Angular2 Router error: cannot find primary outlet to load 'HomePage'

Question

I just started using the new routing library (@angular/router v3.0.0-alpha.7) but following the official docs leads to error below:

browser_adapter.ts:74: EXCEPTION: Error: Uncaught (in promise): Error: Cannot find primary outlet to load 'HomePage'

Question is - how do I get rid of the error and make the router behave as expected? Have I missed a setting?

(Same error appears when using the alpha.6 version.)

app.component.ts

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { ROUTER_DIRECTIVES } from '@angular/router';

@Component({
    selector: 'app',
    template: `
        <p>Angular 2 is running...</p>
        <!-- Routed views go here -->
        <router-outlet></router-outlet>
    `,
    providers: [ROUTER_DIRECTIVES]
})
export class AppComponent {
}

app.routes.ts

import { provideRouter, RouterConfig } from '@angular/router';
import { HomePage } from './pages/home/home';

export const routes: RouterConfig = [
    { path: '', component: HomePage }
];

export const APP_ROUTER_PROVIDERS = [
    provideRouter(routes)
];

home.ts

import { Component } from '@angular/core';

@Component({
    template: '<h1>Home Page</h1>'
})
export class HomePage {
}

main.ts

/* Avoid: 'error TS2304: Cannot find name <type>' during compilation */
///<reference path="../../typings/index.d.ts" />

import { bootstrap } from "@angular/platform-browser-dynamic";
import { APP_ROUTER_PROVIDERS } from './app.routes';
import { AppComponent } from "./app.component";

bootstrap(AppComponent, [
    APP_ROUTER_PROVIDERS,
]).catch(err => console.error(err));

Answer 1

Although @JS_astronauts already provided a solution, I think it would be instructive to explain the error...

The primary outlet is set when Angular parses an HTML template and finds directive RouterOutlet, i.e., when it finds RouterOutlet's selector: <router-outlet></router-outlet>.

Although your template does contain <router-outlet></router-outlet>, your component does not contain directives: [ROUTER_DIRECTIVES], so Angular won't look for any of the directives defined by that constant:

export const ROUTER_DIRECTIVES = [RouterOutlet, RouterLink, RouterLinkWithHref, 
 RouterLinkActive];

So when Angular parses AppComponent's HTML templates, if it doesn't recognize <router-outlet></router-outlet> so it just ignores it. Later, when Angular tries to render the default route component (HomePage), it complains because doesn't know where to put it.

---

This error can also happen if you have a typo in your element selector, e.g.:

<roter-outlet></roter-outlet>

In this case, even if your directives array is set correctly, Angular will never find the required <router-outlet> element.