angular 2: using a service to broadcast an event

Question

I'm trying to get a button click in one component to put focus on an element on another component. (Frankly, I don't understand why this must be so complex, but I have not been able to implement any simpler way that actually works.)

I'm using a service. It doesn't need to pass any data except that the click occurred. I'm not sure how the listening component is meant to respond to the event.

app.component:

Skip to main content

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { SkipToContentService } from './services/skip-to-content.service';


export class AppComponent {
    constructor(
        private skipToContent: SkipToContentService
    ) {}
    }

    skipLink() {
        this.skipToContent.setClicked();
    }

}

login component:

<input type="text" name="username" />


import { Component, OnInit } from '@angular/core';
import { SkipToContentService } from '../../../services/skip-to-content.service';

export class BaseLoginComponent implements OnInit {

    constructor(
        private skipToContent: SkipToContentService
        ) {
    }

    ngOnInit() {
        this.skipToContent.skipClicked.subscribe(
            console.log("!")
            // should put focus() on input
        );

    }
}

skip-to-content.service:

import { Injectable, EventEmitter } from '@angular/core';

@Injectable()
export class SkipToContentService {

    skipClicked: EventEmitter<boolean> = new EventEmitter();


    constructor() {
    }

    setClicked() {
        console.log('clicked');
        this.skipClicked.emit();
    };
}

I'm a bit lost here as to how logon will "hear" the skipClicked event.

Answer 1

First of all, use a BehaviorSubject instead of EventEmitter. Change the declaration of skipCliekd to the following:

skipClicked: BehaviorSubject<boolean> = new BehaviorSubject(false);

Then, you need to broadcast the new value using next() method as following:

this.skipClicked.next (true);

Also, change your subscription to:

 this.skipToContent.skipClicked.subscribe( value => {
     if (value === true) {
         console.log("!"); 
         // should put focus() on input 
     }
 });