Dynamic tabs with user-click chosen components

Question

update

Angular 5 StackBlitz example

update

ngComponentOutlet was added to 4.0.0-beta.3

update

There is a NgComponentOutlet work in progress that does something similar https://github.com/angular/angular/pull/11235

RC.7

Plunker example RC.7

// Helper component to add dynamic components
@Component({
  selector: 'dcl-wrapper',
  template: `<div #target></div>`
})
export class DclWrapper {
  @ViewChild('target', {read: ViewContainerRef}) target: ViewContainerRef;
  @Input() type: Type<Component>;
  cmpRef: ComponentRef<Component>;
  private isViewInitialized:boolean = false;

  constructor(private componentFactoryResolver: ComponentFactoryResolver, private compiler: Compiler) {}

  updateComponent() {
    if(!this.isViewInitialized) {
      return;
    }
    if(this.cmpRef) {
      // when the `type` input changes we destroy a previously 
      // created component before creating the new one
      this.cmpRef.destroy();
    }

    let factory = this.componentFactoryResolver.resolveComponentFactory(this.type);
    this.cmpRef = this.target.createComponent(factory)
    // to access the created instance use
    // this.compRef.instance.someProperty = 'someValue';
    // this.compRef.instance.someOutput.subscribe(val => doSomething());
  }

  ngOnChanges() {
    this.updateComponent();
  }

  ngAfterViewInit() {
    this.isViewInitialized = true;
    this.updateComponent();  
  }

  ngOnDestroy() {
    if(this.cmpRef) {
      this.cmpRef.destroy();
    }    
  }
}

Usage example

// Use dcl-wrapper component
@Component({
  selector: 'my-tabs',
  template: `
  <h2>Tabs</h2>
  <div *ngFor="let tab of tabs">
    <dcl-wrapper [type]="tab"></dcl-wrapper>
  </div>
`
})
export class Tabs {
  @Input() tabs;
}

@Component({
  selector: 'my-app',
  template: `
  <h2>Hello {{name}}</h2>
  <my-tabs [tabs]="types"></my-tabs>
`
})
export class App {
  // The list of components to create tabs from
  types = [C3, C1, C2, C3, C3, C1, C1];
}

@NgModule({
  imports: [ BrowserModule ],
  declarations: [ App, DclWrapper, Tabs, C1, C2, C3],
  entryComponents: [C1, C2, C3],
  bootstrap: [ App ]
})
export class AppModule {}

---

See also angular.io DYNAMIC COMPONENT LOADER

older versions xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This changed again in Angular2 RC.5

I will update the example below but it's the last day before vacation.

This Plunker example demonstrates how to dynamically create components in RC.5

Update - use ViewContainerRef.createComponent()

Because DynamicComponentLoader is deprecated, the approach needs to be update again.

@Component({
  selector: 'dcl-wrapper',
  template: `<div #target></div>`
})
export class DclWrapper {
  @ViewChild('target', {read: ViewContainerRef}) target;
  @Input() type;
  cmpRef:ComponentRef;
  private isViewInitialized:boolean = false;

  constructor(private resolver: ComponentResolver) {}

  updateComponent() {
    if(!this.isViewInitialized) {
      return;
    }
    if(this.cmpRef) {
      this.cmpRef.destroy();
    }
   this.resolver.resolveComponent(this.type).then((factory:ComponentFactory<any>) => {
      this.cmpRef = this.target.createComponent(factory)
      // to access the created instance use
      // this.compRef.instance.someProperty = 'someValue';
      // this.compRef.instance.someOutput.subscribe(val => doSomething());
    });
  }

  ngOnChanges() {
    this.updateComponent();
  }

  ngAfterViewInit() {
    this.isViewInitialized = true;
    this.updateComponent();  
  }

  ngOnDestroy() {
    if(this.cmpRef) {
      this.cmpRef.destroy();
    }    
  }
}

