Exercise 2: NG2 APP component rendered in a browser view

Warning

This exercise requires a working buildout using a fork of the collective.jstraining package.

For this exercise, we will run an angular 2 application inside a plone browser view.

We have most of the angular 2 boiler plate code created for you so let’s just finish up a few things so you can customize it.

In this case we are going to use angular client to create the app inside the package.

We will be working in the exercise2 directory of the collective.jstraining package.

Bootstrap

Install npm dependencies:

cd exercise2/static/ng2app
npm install
npm install -g angular-cli

Add your angular 2 component

In your exercise2/static/ng2app directory, there is a bolierplate code for an ng2 app. You can use ng2 cli to create new components, modules, services,... We hope you like typescript.

We can change the exercise2/static/src/app/app.component.html to create your own template.

Like I said, you can do whatever in this module.

Register static resource directory

Next, let’s register the static directory we just placed our script into. To register, you need to add ZCML registration for the static directory your script is in. Add this to the exercise2/configure.zcml file:

<plone:static
     directory="static"
     type="plone"
     name="exercise2"
     />

Build the file with webpack

Our deployment is built using the ng cli tool:

cd exercise2/static/ng2app
ng build --prod

Whenever you make a change to your component files, webpack will auto re-build the distribution

Register JavaScript resource

Angular CLI creates three js, one for basic webpack instructions, one with the main js and another with the styling js. You will need to register the three on the exercise2/profiles/default/registry.xml:

<records prefix="plone.resources/exercise2-inline"
          interface='Products.CMFPlone.interfaces.IResourceRegistry'>
  <value key="js">++plone++exercise2/ng2app/dist/inline.js</value>
</records>
<records prefix="plone.resources/exercise2-main"
          interface='Products.CMFPlone.interfaces.IResourceRegistry'>
  <value key="js">++plone++exercise2/ng2app/dist/main.8b778eea5dd35968ef66.bundle.js</value>
  <value key="deps">exercise2-inline</value>
  <value key="deps">exercise2-style</value>
</records>
<records prefix="plone.resources/exercise2-style"
          interface='Products.CMFPlone.interfaces.IResourceRegistry'>
  <value key="js">++plone++exercise2/ng2app/dist/styles.b52d2076048963e7cbfd.bundle.js</value>
</records>

Its really important that in case that you need to have dependency on loading the js you define on the registry.xml as its showen for the main js.

Finally we want to create a single entry point to load them, so we are going to create and register a js with the requires that are loading the app on a file called static/ng2app/main.js:

require(['exercise2-inline','exercise2-style','exercise2-main'])

With the main.js defined on the filesystem we can now create the resource as a new resource:

<records prefix="plone.resources/exercise2"
          interface='Products.CMFPlone.interfaces.IResourceRegistry'>
  <value key="js">++plone++exercise2/ng2app/main.js</value>
</records>

Create your browser view

Warning

This might be redundant with other documentation. Skip ahead if you know how to create browser views.

Finally, let’s load our JavaScript file to only load on a specific page you need it on.

In our case, let’s add a basic new page view. The page template doesn’t need to implement any logic and we can use the main template to bring in the content of the page we’re using in the JavaScript(h1). Add this into your exercise2/page.pt file:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en"
    xmlns:tal="http://xml.zope.org/namespaces/tal"
    xmlns:metal="http://xml.zope.org/namespaces/metal"
    xmlns:i18n="http://xml.zope.org/namespaces/i18n"
    lang="en"
    metal:use-macro="context/main_template/macros/master"
    i18n:domain="plone">
<body>

  <metal:content-core fill-slot="content-core">
  <metal:content-core define-macro="content-core">
    <app-root></app-root>
  </metal:content-core>
  </metal:content-core>

</body>
</html>

The app-root tag is what is used for the component selector. You can customize this and use whatever selector you like.

Load your JavaScript resource

Add in view python code to tell Plone to render the script in the exercise2/browser.py file:

from Products.CMFPlone.resources import add_resource_on_request
from Products.Five import BrowserView


class Exercise2View(BrowserView):

    def __call__(self):
        # utility function to add resource to rendered page
        add_resource_on_request(self.request, 'exercise2')
        return super(Exercise2View, self).__call__()

The most interesting part here is to look at add_resource_on_request.

Finally, wire it up with ZCML registration in the exercise2/configure.zcml file:

<browser:page
     name="exercise2"
     for="*"
     class=".browser.Exercise2View"
     template="page.pt"
     permission="zope2.View"
     />

Installation

  1. Start up your Plone instance
  2. Install the Exercise 2 add-on
  3. Toggle development mode to make sure the new resources are included

Then, visit the URL: http://localhost:8080/Plone/front-page/@@exercise2. This is assuming your Plone is is located at the URL http://localhost:8080/Plone.

Warning

To make sure your resource registry configuration changes apply, you’ll need to be in development mode. You can also toggle development mode on and off, click save, to force configuration to be re-built after changes instead of keeping development mode on.

Production

In this exercise, there is no special distinction between development and production builds. Webpack re-builds the resource on every change for you and the JavaScript build file is not added to any bundle–it is just loaded for this particular page.