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Adding navigation
This guide builds on the first step of the Getting Started tutorial, Get started with a basic Angular app.
At this stage of development, the online store application has a basic product catalog.
In the following sections, you'll add the following features to the application:
- Type a URL in the address bar to navigate to a corresponding product page.
- Click links on the page to navigate within your single-page application.
- Click the browser's back and forward buttons to navigate the browser history intuitively.
{@a define-routes}
Associate a URL path with a component
The application already uses the Angular Router to navigate to the ProductListComponent.
This section shows you how to define a route to show individual product details.
-
Generate a new component for product details. In the file list, right-click the
appfolder, chooseAngular GeneratorandComponent. Name the componentproduct-details. -
In
app.module.ts, add a route for product details, with apathofproducts/:productIdandProductDetailsComponentfor thecomponent. -
Open
product-list.component.html. -
Update the
*ngFordirective to read as follows. This statement instructs Angular to iterate over the items in theproductsarray and assigns each index in the array to theproductIdvariable when iterating over the list. -
Modify the product name anchor to include a
routerLink.The
RouterLinkdirective helps you customize the anchor element. In this case, the route, or URL, contains one fixed segment,/products. The final segment is variable, inserting theidproperty of the current product. For example, the URL for a product with anidof 1 would be similar tohttps://getting-started-myfork.stackblitz.io/products/1. -
Verify that the router works as intended by clicking the product name. The application should display the
ProductDetailsComponent, which currently says "product-details works!"Notice that the URL in the preview window changes. The final segment is
products/#where#is the number of the route you clicked.
View product details
The ProductDetailsComponent handles the display of each product.
The Angular Router displays components based on the browser's URL and your defined routes.
In this section, you'll use the Angular Router to combine the products data and route information to display the specific details for each product.
-
In
product-details.component.ts, importActivatedRoutefrom@angular/router, and theproductsarray from../products. -
Define the
productproperty. -
Inject
ActivatedRouteinto theconstructor()by addingprivate route: ActivatedRouteas an argument within the constructor's parentheses.ActivatedRouteis specific to each component that the Angular Router loads.ActivatedRoutecontains information about the route and the route's parameters.By injecting
ActivatedRoute, you are configuring the component to use a service. The Managing Data step covers services in more detail. -
In the
ngOnInit()method, subscribe to route parameters and fetch the product based on theproductId.The route parameters correspond to the path variables you define in the route. The URL that matches the route provides the
productId. Angular uses theproductIdto display the details for each unique product. -
Update the
ProductDetailsComponenttemplate to display product details with an*ngIf. If a product exists, the<div>renders with a name, price, and description.The line,
<h4>{{ product.price | currency }}</h4>, uses thecurrencypipe to transformproduct.pricefrom a number to a currency string. A pipe is a way you can transform data in your HTML template. For more information about Angular pipes, see Pipes.
When users click on a name in the product list, the router navigates them to the distinct URL for the product, shows the ProductDetailsComponent, and displays the product details.
For more information about the Angular Router, see Routing & Navigation.
What's next
You have configured your application so you can view product details, each with a distinct URL.
To continue exploring Angular:
- Continue to Managing Data to add a shopping cart feature, manage cart data, and retrieve external data for shipping prices.
- Skip ahead to Deployment to deploy your application to Firebase or move to local development.