Plunker example RC.4
Plunker example beta.17

Update - use loadNextToLocation

export class DclWrapper {
  @ViewChild('target', {read: ViewContainerRef}) target;
  @Input() type;
  cmpRef:ComponentRef;
  private isViewInitialized:boolean = false;

  constructor(private dcl:DynamicComponentLoader) {}

  updateComponent() {
    // should be executed every time `type` changes but not before `ngAfterViewInit()` was called 
    // to have `target` initialized
    if(!this.isViewInitialized) {
      return;
    }
    if(this.cmpRef) {
      this.cmpRef.destroy();
    }
    this.dcl.loadNextToLocation(this.type, this.target).then((cmpRef) => {
      this.cmpRef = cmpRef;
    });
  }

  ngOnChanges() {
    this.updateComponent();
  }

  ngAfterViewInit() {
    this.isViewInitialized = true;
    this.updateComponent();  
  }

  ngOnDestroy() {
    if(this.cmpRef) {
      this.cmpRef.destroy();
    }    
  }
}

Plunker example beta.17

original

Not entirely sure from your question what your requirements are but I think this should do what you want.

The Tabs component gets an array of types passed and it creates "tabs" for each item in the array.

@Component({
  selector: 'dcl-wrapper',
  template: `<div #target></div>`
})
export class DclWrapper {
  constructor(private elRef:ElementRef, private dcl:DynamicComponentLoader) {}
  @Input() type;

  ngOnChanges() {
    if(this.cmpRef) {
      this.cmpRef.dispose();
    }
    this.dcl.loadIntoLocation(this.type, this.elRef, 'target').then((cmpRef) => {
      this.cmpRef = cmpRef;
    });
  }
}

@Component({
  selector: 'c1',
  template: `<h2>c1</h2>`

})
export class C1 {
}

@Component({
  selector: 'c2',
  template: `<h2>c2</h2>`

})
export class C2 {
}

@Component({
  selector: 'c3',
  template: `<h2>c3</h2>`

})
export class C3 {
}

@Component({
  selector: 'my-tabs',
  directives: [DclWrapper],
  template: `
  <h2>Tabs</h2>
  <div *ngFor="let tab of tabs">
    <dcl-wrapper [type]="tab"></dcl-wrapper>
  </div>
`
})
export class Tabs {
  @Input() tabs;
}


@Component({
  selector: 'my-app',
  directives: [Tabs]
  template: `
  <h2>Hello {{name}}</h2>
  <my-tabs [tabs]="types"></my-tabs>
`
})
export class App {
  types = [C3, C1, C2, C3, C3, C1, C1];
}

Plunker example beta.15 (not based on your Plunker)

There is also a way to pass data along that can be passed to the dynamically created component like (someData would need to be passed like type)

    this.dcl.loadIntoLocation(this.type, this.elRef, 'target').then((cmpRef) => {
  cmpRef.instance.someProperty = someData;
  this.cmpRef = cmpRef;
});

There is also some support to use dependency injection with shared services.

For more details see https://angular.io/docs/ts/latest/cookbook/dynamic-component-loader.html

I'm not cool enough for comments. I fixed the plunker from the accepted answer to work for rc2. Nothing fancy, links to the CDN were just broken is all.

'@angular/core': {
  main: 'bundles/core.umd.js',
  defaultExtension: 'js'
},
'@angular/compiler': {
  main: 'bundles/compiler.umd.js',
  defaultExtension: 'js'
},
'@angular/common': {
  main: 'bundles/common.umd.js',
  defaultExtension: 'js'
},
'@angular/platform-browser-dynamic': {
  main: 'bundles/platform-browser-dynamic.umd.js',
  defaultExtension: 'js'
},
'@angular/platform-browser': {
  main: 'bundles/platform-browser.umd.js',
  defaultExtension: 'js'
},

https://plnkr.co/edit/kVJvI1vkzrLZJeRFsZuv?p=preview

there is component ready to use (rc5 compatible) ng2-steps which uses Compiler to inject component to step container and service for wiring everything together (data sync)

    import { Directive , Input, OnInit, Compiler , ViewContainerRef } from '@angular/core';

import { StepsService } from './ng2-steps';

@Directive({
  selector:'[ng2-step]'
})
export class StepDirective implements OnInit{

  @Input('content') content:any;
  @Input('index') index:string;
  public instance;

  constructor(
    private compiler:Compiler,
    private viewContainerRef:ViewContainerRef,
    private sds:StepsService
  ){}

  ngOnInit(){
    //Magic!
    this.compiler.compileComponentAsync(this.content).then((cmpFactory)=>{
      const injector = this.viewContainerRef.injector;
      this.viewContainerRef.createComponent(cmpFactory, 0,  injector);
    });
  }

}