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build devon4ng application

travis edited this page Apr 17, 2020 · 29 revisions

Build your own devon4ng Application

In this chapter we are going to see how to build a new devon4ng from scratch. The proposal of this tutorial is to end having enough knowledge of Angular and the rest of technologies regarding devon4ng to know how to start developing on it and if you want more advanced and specific functionalities see them on the cookbook.

Goal of JumpTheQueue

These mock-ups show what you can expect when the tutorial is finished. An app to manage codes assigned to queuers in order to easy the management of the queue, with a code, you can jump positions in queue and know everywhere which is your position.

JumpTheQueue Mock-Ups

So, hands on it, let’s configure the environment and build this app!

We will be utilizing Node.js, npm and Yarn to create our Angular front end. Using these tool from inside a devonfw environment avoids a manual download/installation, and keeps the tools isolated from other projects, so we don’t run into version conflicts down the road.

These tools should already be located inside your devonfw environment. However, to make sure they are present and up-to-date, execute the following commands inside the C:/…​/workspaces/main/jumpthequeue directory:

devon node setup

devon yarn setup

devon ng setup

Installing Global Tools (optional)

⚠️

If you are using a devonfw work environment — as instructed in the devon4j part of this tutorial — you DON’T have to install these tools globally, since they can be accessed from the devon CLI.
A global installation is only useful if you want to create Angular projects outside of a devonfw environment. In that case you can use the same commands listed on this page, without the initial devon keyword in front of them.

Visual Studio Code

To install the editor download the installer from the official page and install it.

Once installed, the first thing you should do is install the extensions that will help you during the development. To do that, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Extensions panel in VS Code and search for "devonfw" on the market place.

  2. Install the devonfw Platform Extension Pack (this might take a while).

Node.js

Go to nodejs.org and download the version you like the most — LTS or Current — as you wish.

The recommendation is to install the latest version, but keep in mind that to use Angular CLI, your version must be at least 8.x and to use npm at least 5.x. If you have Node.js already installed on your computer, this is a good moment to check your version and upgrade if necessary.

TypeScript

Let’s install what is going to be the main language during development: TypeScript. This ES6 superset is tightly coupled to the Angular framework and will help us to get a final clean and distributable JavaScript code. This is installed globally with npm, the package manager used to install and create JavaScript modules in Node.js, that is installed along with Node. To install TypeScript you don’t have to install npm explicitly, just run this command:

npm install –g typescript

Yarn

Just like npm, Yarn is a package manager for JavaScript/Node modules. Yarn is quite a bit faster and more usable in our opinion, so we decided to use it to manage the dependencies of devon4ng projects.

To install Yarn, you only have to go to the official installation page and follow the instructions.

However, if you feel more comfortable with npm, you can keep using it.

Angular/CLI

This CLI is specifically built to make Angular projects easier to develop, maintain and deploy, so we are going to make use of it.

To install the Angular/CLI you have to run this command in your console prompt:

npm install –g @angular/cli

Now you should be able to run ng version and this will appear in the console:

Angular CLI Version

In addition, you can set Yarn as the default package manager to use with Angular/CLI by running this command:

ng config -g cli.packageManager yarn

Finally, once all these tools have been installed successfully, you are ready to create a new project.

Creating a New Project with the Angular/CLI

One of the main reasons to use Angular/CLI is its feature to creates a whole new basic project by simply running:

C:\...\workspaces\main\jumpthequeue> devon ng create <project name>

Where <project name> is the name of the Angular project you want to create. In this case, we are going to call it angular itself, since we want to distribute this code as part of our complete jumpthequeue project. After executing the command, Angular/CLI will ask, if we want to use Angular routing (Yes) and what stylesheet format we want to use (SCSS):

Angular Options

This command will create the basic files, directories, and install the dependencies stored in package.json:

Angular Project Creation

After project creation, navigate into the angular folder and execute the following command, to set Yarn as our default package manager for this project:

devon ng config cli.packageManager yarn

Now install/check the required dependencies with Yarn by executing:

devon yarn install

Now run vscode-main.bat to start the VS Code instance for the main workspace and expand the jumpthequeue/angular folder, i.e. the project we have just created. It should look like this:

Angular New Project Files

Finally, it is time to check if the created project works properly. To do this, move to the projects root folder (C:/…​/workspaces/main/jumpthequeue/angular) and run:

devon ng serve -o

If everything worked, you’ll see the default Angular landing page:

Angular Default Page

Adding Google Material and Covalent Teradata

ℹ️

If you don’t have the latest Angular version, install the corresponding version of dependencies for your Angular version by adding @<version> behind the dependency names, for example: npm install @angular/material@7.1.2 or yarn add @angular/material@7.1.2.
This will mostly be the case when using global tools that haven’t been updated for a while. So if you’re using a fresh install or the devonfw environment, this shouldn’t be a problem.

Go to the C:/…​/workspaces/main/jumpthequeue/angular directory and run the following command to add Google Material to the project dependencies:

devon yarn add @angular/material

Now we are going to add the Angular CDK (Component Dev Kit):

devon yarn add @angular/cdk

Then we are going to add Animations:

devon yarn add @angular/animations

The Angular animations library implements a domain-specific language (DSL) for defining web animation sequences for HTML elements as multiple transformations over time. Finally, some material components need gestures support, so we need to add this dependency:

devon yarn add hammerjs

That is all regarding Angular/Material. We are now going to install Covalent Teradata dependency:

devon yarn add @covalent/core

Now that we have all dependencies downloaded, we can check the projects package.json file and see if everything has been correctly added (The following dependencies were current at the time of writing. You might see newer versions, which is fine.):

  "dependencies": {
    "@angular/animations": "^9.1.2",
    "@angular/cdk": "^9.2.1",
    "@angular/common": "~9.1.1",
    "@angular/compiler": "~9.1.1",
    "@angular/core": "~9.1.1",
    "@angular/forms": "~9.1.1",
    "@angular/material": "^9.2.1",
    "@angular/platform-browser": "~9.1.1",
    "@angular/platform-browser-dynamic": "~9.1.1",
    "@angular/router": "~9.1.1",
    "@covalent/core": "^3.0.1",
    "hammerjs": "^2.0.8",
    "rxjs": "~6.5.4",
    "tslib": "^1.10.0",
    "zone.js": "~0.10.2"
  }

Angular Material and Covalent need the following modules to work: CdkTableModule, BrowserAnimationsModule and every Covalent and Material Module used in the application. These modules come from @angular/material, @angular/cdk/table, @angular/platform-browser/animations and @covalent/core. In future steps a CoreModule will be created. This module will contain the imports of these libraries, which will avoid code repetition.

