How to extend / inherit components?

Fernando Leal picture Fernando Leal · Apr 7, 2016 · Viewed 142.9k times · Source

I would like to create extensions for some components already deployed in Angular 2, without having to rewrite them almost completely, as the base component could undergo changes and wish these changes were also reflected in its derived components.

I created this simple example to try to explain better my questions:

With the following base component app/base-panel.component.ts:

import {Component, Input} from 'angular2/core';

@Component({
    selector: 'base-panel',
    template: '<div class="panel" [style.background-color]="color" (click)="onClick($event)">{{content}}</div>',
    styles: [`
    .panel{
    padding: 50px;
  }
  `]
})
export class BasePanelComponent { 

  @Input() content: string;

  color: string = "red";

  onClick(event){
    console.log("Click color: " + this.color);
  }
}

Would you like to create another derivative component only alter, for example, a basic component behavior in the case of the example color, app/my-panel.component.ts:

import {Component} from 'angular2/core';
import {BasePanelComponent} from './base-panel.component'

@Component({
    selector: 'my-panel',
    template: '<div class="panel" [style.background-color]="color" (click)="onClick($event)">{{content}}</div>',
    styles: [`
    .panel{
    padding: 50px;
  }
  `]
})
export class MyPanelComponent extends BasePanelComponent{

  constructor() {
    super();
    this.color = "blue";
  }
}

Complete working example in Plunker

Note: Obviously this example is simple and could be solved otherwise no need to use inheritance, but it is intended only to illustrate the real problem.

As you can see in the implementation of the derivative component app/my-panel.component.ts, much of the implementation was repeated, and the single part really inherited was the class BasePanelComponent, but the @Component had to basically be completely repeated, not just the changed portions, as the selector: 'my-panel'.

Is there some way to make a literally full inheritance of a component Angular2, inheriting the class definition of the markings/annotations, as for example @Component?

Edit 1 - Feature Request

Feature request angular2 added to the project on GitHub: Extend/Inherit angular2 components annotations #7968

Edit 2 - Closed Request

The request was closed, for this reason, that briefly would not know how to merge the decorator will be made. Leaving us with no options. So my opinion is is quoted in the Issue.

Answer

Fernando Leal picture Fernando Leal · Jun 28, 2016

Alternative Solution:

This answer of Thierry Templier is an alternative way to get around the problem.

After some questions with Thierry Templier, I came to the following working example that meets my expectations as an alternative to inheritance limitation mentioned in this question:

1 - Create custom decorator:

export function CustomComponent(annotation: any) {
  return function (target: Function) {
    var parentTarget = Object.getPrototypeOf(target.prototype).constructor;
    var parentAnnotations = Reflect.getMetadata('annotations', parentTarget);

    var parentAnnotation = parentAnnotations[0];
    Object.keys(parentAnnotation).forEach(key => {
      if (isPresent(parentAnnotation[key])) {
        // verify is annotation typeof function
        if(typeof annotation[key] === 'function'){
          annotation[key] = annotation[key].call(this, parentAnnotation[key]);
        }else if(
        // force override in annotation base
        !isPresent(annotation[key])
        ){
          annotation[key] = parentAnnotation[key];
        }
      }
    });

    var metadata = new Component(annotation);

    Reflect.defineMetadata('annotations', [ metadata ], target);
  }
}

2 - Base Component with @Component decorator:

@Component({
  // create seletor base for test override property
  selector: 'master',
  template: `
    <div>Test</div>
  `
})
export class AbstractComponent {

}

3 - Sub component with @CustomComponent decorator:

@CustomComponent({
  // override property annotation
  //selector: 'sub',
  selector: (parentSelector) => { return parentSelector + 'sub'}
})
export class SubComponent extends AbstractComponent {
  constructor() {
  }
}

Plunkr with complete example.