<lazy-af> for lazy loading in Angular

Every Angular app is different and has different needs. Yet Angular only provides one method for lazily loading code: using the loadChildren piece in the routes for any given module. By using the loadChildren piece of a route, you are telling Angular and the Angular CLI to help you out and lazily load that piece of the app when the associated route is hit. This is a very efficient tool that we should all be using.

HOWEVER!!!

Some of us need more flexibility when lazily loading modules. Some modules need to be triggered to load on events BESIDES route change. Maybe a click or a mouseover. Maybe when the user has admin rights, or when they don't have admin rights. This is why we built <lazy-af>. Using this component, combined with an ngIf, you can trigger lazy loading of a module for just about any scenario that you can think of.

How does it work?

To do this, we utilize the exact same pieces of Angular that loadChildren from routes uses. But we do it in a different way. Let's look at how it works.

Getting Started

Start by installing the right node module:

npm install @herodevs/lazy-af

At this point, we have all that we need to get started. We only need to do some configuring. We need to do the following:

1. Tell Angular to create a separate bundle for the module that we intend to lazy load.
2. Import LazyModule where we intend to use this lazy loading.
3. Tell <lazy-af> to load that bundle when needed.

Let's do this one at a time.

Create a separate bundle for our module

Open your angular.json file. In that file, look for the nested property projects.<your-project-name>.architect.build.options where <your-project-name> is the name of your project. Once you have the build options property in sight, add the lazyModules property to the options:

 "options": {
    ...
    "lazyModules": [ "src/app/test/test.module" ]
 }

In the above example, you are telling the Angular CLI to prepare a separate bundle for TestModule in the file src/app/test/test.module.ts. You will notice that this looks a lot like the loadChildren syntax for a route. That's because this lazyModules property is doing the same thing that the loadChildren property does in a route. Now the Angular CLI knows to create a separate bundle for the TestModule.

Import LazyModule

In your app, you need to add LazyModule to the imports of one of your app's NgModules

@NgModule({
  imports: [LazyModule],
})
export class AppModule {}

Now your app knows about the LazyModule and you can use the <lazy-af> component to lazy load the TestModule.

Use <lazy-af> in our app

The following is an example of how to use <lazy-af> to load our TestModule.

<div (mouseover)="load = true">Hover to load TestModule</div>
<lazy-af *ngIf="load" moduleName="src/app/test/test.module#TestModule"></lazy-af>

When you hover the <div> above, the ngIf will turn on the <lazy-af> component which will then load the TestModule and it will use whatever component is listed in the TestModule.bootstrap property and attach that component to the inside of the <lazy-af> component.

Consider that TestModule looks as follows:

@NgModule({
  bootstrap: [TestComponent],
})
export class TestModule {}

Using <lazy-af> to load the TestModule will the TestComponent inside of the the <lazy-af> component that you added to your template.

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