Angular 1 to 2 Quick Reference

Bindings/interpolation

In Angular 1, an expression in curly braces denotes one-way binding. This binds the value of the element to a property in the controller associated with this template.

When using the controller as syntax, the binding is prefixed with the controller alias (vm or $ctrl) because you have to be specific about the source of the binding.

Bindings/interpolation

In Angular 2, a template expression in curly braces still denotes one-way binding. This binds the value of the element to a property of the component. The context of the binding is implied and is always the associated component, so it needs no reference variable.

For more information, see the Interpolation section of the Template Syntax page.

Filters

To filter output in Angular 1 templates, use the pipe character (|) and one or more filters.

This example filters the title property to uppercase.

Pipes

In Angular 2 you use similar syntax with the pipe (|) character to filter output, but now you call them pipes. Many (but not all) of the built-in filters from Angular 1 are built-in pipes in Angular 2.

For more information, see the heading Filters/pipes below.

Local variables

Here, movie is a user-defined local variable.

Input variables

Angular 2 has true template input variables that are explicitly defined using the let keyword.

For more information, see the ngFor micro-syntax section of the Template Syntax page.

ng-app

The application startup process is called bootstrapping.

Although you can bootstrap an Angular 1 app in code, many applications bootstrap declaratively with the ng-app directive, giving it the name of the application's module (movieHunter).

Bootstrapping

Angular 2 doesn't have a bootstrap directive. To launch the app in code, explicitly bootstrap the application's root module (AppModule) in main.ts and the application's root component (AppComponent) in app.module.ts.

For more information see Quick Start.

ng-class

In Angular 1, the ng-class directive includes/excludes CSS classes based on an expression. That expression is often a key-value control object with each key of the object defined as a CSS class name, and each value defined as a template expression that evaluates to a Boolean value.

In the first example, the active class is applied to the element if isActive is true.

You can specify multiple classes, as shown in the second example.

ngClass

In Angular 2, the ngClass directive works similarly. It includes/excludes CSS classes based on an expression.

In the first example, the active class is applied to the element if isActive is true.

You can specify multiple classes, as shown in the second example.

Angular 2 also has class binding, which is a good way to add or remove a single class, as shown in the third example.

For more information see the Attribute, Class, and Style Bindings section of the Template Syntax page.

ng-click

In Angular 1, the ng-click directive allows you to specify custom behavior when an element is clicked.

In the first example, when the user clicks the button, the toggleImage() method in the controller referenced by the vm controller as alias is executed.

The second example demonstrates passing in the $event object, which provides details about the event to the controller.

bind to the click event

Angular 1 event-based directives do not exist in Angular 2. Rather, define one-way binding from the template view to the component using event binding.

For event binding, define the name of the target event within parenthesis and specify a template statement, in quotes, to the right of the equals. Angular 2 then sets up an event handler for the target event. When the event is raised, the handler executes the template statement.

In the first example, when a user clicks the button, the toggleImage() method in the associated component is executed.

The second example demonstrates passing in the $event object, which provides details about the event to the component.

For a list of DOM events, see: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Events.

For more information, see the Event Binding section of the Template Syntax page.

ng-controller

In Angular 1, the ng-controller directive attaches a controller to the view. Using the ng-controller (or defining the controller as part of the routing) ties the view to the controller code associated with that view.

Component decorator

In Angular 2, the template no longer specifies its associated controller. Rather, the component specifies its associated template as part of the component class decorator.

For more information, see Architecture Overview.

ng-hide

In Angular 1, the ng-hide directive shows or hides the associated HTML element based on an expression. For more information, see ng-show.

bind to the hidden property

In Angular 2, you use property binding; there is no built-in hide directive. For more information, see ng-show.

ng-href

The ng-href directive allows Angular 1 to preprocess the href property so that it can replace the binding expression with the appropriate URL before the browser fetches from that URL.

In Angular 1, the ng-href is often used to activate a route as part of navigation.

Routing is handled differently in Angular 2.

bind to the href property

Angular 2, uses property binding; there is no built-in href directive. Place the element's href property in square brackets and set it to a quoted template expression.

