Global Events in Angular

Question

Is there no equivalent to $scope.emit() or $scope.broadcast() in Angular?

I know the EventEmitter functionality, but as far as I understand that will just emit an event to the parent HTML element.

What if I need to communicate between fx. siblings or between a component in the root of the DOM and an element nested several levels deep?

Answer 1

We implemented a ngModelChange observable directive that sends all model changes through an event emitter that you instantiate in your own component. You simply have to bind your event emitter to the directive.

See: https://github.com/atomicbits/angular2-modelchangeobservable

In html, bind your event emitter (countryChanged in this example):

<input [(ngModel)]="country.name"
       [modelChangeObservable]="countryChanged" 
       placeholder="Country"
       name="country" id="country"></input>

In your typescript component, do some async operations on the EventEmitter:

import ...
import {ModelChangeObservable} from './model-change-observable.directive'


@Component({
    selector: 'my-component',
    directives: [ModelChangeObservable],
    providers: [],
    templateUrl: 'my-component.html'
})

export class MyComponent {

    @Input()
    country: Country

    selectedCountries:Country[]
    countries:Country[] = <Country[]>[]
    countryChanged:EventEmitter<string> = new EventEmitter<string>()


    constructor() {

        this.countryChanged
            .filter((text:string) => text.length > 2)
            .debounceTime(300)
            .subscribe((countryName:string) => {
                let query = new RegExp(countryName, 'ig')
                this.selectedCountries = this.countries.filter((country:Country) => {
                    return query.test(country.name)
                })
            })
    }
}

Answer 2

The following code as an example of a replacement for $scope.emit() or $scope.broadcast() in Angular 2 using a shared service to handle events.

import {Injectable} from 'angular2/core';
import * as Rx from 'rxjs/Rx';

@Injectable()
export class EventsService {
    constructor() {
        this.listeners = {};
        this.eventsSubject = new Rx.Subject();

        this.events = Rx.Observable.from(this.eventsSubject);

        this.events.subscribe(
            ({name, args}) => {
                if (this.listeners[name]) {
                    for (let listener of this.listeners[name]) {
                        listener(...args);
                    }
                }
            });
    }

    on(name, listener) {
        if (!this.listeners[name]) {
            this.listeners[name] = [];
        }

        this.listeners[name].push(listener);
    }

    broadcast(name, ...args) {
        this.eventsSubject.next({
            name,
            args
        });
    }
}

Example usage:

Broadcast:

function handleHttpError(error) {
    this.eventsService.broadcast('http-error', error);
    return ( Rx.Observable.throw(error) );
}

Listener:

import {Inject, Injectable} from "angular2/core";
import {EventsService}      from './events.service';

@Injectable()
export class HttpErrorHandler {
    constructor(eventsService) {
        this.eventsService = eventsService;
    }

    static get parameters() {
        return [new Inject(EventsService)];
    }

    init() {
        this.eventsService.on('http-error', function(error) {
            console.group("HttpErrorHandler");
            console.log(error.status, "status code detected.");
            console.dir(error);
            console.groupEnd();
        });
    }
}

It can support multiple arguments:

this.eventsService.broadcast('something', "Am I a?", "Should be b", "C?");

this.eventsService.on('something', function (a, b, c) {
   console.log(a, b, c);
});

Answer 3

This is my version:

export interface IEventListenr extends OnDestroy{
    ngOnDestroy(): void
}

@Injectable()
export class EventManagerService {


    private listeners = {};
    private subject = new EventEmitter();
    private eventObserver = this.subject.asObservable();


    constructor() {

        this.eventObserver.subscribe(({name,args})=>{



             if(this.listeners[name])
             {
                 for(let listener of this.listeners[name])
                 {
                     listener.callback(args);
                 }
             }
        })

    }

    public registerEvent(eventName:string,eventListener:IEventListenr,callback:any)
    {

        if(!this.listeners[eventName])
             this.listeners[eventName] = [];

         let eventExist = false;
         for(let listener of this.listeners[eventName])
         {

             if(listener.eventListener.constructor.name==eventListener.constructor.name)
             {
                 eventExist = true;
                 break;
             }
         }

        if(!eventExist)
        {
             this.listeners[eventName].push({eventListener,callback});
        }
    }

    public unregisterEvent(eventName:string,eventListener:IEventListenr)
    {

        if(this.listeners[eventName])
        {
            for(let i = 0; i<this.listeners[eventName].length;i++)
            {

                if(this.listeners[eventName][i].eventListener.constructor.name==eventListener.constructor.name)
                {
                    this.listeners[eventName].splice(i, 1);
                    break;
                }
            }
        }