Now let’s continue to make some config modifications to have all the styles imported to use Material and Teradata:

1.- Inside angular/src we will create a theme.scss file, to configure the themes of our app. We will use one primary color, one secondary — called accent — and another one for warnings. Teradata also accepts a foreground and background color. Paste the following content into the file:

@import '~@angular/material/theming';
@import '~@covalent/core/theming/all-theme';

@include mat-core();

$primary: mat-palette($mat-blue, 700);
$accent:  mat-palette($mat-orange, 800);

$warn:    mat-palette($mat-red, 600);

$theme: mat-light-theme($primary, $accent, $warn);

$foreground: map-get($theme, foreground);
$background: map-get($theme, background);

@include angular-material-theme($theme);
@include covalent-theme($theme);

2.- Now we have to add these styles to our Angular/CLI config. Go to angular.json in the angular root folder, then search both of the "styles" arrays (inside build and test) and add theme.scss and Covalents platform.css to make it look like this:

...

  "styles": [
    "src/styles.css",
    "src/theme.scss",
    "node_modules/@covalent/core/common/platform.css"
  ],

...

3.- In the same file than the previous step, the minimified hammer.min.js library/script will be added. To do so, paste the following code inside both "scripts" arrays (build and test):

...

  "scripts": [
    "node_modules/hammerjs/hammer.min.js"
  ]

...

Starting Development

Now we have a fully functional blank project, all we have to do now is just create the components and services which will compose the application.

First, we are going to develop the views of the app, through its components, and then we will create the services with the logic, security and back-end connection.

ℹ️

This tutorial is only going to develop a mobile view. The app is not going to be responsive. This might be added to the tutorial in a future.

Creating Components

ℹ️

Learn more about creating new components in devon4ng here.

The app consists of 3 main views:

  • Login

  • Register

  • ViewQueue

To navigate between them we are going to implement routes to the components in order to use Angular Router.

To see our progress, move to the root folder of the project and run ng serve this will serve our client app in localhost:4200 and keeps watching for changing, so whenever we modify the code, the app will automatically reload.

Root Component

app.component will be our Root component, so we do not have to create any component yet, we are going to use it to add to the app the elements that will be common no matter in what view we are.

ℹ️

Learn more about the root component in devon4ng here.

This is the case of a header element, which will be on top of the window and on top of all the components, let’s build it:

The first thing to know is about Covalent Layouts because we are going to use it a lot, one for every view component.

ℹ️

Learn more about layouts in devon4ng here.

As we do not really need nothing more than a header we are going to use the simplest layout: nav view

In order to be able to use covalent and Angular mats, we are going to create a core module that we will import in every module where we want to use covalent and Angular . First, we create a folder called shared in the app root. Inside there, we are going to create a file called core.module.ts and we will fill it with the next content:

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { RouterModule } from '@angular/router';
import { CommonModule } from '@angular/common';
import { HttpClientModule, HTTP_INTERCEPTORS } from '@angular/common/http';
import { BrowserAnimationsModule } from '@angular/platform-browser/animations';
import {
  MatAutocompleteModule,
  MatButtonModule,
  MatButtonToggleModule,
  MatCardModule,
  MatCheckboxModule,
  MatChipsModule,
  MatDatepickerModule,
  MatDialogModule,
  MatExpansionModule,
  MatGridListModule,
  MatIconModule,
  MatInputModule,
  MatListModule,
  MatMenuModule,
  MatNativeDateModule,
  MatPaginatorModule,
  MatProgressBarModule,
  MatProgressSpinnerModule,
  MatRadioModule,
  MatRippleModule,
  MatSelectModule,
  MatSidenavModule,
  MatSliderModule,
  MatSlideToggleModule,
  MatSnackBarModule,
  MatSortModule,
  MatTableModule,
  MatTabsModule,
  MatToolbarModule,
  MatTooltipModule,
} from '@angular/material';
import { CdkTableModule } from '@angular/cdk/table';
import {
  CovalentChipsModule,
  CovalentLayoutModule,
  CovalentExpansionPanelModule,
  CovalentDataTableModule,
  CovalentPagingModule,
  CovalentDialogsModule,
  CovalentLoadingModule,
  CovalentMediaModule,
  CovalentNotificationsModule,
  CovalentCommonModule,
} from '@covalent/core';

@NgModule({
  imports: [
    RouterModule,
    BrowserAnimationsModule,
    MatCardModule,
    MatButtonModule,
    MatIconModule,
    CovalentMediaModule,
    CovalentLayoutModule,
    CdkTableModule,
  ],
  exports: [
    CommonModule,
    CovalentChipsModule,
    CovalentLayoutModule,
    CovalentExpansionPanelModule,
    CovalentDataTableModule,
    CovalentPagingModule,
    CovalentDialogsModule,
    CovalentLoadingModule,
    CovalentMediaModule,
    CovalentNotificationsModule,
    CovalentCommonModule,
    CdkTableModule,
    MatAutocompleteModule,
    MatButtonModule,
    MatButtonToggleModule,
    MatCardModule,
    MatCheckboxModule,
    MatChipsModule,
    MatDatepickerModule,
    MatDialogModule,
    MatExpansionModule,
    MatGridListModule,
    MatIconModule,
    MatInputModule,
    MatListModule,
    MatMenuModule,
    MatNativeDateModule,
    MatPaginatorModule,
    MatProgressBarModule,
    MatProgressSpinnerModule,
    MatRadioModule,
    MatRippleModule,
    MatSelectModule,
    MatSidenavModule,
    MatSliderModule,
    MatSlideToggleModule,
    MatSnackBarModule,
    MatSortModule,
    MatTableModule,
    MatTabsModule,
    MatToolbarModule,
    MatTooltipModule,
    HttpClientModule,
  ],
  declarations: [],
  providers: [
    HttpClientModule
  ],
})
export class CoreModule {}
ℹ️

This CoreModule has almost every module of the different components for Angular Material and Covalent Teradata if you decide to use a component that is not included here, you need to add the corresponding module of the component here.