For more information on property binding, see Template Syntax.

In Angular 2, href is no longer used for routing. Routing uses routerLink, as shown in the third example.

For more information on routing, see Routing & Navigation.

ng-if

In Angular 1, the ng-if directive removes or recreates a portion of the DOM, based on an expression. If the expression is false, the element is removed from the DOM.

In this example, the table element is removed from the DOM unless the movies array has a length greater than zero.

*ngIf

The *ngIf directive in Angular 2 works the same as the ng-if directive in Angular 1. It removes or recreates a portion of the DOM based on an expression.

In this example, the table element is removed from the DOM unless the movies array has a length.

The (*) before ngIf is required in this example. For more information, see Structural Directives.

ng-model

In Angular 1, the ng-model directive binds a form control to a property in the controller associated with the template. This provides two-way binding, whereby any change made to the value in the view is synchronized with the model, and any change to the model is synchronized with the value in the view.

ngModel

In Angular 2, two-way binding is denoted by [()], descriptively referred to as a "banana in a box". This syntax is a shortcut for defining both property binding (from the component to the view) and event binding (from the view to the component), thereby providing two-way binding.

For more information on two-way binding with ngModel, see Template Syntax.

ng-repeat

In Angular 1, the ng-repeat directive repeats the associated DOM element for each item in the specified collection.

In this example, the table row (tr) element repeats for each movie object in the collection of movies.

*ngFor

The *ngFor directive in Angular 2 is similar to the ng-repeat directive in Angular 1. It repeats the associated DOM element for each item in the specified collection. More accurately, it turns the defined element (tr in this example) and its contents into a template and uses that template to instantiate a view for each item in the list.

Notice the other syntax differences: The (*) before ngFor is required; the let keyword identifies movie as an input variable; the list preposition is of, not in.

For more information, see Structural Directives.

ng-show

In Angular 1, the ng-show directive shows or hides the associated DOM element, based on an expression.

In this example, the div element is shown if the favoriteHero variable is truthy.

bind to the hidden property

Angular 2, uses property binding; there is no built-in show directive. For hiding and showing elements, bind to the HTML hidden property.

To conditionally display an element, place the element's hidden property in square brackets and set it to a quoted template expression that evaluates to the opposite of show.

In this example, the div element is hidden if the favoriteHero variable is not truthy.

For more information on property binding, see Template Syntax.

ng-src

The ng-src directive allows Angular 1 to preprocess the src property so that it can replace the binding expression with the appropriate URL before the browser fetches from that URL.

bind to the src property

Angular 2, uses property binding; there is no built-in src directive. Place the src property in square brackets and set it to a quoted template expression.

For more information on property binding, see Template Syntax.

ng-style

In Angular 1, the ng-style directive sets a CSS style on an HTML element based on an expression. That expression is often a key-value control object with each key of the object defined as a CSS style name, and each value defined as an expression that evaluates to a value appropriate for the style.

In the example, the color style is set to the current value of the colorPreference variable.

ngStyle

In Angular 2, the ngStyle directive works similarly. It sets a CSS style on an HTML element based on an expression.

In the first example, the color style is set to the current value of the colorPreference variable.

Angular 2 also has style binding, which is good way to set a single style. This is shown in the second example.

For more information on style binding, see Template Syntax.

For more information on the ngStyle directive, see Template Syntax.

ng-switch

In Angular 1, the ng-switch directive swaps the contents of an element by selecting one of the templates based on the current value of an expression.

In this example, if favoriteHero is not set, the template displays "Please enter ...". If favoriteHero is set, it checks the movie hero by calling a controller method. If that method returns true, the template displays "Excellent choice!". If that methods returns false, the template displays "No movie, sorry!".

ngSwitch

In Angular 2, the ngSwitch directive works similarly. It displays an element whose *ngSwitchCase matches the current ngSwitch expression value.

In this example, if favoriteHero is not set, the ngSwitch value is null and *ngSwitchDefault displays, "Please enter ...". If favoriteHero is set, the app checks the movie hero by calling a component method. If that method returns true, the app selects *ngSwitchCase="true" and displays: "Excellent choice!" If that methods returns false, the app selects *ngSwitchCase="false" and displays: "No movie, sorry!"

