aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/docs/content/guide/compiler.ngdoc
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorMisko Hevery2012-02-29 11:29:46 -0800
committerMisko Hevery2012-06-02 16:02:08 -0700
commita3a37c2063a9098539a59444b8e4a52959f3ee24 (patch)
treef3d9fa8538a8f8658ccf6277f2f930012758d810 /docs/content/guide/compiler.ngdoc
parent0f5259c5a2c3aa390866ad4f18dd500e9e7e1e4f (diff)
downloadangular.js-a3a37c2063a9098539a59444b8e4a52959f3ee24.tar.bz2
doc(compiler): rewrite
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/content/guide/compiler.ngdoc')
-rw-r--r--docs/content/guide/compiler.ngdoc143
1 files changed, 143 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/docs/content/guide/compiler.ngdoc b/docs/content/guide/compiler.ngdoc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..90dc4d61
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/content/guide/compiler.ngdoc
@@ -0,0 +1,143 @@
+@ngdoc overview
+@name Developer Guide: HTML Compiler
+@description
+
+# Overview
+
+Angular's {@link api/angular.module.ng.$compile HTML compiler} allows the developer to teach the
+browser new HTML syntax. The compiler allows you to attach behavior to any HTML element or attribute
+and even create new HTML element or attributes with custom behavior. Angular calls these behavior
+extensions {@link api/angular.module.ng.$compileProvider.directive directives}.
+
+HTML has a lot of constructs for formatting the HTML for static documents in declarative fashion.
+For example if something needs to be centered, there is no need to provide instructions to the
+browser how the window size needs to be divided in half so that center is found, and that this
+center needs to be aligned with the text's center. Simply add `align="center"` attribute to any
+element to achieve the desired behavior. Such is the power of declarative language.
+
+But the declarative language is also limited, since it does not allow you to teach the browser new
+syntax. For example there is no easy way to get the browser to align the text at 1/3 the position
+instead of 1/2. What is needed is a way to teach browser new HTML syntax.
+
+Angular comes pre-bundled with common directives which are useful for building any app. We also
+expect that you will create directives that are specific to your app. These extension become a
+Domain Specific Language for building your application.
+
+All of this compilation takes place in the web browser; no server side or pre-compilation step is
+involved.
+
+
+# Compiler
+
+Compiler is an angular service which traverses the DOM looking for attributes. The compilation
+process happens into two phases.
+
+ 1. **Compile:** traverse the DOM and collect all of the directives. The result is a linking
+ function.
+
+ 2. **Link:** combine the directives with a scope and produce a live view. Any changes in the
+ scope model are reflected in the view, and any user interactions with the view are reflected
+ in the scope model. Making the scope model a single source of truth.
+
+Some directives such {@link api/angular.module.ng.$compileProvider.directive.ng:repeat
+`ng-repeat`} clone DOM elements once for each item in collection. Having a compile and link phase
+improves performance since the cloned template only needs to be compiled once, and then linked
+once for each clone instance.
+
+
+# Directive
+
+Directive is a behavior which should be triggered when specific HTML constructs are encountered in
+compilation process. The directives can be placed in element names, attributes, class names, as
+well as comments. Here are some equivalent examples of invoking {@link
+api/angular.module.ng.$compileProvider.directive.ng:bind `ng-bind`} directive.
+
+<pre>
+ <span ng-bind="exp"></span>
+ <span class="ng-bind: exp;"></span>
+ <ng-bind></ng-bind>
+ <!-- directive: ng-bind exp -->
+</pre>
+
+Directive is just a function which executes when the compiler encounters it in the DOM. See {@link
+api/angular.module.ng.$compileProvider.directive directive API} for in depth documentation on how
+to write directives.
+
+Here is a directive which makes any element draggable. Notice the `draggable` attribute on the
+`<span>` element.
+
+<doc-example module="drag">
+ <doc-source>
+ <script>
+ angular.module('drag', []).
+ directive('draggable', function($document) {
+ var startX=0, startY=0, x = 0, y = 0;
+ return function(scope, element, attr) {
+ element.css({
+ position: 'relative',
+ border: '1px solid red',
+ backgroundColor: 'lightgrey',
+ cursor: 'pointer'
+ });
+ element.bind('mousedown', function(event) {
+ startX = event.screenX - x;
+ startY = event.screenY - y;
+ $document.bind('mousemove', mousemove);
+ $document.bind('mouseup', mouseup);
+ });
+
+ function mousemove(event) {
+ y = event.screenY - startY;
+ x = event.screenX - startX;
+ element.css({
+ top: y + 'px',
+ left: x + 'px'
+ });
+ }
+
+ function mouseup() {
+ $document.unbind('mousemove', mousemove);
+ $document.unbind('mouseup', mouseup);
+ }
+ }
+ });
+ </script>
+ <span draggable>Drag ME</span>
+ </doc-source>
+</doc-example>
+
+
+The presence of `draggable` attribute an any element gives the element new behavior. The beauty of
+this approach is that we have thought the browser a new trick, we have extended the vocabulary of
+what browser understands in a way, which is natural to anyone who is familiar with HTML
+principles.
+
+
+# Understanding View
+
+There are many templating systems out there. Most of them consume a static string template and
+combine it with data, resulting in a new string. The resulting text is then `innerHTML`ed into
+an element.
+
+<img src="img/One_Way_Data_Binding.png">
+
+This means that any changes to the data, need to be re-merged with the template and then
+`innerHTML`ed into the DOM. Some of the issues are: reading user input and merging it with data,
+clobbering user input by overwriting it, managing the whole update process, and lack of behavior
+expressiveness.
+
+Angular is different. Angular compiler consumes DOM with directives, not string templates. The
+result is a linking function, which when combined with a scope model results in live view. The
+view and scope model bindings are transparent, no action from the developer is needed to update
+the view. And because no `innerHTML` is used there are no issues of clobbering user input.
+Furthermore, angular directives can contain not just text bindings, but behavioral constructs as
+well.
+
+<img src="img/Two_Way_Data_Binding.png">
+
+The Angular approach produces stable DOM. This means that the DOM element instance bound to model
+item instance does not change for the lifetime of the binding. This means that the code can get
+hold of the elements and register event handlers and know that the reference will not be destroyed
+by template data merge.
+
+