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| author | Misko Hevery | 2012-02-29 11:29:46 -0800 |
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| committer | Misko Hevery | 2012-06-02 16:02:08 -0700 |
| commit | a3a37c2063a9098539a59444b8e4a52959f3ee24 (patch) | |
| tree | f3d9fa8538a8f8658ccf6277f2f930012758d810 /docs/content/guide/compiler.ngdoc | |
| parent | 0f5259c5a2c3aa390866ad4f18dd500e9e7e1e4f (diff) | |
| download | angular.js-a3a37c2063a9098539a59444b8e4a52959f3ee24.tar.bz2 | |
doc(compiler): rewrite
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/content/guide/compiler.ngdoc')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/content/guide/compiler.ngdoc | 143 |
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. + + |