    }


    emit(name:string,...args:any[])
    {
        this.subject.next({name,args});
    }
}

use:

export class <YOURCOMPONENT> implements IEventListener{

  constructor(private eventManager: EventManagerService) {


    this.eventManager.registerEvent('EVENT_NAME',this,(args:any)=>{
       ....
    })


  }

  ngOnDestroy(): void {
    this.eventManager.unregisterEvent('closeModal',this)
  }

}

emit:

 this.eventManager.emit("EVENT_NAME");

Answer 4

I'm using a message service that wraps an rxjs Subject (TypeScript)

Plunker example: Message Service

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { Subject } from 'rxjs/Subject';
import { Subscription } from 'rxjs/Subscription';
import 'rxjs/add/operator/filter'
import 'rxjs/add/operator/map'

interface Message {
  type: string;
  payload: any;
}

type MessageCallback = (payload: any) => void;

@Injectable()
export class MessageService {
  private handler = new Subject<Message>();

  broadcast(type: string, payload: any) {
    this.handler.next({ type, payload });
  }

  subscribe(type: string, callback: MessageCallback): Subscription {
    return this.handler
      .filter(message => message.type === type)
      .map(message => message.payload)
      .subscribe(callback);
  }
}

Components can subscribe and broadcast events (sender):

import { Component, OnDestroy } from '@angular/core'
import { MessageService } from './message.service'
import { Subscription } from 'rxjs/Subscription'

@Component({
  selector: 'sender',
  template: ...
})
export class SenderComponent implements OnDestroy {
  private subscription: Subscription;
  private messages = [];
  private messageNum = 0;
  private name = 'sender'

  constructor(private messageService: MessageService) {
    this.subscription = messageService.subscribe(this.name, (payload) => {
      this.messages.push(payload);
    });
  }

  send() {
    let payload = {
      text: `Message ${++this.messageNum}`,
      respondEvent: this.name
    }
    this.messageService.broadcast('receiver', payload);
  }

  clear() {
    this.messages = [];
  }

  ngOnDestroy() {
    this.subscription.unsubscribe();
  }
}

(receiver)

import { Component, OnDestroy } from '@angular/core'
import { MessageService } from './message.service'
import { Subscription } from 'rxjs/Subscription'

@Component({
  selector: 'receiver',
  template: ...
})
export class ReceiverComponent implements OnDestroy {
  private subscription: Subscription;
  private messages = [];

  constructor(private messageService: MessageService) {
    this.subscription = messageService.subscribe('receiver', (payload) => {
      this.messages.push(payload);
    });
  }

  send(message: {text: string, respondEvent: string}) {
    this.messageService.broadcast(message.respondEvent, message.text);
  }

  clear() {
    this.messages = [];
  }

  ngOnDestroy() {
    this.subscription.unsubscribe();
  }
}

The subscribe method of MessageService returns an rxjs Subscription object, which can be unsubscribed from like so:

import { Subscription } from 'rxjs/Subscription';
...
export class SomeListener {
  subscription: Subscription;

  constructor(private messageService: MessageService) {
    this.subscription = messageService.subscribe('someMessage', (payload) => {
      console.log(payload);
      this.subscription.unsubscribe();
    });
  }
}

Also see this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/36782616/1861779

Plunker example: Message Service

Answer 5

You can use EventEmitter or observables to create an eventbus service that you register with DI. Every component that wants to participate just requests the service as constructor parameter and emits and/or subscribes to events.

See also

• https://angular.io/docs/ts/latest/cookbook/component-communication.html#!#bidirectional-service
• Delegation: EventEmitter or Observable in Angular2

Answer 6

Service Events: Components can subscribe to service events. For example, two sibling components can subscribe to the same service event and respond by modifying their respective models. More on this below.

But make sure to unsubscribe to that on destroy of the parent component.