Remember that we need to import this CoreModule module into the app.module and inside every module of the different components that use Angular Material and Covalent Teradata. If a component does not have a module, it will be imported in the AppModule and hence, have the CoreModule. Our app.module.ts should have the following content:

import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';

// Application components and services
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import { CoreModule } from './shared/core.module';

@NgModule({
  declarations: [
    AppComponent
  ],
  imports: [
    BrowserModule,
    CoreModule,
  ],
  providers: [
  ],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})
export class AppModule { }
ℹ️

Remember this step because you will have to repeat it for every other component from Teradata you use in your app.

Now we can use layouts, so lets use it on app.component.html to make it look like this:

<td-layout-nav>               <!-- Layout tag-->
  <div td-toolbar-content>
    Jump The Queue           <!-- Header container-->
  </div>
  <h1>
    app works!                 <!-- Main content-->
  </h1>
</td-layout-nav>
ℹ️

Learn more about toolbars in devon4ng here.

Once this done, our app should have a header and the "app works!" should remain in the body of the page:

Root Header

To make a step further, we have to modify the body of the Root component because it should be the output of the router, so now it is time to prepare the routing system.

First we need to create a component to show as default, that will be our access view, later on we will modify it on it’s section of this tutorial, but for now we just need to have it: stop the ng serve and run ng generate component form-login. It will add a folder to our project with all the files needed for a component. Now we can move on to the router task again. Run ng serve again to continue the development.

Let’s create the module when the Router check for routes to navigate between components.

  1. Create a file called app-routing.module.ts in the app folder and add the following code:

ℹ️

If Angular CLI was used to generate the project and yes was chosen in the option to create Angular routing, this file (app-routing.module.ts) is created automaticly and only modification is needed.

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { RouterModule, Routes } from '@angular/router';
import { FormLoginComponent } from './form-login/form-login.component';

const appRoutes: Routes = [
  { path: 'FormLogin', component: FormLoginComponent},               // Redirect if url path is /FormLogin.
  { path: '**', redirectTo: '/FormLogin', pathMatch: 'full' }  // Redirect if url path do not match with any other route.
];

@NgModule({
  imports: [
    RouterModule.forRoot(
      appRoutes,
      { enableTracing: true }, // <-- debugging purposes only
    ),
  ],
  exports: [RouterModule],
})
export class AppRoutingModule {}

Time to add this AppRoutingModule routing module to the app module in app.module.ts:

...
// Application components and services
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import { FormLoginComponent } from './form-login/form-login.component';
import { AppRoutingModule } from './app-routing.module';
import { CoreModule } from './shared/core.module';
...
...
  imports: [
    CoreModule,
    BrowserModule,
    AppRoutingModule,
...
ℹ️

Learn more about routing in devon4ng here.

Finally, we remove the <h1>app works!</h1> from app.component.html and in its place we put a <router-outlet></router-outlet> tag. So the final result of our Root component will look like this:

Root Router

As you can see, now the body content is the html of FormLoginComponent, this is because we told the Router to redirect to formlogin when the path is /FormLogin, but also, redirect to it as default if any of the other routes match with the path introduced.

For now, we are going to leave the header this way, but in a future, we will separate it into another component inside a layout folder.

LoginFormComponent

As we have already created this component from the section before, let’s move on to building the template of the login view.

First, we need to add the Covalent Layout and the card to the file form-login.component.html :

<td-layout>
  <mat-card>
    <mat-card-title>Login</mat-card-title>
  </mat-card>
</td-layout>

This will add a grey background to the view and a card on top of it with the title: "Login", now that we have the basic structure of the view.

Now, we are going to add this image:

JumpTheQueue Logo Image

In order to have it available in the project to show, save it in the following path of the project: /src/assets/images/ and it has been named: jumptheq.png

So the final code with the form added will look like this:

<td-layout>
  <mat-card>
    <img mat-card-image src="assets/images/jumptheq.png">
  </mat-card>
</td-layout>

This code will give us as a result something similar to this:

Form Login

This is going to be the container for the login.

Now lets continue with the second component: login.

Login Component

Our first step will be to create the component in the exact same way we did with the FormLogin component, but this time we are going to generate it in a new folder called components inside formlogin. Putting every child component on that folder will allow us to keep a good and clear structure. In order to do this, we use the command: ng generate component form-login/components/login. After angularCli has finished generating the component, we gotta create two modules, one for the form-login and one for the login:

  1. We create a new file called login-module.ts in the login root:

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { CommonModule } from '@angular/common';
import { CoreModule } from 'src/app/shared/core.module';
import { LoginComponent } from './login.component';

@NgModule({
  imports: [CommonModule, CoreModule],
  providers: [],
  declarations: [LoginComponent],
  exports: [LoginComponent],
})
export class LoginModule {}
  1. We create a new file called form-login-module.ts in the form-login root:

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { CommonModule } from '@angular/common';
import { FormLoginComponent } from './form-login.component';
import { CoreModule } from '../shared/core.module';
import { LoginModule } from './components/login/login-module';

@NgModule({
  imports: [CommonModule, CoreModule, LoginModule],
  providers: [],
  declarations: [FormLoginComponent],
  exports: [FormLoginComponent],
})
export class FormLoginModule {}

As you can see, the LoginModule is already added to the FormLoginModule. Once this is done, we need to remove the FormLoginComponent and the LoginComponent from the declarations, since they are already declared in their own modules. Then add the FormLoginModule. Those things are done in the AppModule:

....
import { FormLoginModule } from './form-login/form-login-module';
....
  declarations: [
    AppComponent,
  ]

  imports: [
    BrowserModule,
    FormLoginModule,
    CoreModule,
    AppRoutingModule
  ]
....
ℹ️

This is done so the form-login(container/wrapper) and the login stay separated. This will allow us to reuse the login without having the card around in other views.

