This section briefly touches on all of the important parts of AngularJS using a simple example. For a more in-depth explanation, see the tutorial.
Concept | Description |
---|---|
Template | HTML with additional markup |
Directives | extend HTML with custom attributes and elements |
Model | the data shown to the user in the view and with which the user interacts |
Scope | context where the model is stored so that controllers, directives and expressions can access it |
Expressions | access variables and functions from the scope |
Compiler | parses the template and instantiates directives and expressions |
Filter | formats the value of an expression for display to the user |
View | what the user sees (the DOM) |
Data Binding | sync data between the model and the view |
Controller | the business logic behind views |
Dependency Injection | Creates and wires objects and functions |
Injector | dependency injection container |
Module | a container for the different parts of an app including controllers, services, filters, directives which configures the Injector |
Service | reusable business logic independent of views |
In the following example we will build a form to calculate the costs of an invoice in different currencies.
Let's start with input fields for quantity and cost whose values are multiplied to produce the total of the invoice:
<div ng-app ng-init="qty=1;cost=2">
<b>Invoice:</b>
<div>
Quantity: <input type="number" min="0" ng-model="qty">
</div>
<div>
Costs: <input type="number" min="0" ng-model="cost">
</div>
<div>
<b>Total:</b> {{qty * cost | currency}}
</div>
</div>
Try out the Live Preview above, and then let's walk through the example and describe what's going on.
This looks like normal HTML, with some new markup. In Angular, a file like this is called a template. When Angular starts your application, it parses and processes this new markup from the template using the compiler. The loaded, transformed and rendered DOM is then called the view.
The first kind of new markup are the directives.
They apply special behavior to attributes or elements in the HTML. In the example above we use the
ng-app
attribute, which is linked to a directive that automatically
initializes our application. Angular also defines a directive for the input
element that adds extra behavior to the element. The ng-model
directive
stores/updates the value of the input field into/from a variable.
The second kind of new markup are the double curly braces {{ expression | filter }}
:
When the compiler encounters this markup, it will replace it with the evaluated value of the markup.
An expression in a template is a JavaScript-like code snippet that allows
Angular to read and write variables. Note that those variables are not global variables.
Just like variables in a JavaScript function live in a scope,
Angular provides a scope for the variables accessible to expressions.
The values that are stored in variables on the scope are referred to as the model
in the rest of the documentation.
Applied to the example above, the markup directs Angular to "take the data we got from the input widgets
and multiply them together".
The example above also contains a filter.
A filter formats the value of an expression for display to the user.
In the example above, the filter currency
formats a number
into an output that looks like money.
The important thing in the example is that Angular provides live bindings: Whenever the input values change, the value of the expressions are automatically recalculated and the DOM is updated with their values. The concept behind this is two-way data binding.
Let's add some more logic to the example that allows us to enter and calculate the costs in different currencies and also pay the invoice.
angular.module('invoice1', [])
.controller('InvoiceController', function() {
this.qty = 1;
this.cost = 2;
this.inCurr = 'EUR';
this.currencies = ['USD', 'EUR', 'CNY'];
this.usdToForeignRates = {
USD: 1,
EUR: 0.74,
CNY: 6.09
};
this.total = function total(outCurr) {
return this.convertCurrency(this.qty * this.cost, this.inCurr, outCurr);
};
this.convertCurrency = function convertCurrency(amount, inCurr, outCurr) {
return amount * this.usdToForeignRates[outCurr] / this.usdToForeignRates[inCurr];
};
this.pay = function pay() {
window.alert("Thanks!");
};
});
What changed?
First, there is a new JavaScript file that contains a controller. More exactly, the file contains a constructor function that creates the actual controller instance. The purpose of controllers is to expose variables and functionality to expressions and directives.
Besides the new file that contains the controller code we also added an
ng-controller
directive to the HTML.
This directive tells Angular that the new InvoiceController
is responsible for the element with the directive
and all of the element's children.
The syntax InvoiceController as invoice
tells Angular to instantiate the controller
and save it in the variable invoice
in the current scope.
We also changed all expressions in the page to read and write variables within that
controller instance by prefixing them with invoice.
