How to pass parameters rendered from backend to angular2 bootstrap method

Question

Is there a way to pass arguments rendered on the backend to angular2 bootstrap method? I want to set http header for all requests using BaseRequestOptions with value provided from the backend. My main.ts file looks like this:

import { bootstrap } from '@angular/platform-browser-dynamic';
import { AppComponent } from "./app.component.ts";

bootstrap(AppComponent);

I found how to pass this arguments to root component (https://stackoverflow.com/a/35553650/3455681), but i need it when I'm fireing bootstrap method... Any ideas?

edit:

webpack.config.js content:

module.exports = {
  entry: {
    app: "./Scripts/app/main.ts"
  },

  output: {
    filename: "./Scripts/build/[name].js"
  },

  resolve: {
    extensions: ["", ".ts", ".js"]
  },

  module: {
    loaders: [
      {
        test: /\.ts$/,
        loader: 'ts-loader'
      }
    ]
  }
};

Answer 1

update2

Plunker example

update AoT

To work with AoT the factory closure needs to be moved out

function loadContext(context: ContextService) {
  return () => context.load();
}

@NgModule({
  ...
  providers: [ ..., ContextService, { provide: APP_INITIALIZER, useFactory: loadContext, deps: [ContextService], multi: true } ],

See also https://github.com/angular/angular/issues/11262

update an RC.6 and 2.0.0 final example

function configServiceFactory (config: ConfigService) {
  return () => config.load();
}

@NgModule({
    declarations: [AppComponent],
    imports: [BrowserModule,
        routes,
        FormsModule,
        HttpModule],
    providers: [AuthService,
        Title,
        appRoutingProviders,
        ConfigService,
        { provide: APP_INITIALIZER,
          useFactory: configServiceFactory
          deps: [ConfigService], 
          multi: true }
    ],
    bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})
export class AppModule { }

If there is no need to wait for the initialization to complete, the constructor of `class AppModule {} can also be used:

class AppModule {
  constructor(/*inject required dependencies */) {...} 
}

hint (cyclic dependency)

For example injecting the router can cause cyclic dependencies. To work around, inject the Injector and get the dependency by

this.myDep = injector.get(MyDependency);

instead of injecting MyDependency directly like:

@Injectable()
export class ConfigService {
  private router:Router;
  constructor(/*private router:Router*/ injector:Injector) {
    setTimeout(() => this.router = injector.get(Router));
  }
}

update

This should work the same in RC.5 but instead add the provider to providers: [...] of the root module instead of bootstrap(...)

(not tested myself yet).

update

An interesting approach to do it entirely inside Angular is explained here https://github.com/angular/angular/issues/9047#issuecomment-224075188

You can use APP_INITIALIZER which will execute a function when the app is initialized and delay what it provides if the function returns a promise. This means the app can be initializing without quite so much latency and you can also use the existing services and framework features.

As an example, suppose you have a multi-tenanted solution where the site info relies on the domain name it's being served from. This can be [name].letterpress.com or a custom domain which is matched on the full hostname. We can hide the fact that this is behind a promise by using APP_INITIALIZER.

In bootstrap:

{provide: APP_INITIALIZER, useFactory: (sites:SitesService) => () => sites.load(), deps:[SitesService, HTTP_PROVIDERS], multi: true}),

sites.service.ts:

@Injectable()
export class SitesService {
  public current:Site;

  constructor(private http:Http, private config:Config) { }

  load():Promise<Site> {
    var url:string;
    var pos = location.hostname.lastIndexOf(this.config.rootDomain);
    var url = (pos === -1)
      ? this.config.apiEndpoint + '/sites?host=' + location.hostname
      : this.config.apiEndpoint + '/sites/' + location.hostname.substr(0, pos);
    var promise = this.http.get(url).map(res => res.json()).toPromise();
    promise.then(site => this.current = site);
    return promise;
  }

NOTE: config is just a custom config class. rootDomain would be '.letterpress.com' for this example and would allow things like aptaincodeman.letterpress.com.

Any components and other services can now have Site injected into them and use the .current property which will be a concrete populated object with no need to wait on any promise within the app.

This approach seemed to cut the startup latency which was otherwise quite noticeable if you were waiting for the large Angular bundle to load and then another http request before the bootstrap even began.

original

You can pass it using Angulars dependency injection:

var headers = ... // get the headers from the server

bootstrap(AppComponent, [{provide: 'headers', useValue: headers})]);

class SomeComponentOrService {
   constructor(@Inject('headers') private headers) {}
}

or provide prepared BaseRequestOptions directly like

class MyRequestOptions extends BaseRequestOptions {
  constructor (private headers) {
    super();
  }
} 

var values = ... // get the headers from the server
var headers = new MyRequestOptions(values);

bootstrap(AppComponent, [{provide: BaseRequestOptions, useValue: headers})]);

Answer 2

In Angular2 final release, the APP_INITIALIZER provider can be used to achieve what you want.

I wrote a Gist with a complete example: https://gist.github.com/fernandohu/122e88c3bcd210bbe41c608c36306db9

The gist example is reading from JSON files but can be easily changed to read from a REST endpoint.

What you need, is basically:

a) Set up APP_INITIALIZER in your existent module file:

import { APP_INITIALIZER } from '@angular/core';
import { BackendRequestClass } from './backend.request';
import { HttpModule } from '@angular/http';

...

@NgModule({
    imports: [
        ...
        HttpModule
    ],
    ...
    providers: [
        ...
        ...
        BackendRequestClass,
        { provide: APP_INITIALIZER, useFactory: (config: BackendRequestClass) => () => config.load(), deps: [BackendRequestClass], multi: true }
    ],
    ...
});

These lines will call the load() method from BackendRequestClass class before your application is started.

Make sure you set "HttpModule" in "imports" section if you want to make http calls to the backend using angular2 built in library.

b) Create a class and name the file "backend.request.ts":

import { Inject, Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { Http } from '@angular/http';
import { Observable } from 'rxjs/Rx';

@Injectable()
export class BackendRequestClass {

    private result: Object = null;

    constructor(private http: Http) {

    }

    public getResult() {
        return this.result;
    }

    public load() {
        return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
            this.http.get('http://address/of/your/backend/endpoint').map( res => res.json() ).catch((error: any):any => {
                reject(false);
                return Observable.throw(error.json().error || 'Server error');
            }).subscribe( (callResult) => {
                this.result = callResult;
                resolve(true);
            });

        });
    }
}

c) To read the contents of the backend call, you just need to inject the BackendRequestClass into any class of you choice and call getResult(). Example:

import { BackendRequestClass } from './backend.request';

export class AnyClass {
    constructor(private backendRequest: BackendRequestClass) {
        // note that BackendRequestClass is injected into a private property of AnyClass
    }

    anyMethod() {
        this.backendRequest.getResult(); // This should return the data you want
    }
}

Let me know if this solves your problem.

Answer 3

Instead of having your entry point calling bootstrap itself, you could create and export a function that does the work:

export function doBootstrap(data: any) {
    platformBrowserDynamic([{provide: Params, useValue: new Params(data)}])
        .bootstrapModule(AppModule)
        .catch(err => console.error(err));
}

You could also place this function on the global object, depending on your setup (webpack/SystemJS). It also is AOT-compatible.

This has the added benefit to delay the bootstrap, whenit makes sense. For instance, when you retrieve this user data as an AJAX call after the user fills out a form. Just call the exported bootstrap function with this data.