After that we modify the login.component.html and add the form:

<form #loginForm="ngForm" layout-padding>
    <div layout="row" flex>
        <mat-form-field flex>
                <input matInput placeholder="Email" ngModel email name="username" required>
        </mat-form-field>
    </div>
    <div layout="row" flex>
        <mat-form-field flex>
            <input matInput placeholder="Password" ngModel name="password" type="password" required>
        </mat-form-field>
    </div>
    <div layout="row" flex>
    </div>
    <div layout="row" flex layout-margin>
        <div layout="column" flex>
            <button mat-raised-button [disabled]="!loginForm.form.valid">Login</button>
        </div>
        <div layout="column" flex>
            <button mat-raised-button color="primary">Register</button>
        </div>
    </div>
</form>
ℹ️

Learn more about forms in devon4ng here.

This form contains two input container from Material and inside of them, the input with the properties listed above and making all required.

Also, we need to add the button to send the information and redirect to queue viewer or show an error if something went wrong in the process, but for the moment, as we neither have another component nor the auth service yet, we will implement the button visually and the validator to disable it if the form is not correct, but not the click event, we will come back later to make this work.

As a last step, we will add this component to the form-login-component.html:

<td-layout>
    <mat-card>
        <img mat-card-image src="assets/images/jumptheq.png">
        <app-login></app-login>
    </mat-card>
</td-layout>

Now you should see something like this:

JumpTheQueue Login Screen

With two components already created we need to use the router to navigate between them. Following the application flow of events, we are going to add a navigate function to the register button, so when we press it, we will be redirected to our future register component.

Register Component

First we are going to generate the register component ng generate component register will create our component so we can start working on it.

Turning back to login.component.html we have to modify these lines of code:

<form (ngSubmit)="submitLogin()" #loginForm="ngForm" layout-padding>
...
<button mat-raised-button type="submit" [disabled]="!loginForm.form.valid">Login</button>
...
<button mat-raised-button (click)="onRegisterClick()" color="primary">Register</button>

Two events were added. First, when we submit the form, the method submitLogin() is going to be called. The other event, when the user clicks the button, (click) will send an event to the function onRegisterClick() that should be in the login.component.ts, which is going to be created now:

  ...
  import { Router } from '@angular/router';
  ...
  constructor(private router: Router) { }
  ...
  onRegisterClick(): void {
    this.router.navigate(['Register']);
  }

  submitLogin(): void {
  }

We need to inject an instance of Router object and declare it into the name router in order to use it into the code, as we did on onRegisterClick(), using the navigate function and redirecting to the next view, in our case, using the route we are going to define in app.routing.module.ts:

ℹ️

Learn more about Dependency Injection in devon4ng here.

....
import { RegisterComponent } from './register/register.component';
....
const appRoutes: Routes = [
  { path: 'FormLogin', component: FormLoginComponent},               // Redirect if url path is /FormLogin.
  { path: 'Register', component: RegisterComponent},               // Redirect if url path is /Register.
  { path: '**', redirectTo: '/FormLogin', pathMatch: 'full' }  // Redirect if url path do not match with any other route.
];
....

Now, we are going to imitate the login to make our register.component.html:

<form layout-padding (ngSubmit)="submitRegister()" #registerForm="ngForm">
  <div layout="row" flex>
      <mat-form-field flex>
        <input matInput placeholder="Email" ngModel email name="username" required>
      </mat-form-field>
  </div>
  <div layout="row" flex>
      <mat-form-field flex>
        <input matInput placeholder="Password" ngModel name="password" type="password" required>
      </mat-form-field>
  </div>
  <div layout="row" flex>
      <mat-form-field flex>
        <input matInput placeholder="Name" ngModel name="name" required>
      </mat-form-field>
  </div>
  <div layout="row" flex>
      <mat-form-field flex>
        <input matInput placeholder="Phone Number" ngModel name="phoneNumber" required>
      </mat-form-field>
  </div>
  <div layout-xs="row" flex>
      <div layout="column" flex>
        <mat-checkbox name="acceptedTerms" ngModel required>Accept Terms And conditions</mat-checkbox>
      </div>
  </div>
  <div layout-xs="row" flex>
      <div layout="column" flex>
        <mat-checkbox name="acceptedCommercial" ngModel required>I want to receive notifications</mat-checkbox>
      </div>
  </div>
  <div layout="row" flex>
  </div>
  <div layout="row" flex>
      <div layout="column" flex="10">
        </div>
      <div layout="column" flex>
          <button mat-raised-button type="submit" [disabled]="!registerForm.form.valid">Register</button>
      </div>
      <div layout="column" flex="10">
      </div>
  </div>
</form>
ℹ️

Learn more about services in devon4ng here.

Now we have a minimum of navigation flow into our application, we are going to generate out first service using the command ng generate service register/services/register. This will create a folder services inside register and create the service. Services are where we keep the logic that connects to our db and are going to be used by our component.ts. In order to use the service we are going to create some interface models, lets create a folder called backendModels inside shared and inside a file called interfaces.ts, in here we are going to add the model interfaces that will match our backend:

ℹ️

Learn more about creating services in devon4ng here.

export class Visitor {
    id?: number;
    username: string;
    name: string;
    password: string;
    phoneNumber: string;
    acceptedCommercial: boolean;
    acceptedTerms: boolean;
    userType: boolean;
}

If we take a closer look, we can see that id has a ? behind it, this allows to mark that the id is optional.

ℹ️

At this point we are going to assume you have finished the devon4j JumpTheQueue tutorial or, at least, you have downloaded the project and have it running locally on localhost:8081.

After doing this we are going to add a environment variable with our base url for the rest services, this way we wont have to change every url when we switch to production. Inside environments/environment.ts we add :

export const environment: {production: boolean, baseUrlRestServices: string} = {
  production: false,
  baseUrlRestServices: 'http://localhost:8081/jumpthequeue/services/rest'
};

Now in the service, we are going to add a registerVisitor method.

To call the server in this method we are going to inject the Angular HttpClient class from @angular/common/http, this class is the standard used by Angular to make Http calls, so we are going to use it. The register call demands a Visitor model that we created in the interfaces file, so we are going to build a post call and send that information to the proper URL of that server service, it will return an observable.

