate in the component code.
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The component doesn't have to subscribe to the async data source,
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it doesn't extract the resolved values and expose them for binding,
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and (in the case of Observable stream sources like `EventEmitter`)
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the component doesn't have to unsubscribe when it is destroyed
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(a potent source of memory leaks).
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### Implementing a Stateful Pipe
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Pipes are stateless by default.
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We must declare a pipe to be stateful
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by setting the `pure` property of the `@Pipe` decorator to `false`.
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This setting tells Angular’s change detection system to
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check the output of this pipe each cycle, whether its input has changed or not.
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Here's how we'll decorate our new stateful `FetchJsonPipe` that
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makes an HTTP `fetch` request and (eventually) displays the data in the server's response:
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+makeExample('pipes/ts/app/fetch-json.pipe.ts', 'pipe-metadata','app/fetch-json.pipe.ts (metadata)')
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:marked
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Immediately below we have the finished pipe. Its input value is an url to an endpoint that returns a JSON file.
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The pipe makes a one-time async request to the server and eventually receives the JSON response.
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+makeExample('pipes/ts/app/fetch-json.pipe.ts', null, 'app/fetch-json.pipe.ts')
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:marked
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Next we demonstrate this pipe in a test component whose template defines two bindings
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+makeExample('pipes/ts/app/hero-list.component.ts', 'template', 'app/hero-list.component.ts (template)')
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:marked
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The component renders like this:
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figure.image-display
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img(src='/resources/images/devguide/pipes/hero-list.png' alt="Hero List")
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:marked
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The first binding is straight forward. An `ngFor` repeater displays the hero names fetched from a json source file.
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We're piping the literal file name, "heroes.json", through to the custom `fetch` pipe.
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### JsonPipe
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The second binding uses more pipe chaining.
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We take the same fetched results and display the raw hero data in JSON format
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by piping to the built-in `JsonPipe`.
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.callout.is-helpful
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header Debugging with the json pipe
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:marked
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The [JsonPipe](https://angular.io/docs/ts/latest/api/common/JsonPipe-class.html)
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is an easy way to diagnosis a mysteriously failing data binding.
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:marked
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Here's the complete component implementation:
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+makeExample('pipes/ts/app/hero-list.component.ts', null, 'app/hero-list.component.ts')
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:marked
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.l-main-section
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:marked
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## Next Steps
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Pipes are a great way to encapsulate and share common display-value
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transformations. We use them like styles, dropping them
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into our templates expressions to enrich the appeal and usability
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of our views.
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Explore Angular's inventory of built-in pipes in the [API Reference](../api/).
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Try writing a custom pipe and perhaps contributing it to the community.
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