. The possible currencies are defined in the controller
and added to the template using ng-repeat
.
As the controller contains a total
function
we are also able to bind the result of that function to the DOM using {{ invoice.total(...) }}
.
Again, this binding is live, i.e. the DOM will be automatically updated
whenever the result of the function changes.
The button to pay the invoice uses the directive ngClick
. This will evaluate the
corresponding expression whenever the button is clicked.
In the new JavaScript file we are also creating a module at which we register the controller. We will talk about modules in the next section.
The following graphic shows how everything works together after we introduced the controller:
Right now, the InvoiceController
contains all logic of our example. When the application grows it
is a good practice to move view-independent logic from the controller into a
service, so it can be reused by other parts
of the application as well. Later on, we could also change that service to load the exchange rates
from the web, e.g. by calling the Yahoo Finance API, without changing the controller.
Let's refactor our example and move the currency conversion into a service in another file:
angular.module('finance2', [])
.factory('currencyConverter', function() {
var currencies = ['USD', 'EUR', 'CNY'];
var usdToForeignRates = {
USD: 1,
EUR: 0.74,
CNY: 6.09
};
var convert = function (amount, inCurr, outCurr) {
return amount * usdToForeignRates[outCurr] / usdToForeignRates[inCurr];
};
return {
currencies: currencies,
convert: convert
};
});
What changed?
We moved the convertCurrency
function and the definition of the existing currencies
into the new file finance2.js
. But how does the controller
get a hold of the now separated function?
This is where Dependency Injection comes into play. Dependency Injection (DI) is a software design pattern that deals with how objects and functions get created and how they get a hold of their dependencies. Everything within Angular (directives, filters, controllers, services, ...) is created and wired using dependency injection. Within Angular, the DI container is called the injector.
To use DI, there needs to be a place where all the things that should work together are registered.
In Angular, this is the purpose of the modules.
When Angular starts, it will use the configuration of the module with the name defined by the ng-app
directive,
including the configuration of all modules that this module depends on.
In the example above:
The template contains the directive ng-app="invoice2"
. This tells Angular
to use the invoice2
module as the main module for the application.
The code snippet angular.module('invoice2', ['finance2'])
specifies that the invoice2
module depends on the
finance2
module. By this, Angular uses the InvoiceController
as well as the currencyConverter
service.
Now that Angular knows of all the parts of the application, it needs to create them.
In the previous section we saw that controllers are created using a factory function.
For services there are multiple ways to define their factory
(see the service guide).
In the example above, we are using a function that returns the currencyConverter
function as the factory
for the service.
Back to the initial question: How does the InvoiceController
get a reference to the currencyConverter
function?
In Angular, this is done by simply defining arguments on the constructor function. With this, the injector
is able to create the objects in the right order and pass the previously created objects into the
factories of the objects that depend on them.
In our example, the InvoiceController
has an argument named currencyConverter
. By this, Angular knows about the
dependency between the controller and the service and calls the controller with the service instance as argument.
The last thing that changed in the example between the previous section and this section is that we
now pass an array to the module.controller
function, instead of a plain function. The array first
contains the names of the service dependencies that the controller needs. The last entry
in the array is the controller constructor function.
Angular uses this array syntax to define the dependencies so that the DI also works after minifying
the code, which will most probably rename the argument name of the controller constructor function
to something shorter like a
.
Let's finish our example by fetching the exchange rates from the Yahoo Finance API. The following example shows how this is done with Angular:
angular.module('invoice3', ['finance3'])
.controller('InvoiceController', ['currencyConverter', function(currencyConverter) {
this.qty = 1;
this.cost = 2;
this.inCurr = 'EUR';
this.currencies = currencyConverter.currencies;
this.total = function total(outCurr) {
return currencyConverter.convert(this.qty * this.cost, this.inCurr, outCurr);
};
this.pay = function pay() {
window.alert("Thanks!");
};
}]);
What changed?
Our currencyConverter
service of the finance
module now uses the $http
, a
built-in service provided by Angular for accessing a server backend. $http
is a wrapper around
XMLHttpRequest
and JSONP transports.