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { HttpClient } from '@angular/common/http';
import { Visitor} from 'src/app/shared/backendModels/interfaces';
import { Observable } from 'rxjs';
import { environment } from 'src/environments/environment';

@Injectable({
  providedIn: 'root'
})
export class RegisterService {

  private baseUrl = environment.baseUrlRestServices;

  constructor(private http: HttpClient) { }

  registerVisitor(visitor: Visitor): Observable<Visitor> {
    return this.http.post<Visitor>(`${this.baseUrl}` + '/visitormanagement/v1/visitor', visitor);
  }
}

This method will send our model to the backend and return an Observable that we will use on the component.ts. Here you can see more info about the observables and RxJs in devon4ng.

ℹ️

Learn more about Observables and RxJs in devon4ng here.

Now we are going to modify register.component.ts to call this service:

import { Component, OnInit } from '@angular/core';
import { RegisterService } from './services/register.service';
import { Visitor } from '../shared/backendModels/interfaces';
import { Router } from '@angular/router';
import { MatSnackBar } from '@angular/material';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-register',
  templateUrl: './register.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./register.component.css']
})
export class RegisterComponent implements OnInit {

  constructor(private registerService: RegisterService, private router: Router, public snackBar: MatSnackBar) { }

  submitRegister(formValue): void {
    const visitor: Visitor = new Visitor();
    visitor.username = formValue.username;
    visitor.name = formValue.name;
    visitor.phoneNumber = formValue.phoneNumber;
    visitor.password = formValue.password;
    visitor.acceptedCommercial = formValue.acceptedCommercial;
    visitor.acceptedTerms = formValue.acceptedTerms;
    visitor.userType = false;

    this.registerService.registerVisitor(visitor).subscribe(
      (visitorResult: Visitor) => console.log(JSON.stringify(visitorResult)), // When call is received
      (err) =>  this.snackBar.open(err.error.message, 'OK', {
        duration: 5000,
      }), // When theres an error
    );
  }

  ngOnInit() {
  }
}

In this file, we injected RegisterService and Router to use them, then inside the method submitRegister we created a visitor that we are going to pass to the service. we called the service method registerVisitor we passed visitor and we subscribed to the Observable<Visitor> that we returned from the service. This subscription allows us to control three things:

1.- What to do when the data is received.
2.- What to do when theres an error.
3.- What to do when the call is complete

Finally, we modify the register.component.html to send the form values to the method:

<form layout-padding (ngSubmit)="submitRegister(registerForm.form.value)" #registerForm="ngForm">
....
Register Page

Now if we try the method and take a look at the browser console we should see the visitor model.

Login, Auth and AuthGuard

Now that we registered a Visitor, its time to create the AuthService, AuthGuardService and LoginService. The AuthService will be the one that contains the login info, the AuthGuardService will check if a user can use or not a component with the canActivate method and finally the LoginService will be used to fill the AuthService.

ℹ️

To keep the simplicity of this tutorial, we are going to make the password check in the client side. !THIS IS NOT CORRECT! Normally you would send the username and password to the backend, check that the values are correct and corresponding then create a token that you would pass in the header and use it on the AuthService checking with some interceptors that the token is both on the AuthService and in the request. This might be explained in the future.

We are going to create 3 services with ng generate service path:

1.- `LoginService` in the path: `ng generate service form-login/components/login/services/login`
2.- `Auth` in the path: `ng generate service core/authentication/auth`
3.- `AuthGuard` in the path: `ng generate service core/authentication/auth-guard`

After generating them, we are going to start by modyfing the interfaces. In shared/backendModels/interfaces We are going to add Role,FilterVisitor,Pageable and a Sort interface:

...
export class FilterVisitor {
    pageable: Pageable;
    username?: string;
    password?: string;
}

export class Pageable {
    pageSize: number;
    pageNumber: number;
    sort?: Sort[];
}

export class Sort {
    property: string;
    direction: string;
}

export class Role {
    name: string;
    permission: number;
}
ℹ️

As you can see, we added a Pageable, since a lot of the search methods in the backend are using SearchCriterias. These need pageables, which specify a paseSize and pageNumber. Also, we can see that in this case FilterVisitor uses a pageable and adds parameters as a filter (username and password which are optional).

Then we are going to create a config.ts file in the root (/app). We are going to use that file to set up default config variables, for example: role names with their permission number, default pagination settings etc. For now we are just adding the roles:

export const config: any = {
    roles: [
        { name: 'VISITOR', permission: 0 },
        { name: 'BOSS', permission: 1 },
    ],
};

After that, we are going to modify the auth.service.ts:

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { find } from 'lodash';
import { Role } from 'src/app/shared/backendModels/interfaces';
import { config } from 'src/app/config';

@Injectable({
  providedIn: 'root'
})
export class AuthService {
  private logged = false;
  private user = '';
  private userId = 0;
  private currentRole = 'NONE';
  private token: string;

  public isLogged(): boolean {
    return this.logged;
  }

  public setLogged(login: boolean): void {
    this.logged = login;
  }

  public getUser(): string {
    return this.user;
  }

  public setUser(username: string): void {
    this.user = username;
  }

  public getUserId(): number {
    return this.userId;
  }

  public setUserId(userId: number): void {
    this.userId = userId;
  }

  public getToken(): string {
    return this.token;
  }

  public setToken(token: string): void {
    this.token = token;
  }

  public setRole(role: string): void {
    this.currentRole = role;
  }

  public getPermission(roleName: string): number {
    const role: Role = <Role>find(config.roles, { name: roleName });
    return role.permission;
  }

  public isPermited(userRole: string): boolean {
    return (
      this.getPermission(this.currentRole) === this.getPermission(userRole)
    );
  }
}

We will use this service to fill it with information from the logged in user when the user logs in. This will allows us to check the information of the logged in user in anyway necessary.

ℹ️

Learn more about authentication in devon4ng here.

