This is the archived documentation for Angular v5. Please visit angular.io to see documentation for the current version of Angular.

ElementRef

npm Package @angular/core
Module import { ElementRef } from '@angular/core';
Source core/src/linker/element_ref.ts

Security Risk

Permitting direct access to the DOM can make your application more vulnerable to XSS attacks. Carefully review any use of ElementRef in your code. For more detail, see the Security Guide.

Overview

      
      class ElementRef {
  constructor(nativeElement: any)
  nativeElement: any
}

Constructor

      
      constructor(nativeElement: any)

Members

      
      nativeElement: any

The underlying native element or null if direct access to native elements is not supported (e.g. when the application runs in a web worker).

Use with caution

Use this API as the last resort when direct access to DOM is needed. Use templating and data-binding provided by Angular instead. Alternatively you can take a look at Renderer2 which provides API that can safely be used even when direct access to native elements is not supported.

Relying on direct DOM access creates tight coupling between your application and rendering layers which will make it impossible to separate the two and deploy your application into a web worker.