Angular 2 Sibling Component Communication

Question

Updated to rc.4: When trying to get data passed between sibling components in angular 2, The simplest way right now (angular.rc.4) is to take advantage of angular2's hierarchal dependency injection and create a shared service.

Here would be the service:

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

@Injectable()
export class SharedService {
    dataArray: string[] = [];

    insertData(data: string){
        this.dataArray.unshift(data);
    }
}

Now, here would be the PARENT component

import {Component} from '@angular/core';
import {SharedService} from './shared.service';
import {ChildComponent} from './child.component';
import {ChildSiblingComponent} from './child-sibling.component';
@Component({
    selector: 'parent-component',
    template: `
        <h1>Parent</h1>
        <div>
            <child-component></child-component>
            <child-sibling-component></child-sibling-component>
        </div>
    `,
    providers: [SharedService],
    directives: [ChildComponent, ChildSiblingComponent]
})
export class parentComponent{

} 

and its two children

child 1

import {Component, OnInit} from '@angular/core';
import {SharedService} from './shared.service'

@Component({
    selector: 'child-component',
    template: `
        <h1>I am a child</h1>
        <div>
            <ul *ngFor="#data in data">
                <li>{{data}}</li>
            </ul>
        </div>
    `
})
export class ChildComponent implements OnInit{
    data: string[] = [];
    constructor(
        private _sharedService: SharedService) { }
    ngOnInit():any {
        this.data = this._sharedService.dataArray;
    }
}

child 2 (It's sibling)

import {Component} from 'angular2/core';
import {SharedService} from './shared.service'

@Component({
    selector: 'child-sibling-component',
    template: `
        <h1>I am a child</h1>
        <input type="text" [(ngModel)]="data"/>
        <button (click)="addData()"></button>
    `
})
export class ChildSiblingComponent{
    data: string = 'Testing data';
    constructor(
        private _sharedService: SharedService){}
    addData(){
        this._sharedService.insertData(this.data);
        this.data = '';
    }
}

NOW: Things to take note of when using this method.

1. Only include the service provider for the shared service in the PARENT component and NOT the children.
2. You still have to include constructors and import the service in the children
3. This answer was originally answered for an early angular 2 beta version. All that has changed though are the import statements, so that is all you need to update if you used the original version by chance.

In case of 2 different components (not nested components, parent\child\grandchild ) I suggest you this:

MissionService:

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { Subject }    from 'rxjs/Subject';

@Injectable()

export class MissionService {
  // Observable string sources
  private missionAnnouncedSource = new Subject<string>();
  private missionConfirmedSource = new Subject<string>();
  // Observable string streams
  missionAnnounced$ = this.missionAnnouncedSource.asObservable();
  missionConfirmed$ = this.missionConfirmedSource.asObservable();
  // Service message commands
  announceMission(mission: string) {
    this.missionAnnouncedSource.next(mission);
  }
  confirmMission(astronaut: string) {
    this.missionConfirmedSource.next(astronaut);
  }

}

AstronautComponent:

import { Component, Input, OnDestroy } from '@angular/core';
import { MissionService } from './mission.service';
import { Subscription }   from 'rxjs/Subscription';
@Component({
  selector: 'my-astronaut',
  template: `
    <p>
      {{astronaut}}: <strong>{{mission}}</strong>
      <button
        (click)="confirm()"
        [disabled]="!announced || confirmed">
        Confirm
      </button>
    </p>
  `
})
export class AstronautComponent implements OnDestroy {
  @Input() astronaut: string;
  mission = '<no mission announced>';
  confirmed = false;
  announced = false;
  subscription: Subscription;
  constructor(private missionService: MissionService) {
    this.subscription = missionService.missionAnnounced$.subscribe(
      mission => {
        this.mission = mission;
        this.announced = true;
        this.confirmed = false;
    });
  }
  confirm() {
    this.confirmed = true;
    this.missionService.confirmMission(this.astronaut);
  }
  ngOnDestroy() {
    // prevent memory leak when component destroyed
    this.subscription.unsubscribe();
  }
}

Source: Parent and children communicate via a service

One way to do this is using a shared service.

However I find the following solution much simpler, it allows to share data between 2 siblings.(I tested this only on Angular 5)

In you parent component template:

<!-- Assigns "AppSibling1Component" instance to variable "data" -->
<app-sibling1 #data></app-sibling1>
<!-- Passes the variable "data" to AppSibling2Component instance -->
<app-sibling2 [data]="data"></app-sibling2> 

app-sibling2.component.ts

import { AppSibling1Component } from '../app-sibling1/app-sibling1.component';
...

export class AppSibling2Component {
   ...
   @Input() data: AppSibling1Component;
   ...
}

There is a discussion about it here.

https://github.com/angular/angular.io/issues/2663

Alex J's answer is good but it no longer works with current Angular 4 as of July, 2017.

And this plunker link would demonstrate how to communicate between siblings using shared service and observable.

https://embed.plnkr.co/P8xCEwSKgcOg07pwDrlO/