Now we are going to use this class to make the auth-guard.service.ts:

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import {
  CanActivate,
  Router,
  ActivatedRouteSnapshot,
  RouterStateSnapshot,
} from '@angular/router';
import { AuthService } from './auth.service';

@Injectable({
  providedIn: 'root'
})
export class AuthGuardService implements CanActivate {
  constructor(
    private authService: AuthService,
    private router: Router,
  ) {}

  canActivate(
    route: ActivatedRouteSnapshot,
    state: RouterStateSnapshot,
  ): boolean {
    if (this.authService.isLogged() && this.authService.isPermited('VISITOR')) { // If its logged in and its role is visitor
      return true;
    }

    if (!this.authService.isLogged()) { // if its not logged in
      console.log('Error login');
    }

    if (this.router.url === '/') {  // if the router is the app route
      this.router.navigate(['/login']);
    }
    return false;
  }
}

This service will be a bit different, because we have to implement an interface called CanActivate, which has a method called canActivate returning a boolean, this method will be called when navigating to a specified routes and depending on the return of this implemented method, the navigation will be done or rejected.

ℹ️

Learn more about guards in devon4ng here.

Once this is done, the last step is filling the login.service.ts, in this case theres going to be three methods:

1.- getVisitorByUsername(username: string): method that recovers a single user corresponding to the email.
2.- login(username: string, password: string): which is going to user the previous method, check that the username and password match with the form ones and then fill the `AuthService`.
3.- logout(): this is going to be used to reset the `AuthService` and logout the user.

Also, we see the first use of pipe and map, pipe allows us to execute a chain of functions, then map allows us to return the single visitor instead of all the parameters that the server will send us.

import { map, tap } from 'rxjs/operators';
import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { Observable } from 'rxjs';
import { Visitor, FilterVisitor, Pageable } from 'src/app/shared/backendModels/interfaces';
import { HttpClient } from '@angular/common/http';
import { environment } from 'src/environments/environment';
import { AuthService } from 'src/app/core/authentication/auth.service';
import { Router } from '@angular/router';
import { MatSnackBar } from '@angular/material';

@Injectable({
  providedIn: 'root'
})
export class LoginService {

    private baseUrl = environment.baseUrlRestServices;
    constructor(private router: Router, private http: HttpClient, private authService: AuthService, public snackBar: MatSnackBar) { }

    getVisitorByUsername(username: string): Observable<Visitor> {
        const filters: FilterVisitor = new FilterVisitor();
        const pageable: Pageable = new Pageable();

        pageable.pageNumber = 0;
        pageable.pageSize = 1;
        filters.username = username;
        filters.pageable = pageable;
        return this.http.post<Visitor>(`${this.baseUrl}` + '/visitormanagement/v1/visitor/search', filters)
       .pipe(
            map(visitors => visitors['content'][0]),
        );
    }

    login(username: string, password: string): void {
      // Checks if given username and password are the ones aved in the database
      this.getVisitorByUsername(username).subscribe(
          (visitorFound) => {
              if (visitorFound.username === username && visitorFound.password === password) {
                  this.authService.setUserId(visitorFound.id);
                  this.authService.setLogged(true);
                  this.authService.setUser(visitorFound.username);
                  if (visitorFound.userType === false) {
                      this.authService.setRole('VISITOR');
                      this.router.navigate(['ViewQueue']);
                  } else {
                      this.authService.setLogged(false);
                      this.snackBar.open('access error', 'OK', {
                          duration: 2000,
                        });
                  }
              } else {
                  this.snackBar.open('access error', 'OK', {
                      duration: 2000,
                    });
              }
          },
          (err: any) => {
            this.snackBar.open('access error', 'OK', {
              duration: 2000,
            });
          },
      );
    }

    logout(): void {
        this.authService.setLogged(false);
        this.authService.setUser('');
        this.authService.setUserId(0);
        this.router.navigate(['FormLogin']);
    }
}

If you remember in the devon4j tutorial, we used Criteria in order to filter and to search in the DB. The Criteria require a pageable and you can add extra parameters to get specific results. In getVisitorByUsername(), you can see the creation of a FilterVisitor which correspond to the Criteria in the backend. This FilterVisitor gets a Pageable and a username and will return us when the post call is made a single result, thats why we return the first page and only a single result.

ℹ️

For the tutorial we are only doing the visitor side of the application, thats why we setLogged(false) if its userType === true (BOSS side)

Then we add to the login-module.ts and LoginService:

...
import { LoginService } from './services/login.service';

@NgModule({
  ...
  providers: [LoginService],
  ...
})
...

After that, we are going to add the AuthGuard and the Auth into the share/core-module.ts. This will allow us to employ these two services when importing the core module, avoiding having to provide these services in every component:

....
  providers: [
    HttpClientModule,
    AuthService,
    AuthGuardService,
  ],
....

You need to import the modules as well like shown earlier.

Finally, we modify the login.component.html to send the form values to the login.component.ts like we did with the register form and finally, afterwards, we are going to modify the register.components.ts when the visitor registers, we can login automaticly to avoid any nusiances. Let’s start with the login.component.html :

...
<form (ngSubmit)="submitLogin(loginForm.form.value)" #loginForm="ngForm" layout-padding>
...

As you can see, in the form we just added the values to the ngSubmit allowing us to call the method submitLogin on the logic, sending the loginForm.form.values which are the form values. Next step we are going to modify the login.components.ts, adding the the submitLogin method that calls the LoginService giving the service the necessary values from the form(loginFormValues).

...
import { LoginService } from './services/login.service';
...
export class LoginComponent implements OnInit {
  ...
  constructor(private router: Router, private loginService: LoginService) {
  }
  ...
  submitLogin(loginFormValues): void {
    this.loginService.login(loginFormValues.username, loginFormValues.password);
  }
}

Finally, in the register.components.ts we are going to inject the LoginService and use it to login the visitor after registering him. This will also send the user to the ViewQueue that we will create and secure later in the tutorial.

import { LoginService } from '../form-login/components/login/services/login.service';
...
constructor(private registerService: RegisterService, private router: Router, public snackBar: MatSnackBar,
    private loginService: LoginService) { }
...
  submitRegister(formValue): void {
    ...
    this.registerService.registerVisitor(visitor).subscribe(
      (visitorResult: Visitor) => {
        this.loginService.login(visitorResult.username, visitorResult.password);
      },
      ...
    );
  }
...

Separating the Header from the Layout

In order to do this, we are going to generate a new component inside app/layout/header with ng generate component layout/header

Now we are going to add it to out main view app.component.html:

...
  <div td-toolbar-content flex>
    <app-header layout-align="center center" layout="row" flex></app-header>
  </div>       <!-- Header container-->
...

