How to implement a draggable div in Angular 2 using Rx

Question

I've been trying to get a draggable div working using Angular 2. I'm using this example from the angular2-examples repo as a starting point, only really adjusting the code to account for the removal of the toRx() method. The code works, but it does not account for mouseout events. This means that if I click on a Draggable div, and move the mouse slowly, the div will move with the mouse. But if I move the mouse too fast, a mouseout event is sent instead of a mousemove event, and the dragging stops.

How can I keep the drag going after the mouse is moved so far that a mouseout event is fired? I've tried merging the mouseout event stream with the mousemove one, so that mouseout events are treated just like mousemove ones, but that doesn't work.

I'm using Angular 2.0.0-beta.12.

import {Component, Directive, HostListener, EventEmitter, ElementRef, OnInit} from 'angular2/core';
import {map, merge} from 'rxjs/Rx';

@Directive({
    selector: '[draggable]'
})
export class Draggable implements OnInit {

    mouseup = new EventEmitter();
    mousedown = new EventEmitter();
    mousemove = new EventEmitter();
    mouseout = new EventEmitter();

    @HostListener('mouseup', ['$event'])
    onMouseup(event) {
        this.mouseup.emit(event);
    }

    @HostListener('mousedown', ['$event'])
    onMousedown(event) {
        this.mousedown.emit(event);
        return false; // Call preventDefault() on the event
    }

    @HostListener('mousemove', ['$event'])
    onMousemove(event) {
        this.mousemove.emit(event);
    }

    @HostListener('mouseout', ['$event'])
    onMouseout(event) {
        this.mouseout.emit(event);
        return false; // Call preventDefault() on the event
    }

    constructor(public element: ElementRef) {
        this.element.nativeElement.style.position = 'relative';
        this.element.nativeElement.style.cursor = 'pointer';

        map;
        merge;
        this.mousedrag = this.mousedown.map(event => {
            return {
                top: event.clientY - this.element.nativeElement.getBoundingClientRect().top
                left: event.clientX - this.element.nativeElement.getBoundingClientRect().left,
            };
        })
        .flatMap(
            imageOffset => this.mousemove.merge(this.mouseout).map(pos => ({
                top: pos.clientY - imageOffset.top,
                left: pos.clientX - imageOffset.left
            }))
            .takeUntil(this.mouseup)
        );
    }

    ngOnInit() {
        this.mousedrag.subscribe({
            next: pos => {
                this.element.nativeElement.style.top = pos.top + 'px';
                this.element.nativeElement.style.left = pos.left + 'px';
            }
        });
    }
}

@Component({
    selector: 'my-app',
    template: `
        <div draggable>
            <h1>Hello, World!</h1>
        </div>
        `,
    directives: [Draggable,],
})
export class AppComponent {
}

Answer 1

I found the answer to this in RxJs How do deal with document events. The crux of the problem is that mouse events are only sent to an element when the mouse is over that element. So we do want the mousedown event limited to specific element, but we have to track global mousemove and mouseup events. Here's the new code. Notice the use of the @HostListener decorator on onMouseup and onMousemove specifies the target as document:mouseup and document:mousemove. This is how the global events are piped into the Rx stream.

The official angular2 documentation for HostListener doesn't mention this target:eventName syntax, but this old dart documentation for 2.0.0-alpha.24 does mention it. It seems to still work in 2.0.0-beta.12.

@Directive({
    selector: '[draggable]'
})
export class Draggable implements OnInit {

    mouseup = new EventEmitter<MouseEvent>();
    mousedown = new EventEmitter<MouseEvent>();
    mousemove = new EventEmitter<MouseEvent>();

    mousedrag: Observable<{top, left}>;

    @HostListener('document:mouseup', ['$event'])
    onMouseup(event: MouseEvent) {
        this.mouseup.emit(event);
    }

    @HostListener('mousedown', ['$event'])
    onMousedown(event: MouseEvent) {
        this.mousedown.emit(event);
        return false; // Call preventDefault() on the event
    }

    @HostListener('document:mousemove', ['$event'])
    onMousemove(event: MouseEvent) {
        this.mousemove.emit(event);
    }

    constructor(public element: ElementRef) {
        this.element.nativeElement.style.position = 'relative';
        this.element.nativeElement.style.cursor = 'pointer';

        this.mousedrag = this.mousedown.map(event => {
            return {
                top: event.clientY - this.element.nativeElement.getBoundingClientRect().top
                left: event.clientX - this.element.nativeElement.getBoundingClientRect().left,
            };
        })
        .flatMap(
            imageOffset => this.mousemove.map(pos => ({
                top: pos.clientY - imageOffset.top,
                left: pos.clientX - imageOffset.left
            }))
            .takeUntil(this.mouseup)
        );
    }

    ngOnInit() {
        this.mousedrag.subscribe({
            next: pos => {
                this.element.nativeElement.style.top = pos.top + 'px';
                this.element.nativeElement.style.left = pos.left + 'px';
            }
        });
    }
}