Display loading while using Observable with Async pipe in template

Question

Situation: I am using FirebaseObjectObservable to populate my Ionic 2 (rc0) template. Template code:

<ion-card-content>
  <p>{{(course | async)?.description}}</p>
  <br>
  <h2>Learning Objectives</h2>
  <ul>
    <li *ngFor = "let objective of (course | async)?.objectives">{{objective.text}}</li>
  </ul>
  <h2>Takeaway</h2>
  <ul>
    <li *ngFor = "let takeaway of (course | async)?.takeaways">{{takeaway.text}}</li>
  </ul>
</ion-card-content>

TS code:

this.course = this.af.database.object('/bbwLocations/courses/' + courseId); 

this.course is a Firebase Object Observable. Everything works! But whenever I come into the template, there is a flash of empty no data. Then all the data jump out! Very not UX friendly. So I want to use some kind of pre-loading strategy. But since there is not TS logic here. Everything is controlled in template level with async pipe. How would I add loading in this situation?

Answer 1

Maybe a little late but in case someone else is wondering how to manage this... What about using a template?

you could for example use something like:

<ion-card-content *ngIf='(course$ | async) as course; else loading'>
  <p>{{course.description}}</p>
  <br>
  <h2>Learning Objectives</h2>
  <ul>
     <li *ngFor = "let objective of course.objectives"> 
         {{objective.text}}</li>
  </ul>
  <h2>Takeaway</h2>
  <ul>
     <li *ngFor = "let takeaway of course.takeaways"> 
         {{takeaway.text}}</li>
  </ul>
</ion-card-content>

<ng-template #loading>
  Loading stuff...
</ng-template>

so your ion-card-content will be hidden, showing the #template, until the async pipe is loaded.

Answer 2

You could do something like this:

<style>
  pre {
   color: orange;
   // or whatever you want
  }
</style>
<ion-card-content>
  <p>{{(course | async)?.description}}</p>
  <br>
  <h2>Learning Objectives</h2>
  <pre *ngIf="!(course | async)">loading objectives...</pre>
  <ul>
    <li *ngFor = "let objective of (course | async)?.objectives">{{objective.text}}</li>
  </ul>
  <h2>Takeaway</h2>
  <pre *ngIf="!(course | async)">loading takeaways...</pre>
  <ul>
    <li *ngFor = "let takeaway of (course | async)?.takeaways">{{takeaway.text}}</li>
  </ul>
</ion-card-content>