After adding the component to the header view (app-header). We are going to modify the html of the component(header.component.html) and the logic of the component(header.component.ts). As a first step, we are going to modify the html adding a icon as a button when the user is logged in with *ngIf calling the auth service isLogged method checking if the user is logged in, this will make the icon appear only if the user is logged in:

Jump The Queue
<span flex></span>
<button mat-icon-button mdTooltip="Log out" (click)=onClickLogout() *ngIf="authService.isLogged()">
  <mat-icon>exit_to_app</mat-icon>
</button>

In the header logic (header.component.ts) we are simply going to inject the AuthService and LoginService then, we are going call logout from LoginService in the OnClickLogout(). Finally, the AuthService is needed because its being used by the html template to control if the user is logged in with isLogged().

....
  constructor(private authService: AuthService, private loginService: LoginService) { }
....
  onClickLogout(): void {
    this.loginService.logout();
  }
....

Separating components will allow us to keep the code clean and easy to work with.

Generating ViewQueue

As the last view, we are going to learn how to use our observables on the html template directly without having to subscribe() to them.

First, we are going to generate the component: ng generate component view-queue. After that, we are going to include the component in the app-routing.module.ts adding also the guard, only allowing users that are VISITOR to see the component. It is important to insert the following code before the ` { path: '**', redirectTo: '/FormLogin', pathMatch: 'full' }, // Redirect if url path do not match with any other route.`.

....
const appRoutes: Routes = [
  ....
  { path: 'ViewQueue', component: ViewQueueComponent,
  canActivate: [AuthGuardService]},  // Redirect if url path is /ViewQueue, check if canActivate() with the AuthGuardService.
  ....
];
....

Now in order to make this view work, we are going to do these things:

1.- Add the `Queue` and `AccessCode` interface in our `/shared/backendModels/interfaces` and their corresponding filters.
2.- Generate the `QueueService` and `AccessCodeService` and add the necessary methods.
3.- Modify the html `view-queue.component.html`
4.- Modify the logic of the component `view-queue.component.ts`

First we are going to add the necessary interfaces. We modify /shared/backendModels/interfaces and add the FilterQueue, Queue, FilterAccessCode and finally, AccessCode. These are going to be necessary in order to communicate with the backend.

....
export class FilterAccessCode {
    pageable: Pageable;
    visitorId?: Number;
    endTime?: string;
}

export class FilterQueue {
    pageable: Pageable;
    active: boolean;
}

export class AccessCode {
    id?: number;
    ticketNumber: string;
    creationTime: string;
    startTime?: string;
    endTime?: string;
    visitorId: number;
    queueId: number;
}

export class Queue {
    id?: number;
    name: string;
    logo: string;
    currentNumber: string;
    attentionTime: string;
    minAttentionTime: string;
    active: boolean;
    customers: number;
}
....

After that is done, we are going to generate the AccessCodeService and the QueueService:

1.- ng generate service view-queue/services/Queue
2.- ng generate service view-queue/services/AccessCode

Once that is done, we are going to modify them and add the necessary methods:

  • For the AccessCodeService we are going to need a full crud:

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { AuthService } from 'src/app/core/authentication/auth.service';
import { Router } from '@angular/router';
import { HttpClient } from '@angular/common/http';
import { AccessCode, Pageable, FilterAccessCode } from 'src/app/shared/backendModels/interfaces';
import { Observable } from 'rxjs';
import { environment } from 'src/environments/environment';
import { map } from 'rxjs/operators';

@Injectable({
  providedIn: 'root'
})
export class AccessCodeService {

  private baseUrl = environment.baseUrlRestServices;

  constructor(private router: Router, private http: HttpClient, private authService: AuthService) { }

  getCurrentlyAttendedAccessCode(): Observable<AccessCode> {
    const filters: FilterAccessCode = new FilterAccessCode();
    const pageable: Pageable = new Pageable();

    filters.endTime = null;
    pageable.pageNumber = 0;
    pageable.pageSize = 1;
    filters.pageable = pageable;
    return this.http.post<AccessCode>(`${this.baseUrl}` + '/accesscodemanagement/v1/accesscode/cto/search', filters)
    .pipe(
        map(accesscodes => {
          if (!accesscodes['content'][0]) {  // if theres no response it means theres noone in the queue
            return null;
          } else {
            if (accesscodes['content'][0]['accessCode'].startTime != null) {
              // if start time is not null it means that hes being attended
              return accesscodes['content'][0]['accessCode'];
            } else {
              // noone being attended
              return null;
            }
          }
        }),
     );
  }

  getVisitorAccessCode(visitorId: number): Observable<AccessCode> {
    const filters: FilterAccessCode = new FilterAccessCode();
    const pageable: Pageable = new Pageable();

    pageable.pageNumber = 0;
    pageable.pageSize = 1;
    filters.visitorId = visitorId;
    filters.pageable = pageable;
    return this.http.post<AccessCode>(`${this.baseUrl}` + '/accesscodemanagement/v1/accesscode/cto/search', filters)
    .pipe(
      map(accesscodes => {
        if (accesscodes['content'][0]) {
          return accesscodes['content'][0]['accessCode'];
        } else {
          return null;
        }
      }),
     );
  }

  deleteAccessCode(codeAccessId: number) {
    this.http.delete<AccessCode>(`${this.baseUrl}` + '/accesscodemanagement/v1/accesscode/' + codeAccessId + '/').subscribe();
  }

  saveAccessCode(visitorId: number, queueId: number) {
    const accessCode: AccessCode = new AccessCode();
    accessCode.visitorId = visitorId;
    accessCode.queueId = queueId;
    return this.http.post<AccessCode>(`${this.baseUrl}` + '/accesscodemanagement/v1/accesscode/', accessCode);
  }
}

In the methods getCurrentlyAttendedAccessCode and getVisitorAccessCode we can see the use of Pageable and FilterAccessCode to match the Criteria in the backend like we explained in previous steps. In this case, the getVisitorAccessCode method will be used to see if the visitor has a AccessCode and the getCurrentlyAttendedAccessCode is going to recover the first AccessCode of the queue.