The (*) before ngSwitchCase and ngSwitchDefault is required in this example.

For more information on the ngSwitch directive, see Template Syntax.

currency

Formats a number as a currency.

currency

The Angular 2 currency pipe is similar although some of the parameters have changed.

date

Formats a date to a string based on the requested format.

date

The Angular 2 date pipe is similar.

filter

Selects a subset of items from the defined collection, based on the filter criteria.

none

For performance reasons, no comparable pipe exists in Angular 2. Do all your filtering in the component. If you need the same filtering code in several templates, consider building a custom pipe.

json

Converts a JavaScript object into a JSON string. This is useful for debugging.

json

The Angular 2 json pipe does the same thing.

limitTo

Selects up to the first parameter (2) number of items from the collection starting (optionally) at the beginning index (0).

slice

The SlicePipe does the same thing but the order of the parameters is reversed, in keeping with the JavaScript Slice method. The first parameter is the starting index; the second is the limit. As in Angular 1, coding this operation within the component instead could improve performance.

lowercase

Converts the string to lowercase.

lowercase

The Angular 2 lowercase pipe does the same thing.

number

Formats a number as text.

number

The Angular 2 number pipe is similar. It provides more functionality when defining the decimal places, as shown in the second example above.

Angular 2 also has a percent pipe, which formats a number as a local percentage as shown in the third example.

orderBy

Displays the collection in the order specified by the expression. In this example, the movie title orders the movieList.

none

For performance reasons, no comparable pipe exists in Angular 2. Instead, use component code to order or sort results. If you need the same ordering or sorting code in several templates, consider building a custom pipe.

IIFE

In Angular 1, you often defined an immediately invoked function expression (or IIFE) around your controller code. This kept your controller code out of the global namespace.

none

You don't need to worry about this in Angular 2 because you use ES 2015 modules and modules handle the namespacing for you.

For more information on modules, see Architecture Overview.

Angular modules

In Angular 1, an Angular module keeps track of controllers, services, and other code. The second argument defines the list of other modules that this module depends upon.

Angular modules

Angular 2 modules, defined with the NgModule decorator, serve the same purpose:

• imports: specifies the list of other modules that this module depends upon
• declaration: keeps track of your components, pipes, and directives.

For more information on modules, see Angular Modules.

Controller registration

Angular 1, has code in each controller that looks up an appropriate Angular module and registers the controller with that module.

The first argument is the controller name. The second argument defines the string names of all dependencies injected into this controller, and a reference to the controller function.

Component Decorator

Angular 2, adds a decorator to the component class to provide any required metadata. The Component decorator declares that the class is a component and provides metadata about that component such as its selector (or tag) and its template.

This is how you associate a template with code, which is defined in the component class.

For more information, see the Components section of the Architecture Overview page.

Controller function

In Angular 1, you write the code for the model and methods in a controller function.

Component class

In Angular 2, you create a component class.

NOTE: If you are using TypeScript with Angular 1, you must use the export keyword to export the component class.

For more information, see the Components section of the Architecture Overview page.

Dependency injection

In Angular 1, you pass in any dependencies as controller function arguments. This example injects a MovieService.

To guard against minification problems, tell Angular explicitly that it should inject an instance of the MovieService in the first parameter.

Dependency injection

In Angular 2, you pass in dependencies as arguments to the component class constructor. This example injects a MovieService. The first parameter's TypeScript type tells Angular what to inject, even after minification.

For more information, see the Dependency Injection section of the Architecture Overview.

Link tag

Angular 1, uses a link tag in the head section of the index.html file to define the styles for the application.

Link tag

In Angular 2, you can continue to use the link tag to define the styles for your application in the index.html file. But now you can also encapsulate styles for your components.

StyleUrls

In Angular 2, you can use the styles or styleUrls property of the @Component metadata to define a style sheet for a particular component.

This allows you to set appropriate styles for individual components that won’t leak into other parts of the application.