AngularJS Tutorial
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🧱 AngularJS Components & Lifecycle – Building Blocks of UI Architecture

🧲 Introduction – The Heart of AngularJS Applications

AngularJS components are the backbone of your UI, defining how data, behavior, and presentation coalesce into dynamic interfaces. Paired with a robust lifecycle, encapsulation, and communication patterns, components enable scalable, testable, and maintainable applications. This guide explores creation, interaction, projection, and runtime control through dynamic and standalone components.

🎯 What You’ll Learn:

  • Defining and structuring components
  • Lifecycle stages from initialization to teardown
  • Parent–child and sibling communication
  • Content projection with <ng-content>
  • Dynamic and standalone components use cases

πŸ“˜ Topics Covered

🧩 TopicπŸ“Œ Description
AngularJS ComponentsComponent syntax, registrations, and structure
AngularJS Nested ComponentsHow to nest and manage child components
AngularJS Component LifecycleHooks like $onInit, $onChanges, $onDestroy and when they fire
AngularJS View EncapsulationHow AngularJS scopes styles and templates inside components
AngularJS Component CommunicationData and event binding patterns between components
AngularJS Content ProjectionInject external markup using <ng-content>
AngularJS Dynamic ComponentsCreate and mount components at runtime
AngularJS Standalone ComponentBuild self-contained components without module dependencies

🧱 AngularJS Components – Defining UI Units

Components are registered via:

angular.module('app')
  .component('myComp', {
    template: '<h1>{{$ctrl.title}}</h1>',
    controller() { this.title = 'Hello'; }
  });
  • Use $ctrl (alias for controller) in templates
  • Promotes reuse and isolation

πŸ” Nested Components – Parent–Child Composition

Parent template includes child:

<parent-comp></parent-comp>

Inside parent-comp:

<child-comp some-prop="$ctrl.value"></child-comp>
  • One-way binding via < (Angular 1.5+)
  • Encourages modular structure

⏱️ Component Lifecycle – Hook into Behavior

Lifecycle hooks provide control at each stage:

  • $onInit(): after bindings ready
  • $onChanges(changesObj): when inputs change
  • $postLink(): DOM linked
  • $onDestroy(): cleanup logic

Example:

controller: function() {
  this.$onInit = () => console.log('Initialized');
}

🎭 View Encapsulation – Scoped Templates & Styles

AngularJS isolates components logically. While styles aren’t truly scoped like Angular 2+, template bindings and controllers stay self-containedβ€”minimizing leakage across sibling components.


πŸ”— Component Communication & Interaction

  • One-way binding (<) passes data to child
  • Callback binding (&) invokes parent functions
  • Event emitters via services or $emit for broader scopes
  • Avoid $scopeβ€”prefer bindings with controller as

πŸ“¦ Content Projection – <ng-content>

Component template:

<div class="panel">
  <ng-content></ng-content>
</div>

Wrapper:

<my-panel>
  <p>Projected content here.</p>
</my-panel>
  • Enables flexible content insertion

πŸŒ€ Dynamic Components – On-Demand Instantiation

Use $compile and $element to create components at runtime:

$compile('<dynamic-comp></dynamic-comp>')($scope);
  • Useful for dynamic UIs, plugin loading, dashboards

πŸš€ Standalone Components – Independence Matters

Standalone components can operate without being in a module:

  • Use direct .component() registration
  • Ideal for library-like widgets, micro frontends

πŸ“Œ Summary – Recap & Next Steps

Components and lifecycles in AngularJS lay the groundwork for structured UI logic. Through hooks, dependency injection, encapsulation, and content projection, you build modular, reusable, and testable units.


❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

❓ How do AngularJS components differ from directives?

βœ… Components are a type of directive with easier lifecycle hooks and isolated scopeβ€”ideal for UI.

❓ When is $onChanges triggered?

βœ… When one-way bindings (<) change before or after $onInit.

❓ Can I nest multiple dynamic components?

βœ… Yesβ€”just compile and link multiple templates dynamically within a parent.

❓ How to pass callback functions from parent to child?

βœ… Use binding syntax: & in child; call $ctrl.onSave() to invoke parent method.

❓ How to clean up event listeners in a component?

βœ… Use $onDestroy to unregister listeners or cancel intervals to prevent memory leaks.


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