For the QueueService we are only going to need to find the active queue:

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { HttpClient } from '@angular/common/http';
import { Router } from '@angular/router';
import { Observable } from 'rxjs';
import { Queue, FilterQueue, Pageable } from 'src/app/shared/backendModels/interfaces';
import { environment } from 'src/environments/environment';
import { map } from 'rxjs/operators';

@Injectable({
  providedIn: 'root'
})
export class QueueService {

  private baseUrl = environment.baseUrlRestServices;

  constructor(private router: Router, private http: HttpClient) { }

  getActiveQueue(): Observable<Queue> {
    const filters: FilterQueue = new FilterQueue();
    filters.active = true;
    const pageable: Pageable = new Pageable();
    pageable.pageNumber = 0;
    pageable.pageSize = 1;
    filters.pageable = pageable;
    return this.http.post<Queue>(`${this.baseUrl}` + '/queuemanagement/v1/queue/search', filters)
    .pipe(
         map(queues => queues['content'][0]),
     );
  }
}

Now, we are going to make the template view-queue.component.html that will use them and we will also introduce a new concept (async pipes in templates).

<td-layout *ngIf="{
  accessCodeAttended: accessCodeAttended$ | async,
  accessCodeVisitor: accessCodeVisitor$  | async,
  queue: queue$ | async
} as data;">
  <div *ngIf="data.queue">
    <mat-card>
    <img mat-card-image src="assets/images/jumptheq.png">

      <div *ngIf="data.accessCodeVisitor">
        <div class="text-center row">
          <h1 style="margin-bottom:10px;" class="text-left text-xl push-md">Your Number:</h1>
        </div>
        <div class="text-center row">
          <h1 style="font-size: 75px; margin:0px;" class="text-center text-xxl push-left-md">{{data.accessCodeVisitor.ticketNumber}}</h1>
        </div>
        <div style="border-bottom: 2px solid black;" class="row">
          <p class="push-left-md">Currently estimate time: 10:00:00</p>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="text-center">
        <div class="text-center row">
          <h1 style="margin-bottom:10px;" class="text-left text-xl push-md">Currently Being Attended:</h1>
        </div>
        <div class="row">
          <h1 style="font-size: 100px" class="text-center text-xxl push-lg">{{data.accessCodeAttended?.ticketNumber}}</h1>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div style="border-top: 2px solid black;" class="pad-bottom-lg pad-top-lg text-center row" *ngIf="data.accessCodeVisitor === null">
        <button mat-raised-button (click)="onJoinQueue(data.queue.id)" color="primary" class="text-upper">Join the queue</button>
      </div>
    </mat-card>
    <div *ngIf="data.accessCodeVisitor" style="margin: 8px;" class="row text-right">
        <button mat-raised-button (click)="onLeaveQueue(data.accessCodeVisitor.id)" color="primary" class="text-upper">Leave the queue</button>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div *ngIf="data.queue === null || (data.queue !== null && data.queue.active === false)" class="row">
    <h1 style="font-size: 50px" class="text-center text-xxl push-lg">The queue is not active try again later</h1>
  </div>
</td-layout>

If you watch closely, the starting td-layout has an *ngIf inside it. This *ngIf, allows us to pipe async the observables that we will asign in the next steps. This solution avoids having to use subscribe(as it subscribes automaticly) and, as a result, we dont have to worry about where to unsubscribe() from the observables. In this html, we give *ngif another use, we use it to hide certain panels, using accessCodeVisitor we hide your ticket number panel and leave the queue button and show the button to join the queue or the contrary, we hide the ticket number and the leave the queue button and show only the join the queue button.

ℹ️
In this case, since we are using http and the calls are finite, there wouldnt be any problems if you dont `unsubscribe()` from their corresponding observables. However, if for example, we use a observable to keep track of an input and we `subscribe()` to it but we dont control the `unsubcribe()` the app could end up doing a memory leak, since everytime that we visit the component with the input, its going to create another subscription without unsubscribing the last one.

Finally, to adapt to async pipe, inside view-queue.component.ts the method ngOnInit() now does not subscribe to the observable, in its place, we equal the queuers variable directly to the Observable so we can load it using the *ngIf.

import { Component, OnInit } from '@angular/core';
import { AccessCode, Queue } from '../shared/backendModels/interfaces';
import { Observable, timer } from 'rxjs';
import { AccessCodeService } from './services/access-code.service';
import { switchMap } from 'rxjs/operators';
import { AuthService } from '../core/authentication/auth.service';
import { QueueService } from './services/queue.service';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-view-queue',
  templateUrl: './view-queue.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./view-queue.component.css']
})
export class ViewQueueComponent implements OnInit {

  accessCodeAttended$: Observable<AccessCode>;
  accessCodeVisitor$: Observable<AccessCode>;
  queue$: Observable<Queue>;

  constructor(private accessCodeService: AccessCodeService, private queueService: QueueService, private authService: AuthService) { }

  ngOnInit() {
     // Every minute we are going to update accessCodeAttended$ starting instantly
    this.accessCodeAttended$ = timer(0, 60000).pipe(
      // we switchMap and give it the value necesary from the accessCodeService
      switchMap(() => {
        return this.accessCodeService.getCurrentlyAttendedAccessCode();
      })
    );
    this.accessCodeVisitor$ = this.accessCodeService.getVisitorAccessCode(this.authService.getUserId());
    this.queue$ = this.queueService.getActiveQueue();
  }

  onJoinQueue(queueId: number): void {
    this.accessCodeVisitor$ = this.accessCodeService.saveAccessCode(this.authService.getUserId(), queueId);
  }

  onLeaveQueue(accessCodeId: number): void {
    this.accessCodeService.deleteAccessCode(accessCodeId);
    this.accessCodeVisitor$ = null;
  }
}

In this last component, we assign the Observables when the component is initiated. After that, when clicking the join queue button we assign a new Observable AccessCode to the accessCodeVisitor$. Finally, when we leave the queue we delete the AccessCode we set the accessCodeVisitor to null. Since we are using an async pipe, everytime we modify the status of the Observables they are going to update the template.

Queue Page with Access Code
Queue Page without Access Code

That is all regarding how to build your own devon4ng application example, now is up to you add features, change styles and do everything you could imagine. Just one final step to complete the tutorial, run the tutorial outside your local machine: Deployment.


Next Chapter: Deploy your devon4ng App