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Deprecated

Follow these tutorial steps rather than using this library. Due to unresolvable Ivy and AOT issues, this library does not support Angular 14 and beyond. Following the tutorial steps, you can setup routing within your micro frontend without the need of a library.

Angular Elements Router

License Build Version

The angular elements router is a library for using the Angular Router within Angular Elements.

  • Router module usage — Use the angular router module both in the platform and the micro frontend without interfering each other.

  • Dev platform — Includes a straight-forward dev platform capable of replacing the production platform for local development.

  • Battle-tested — This library is based on the efforts at LeanIX where this approach is used to serve micro frontends to 100K users.

  • Non-intrusive — Use only the features you need, easy opt-out once Angular starts supporting the router in Angular Elements out of the box.

  • No dependencies — Besides Angular this library does not include any dependencies.

Installation

$ npm install --save ngx-elements-router

Try it

This repo includes an example platform and an example micro frontend.

$ git clone https://github.com/fboeller/ngx-elements-router.git
$ cd ngx-elements-router
$ npm install

Dev platform with micro frontend

$ npm start example-micro-frontend

A visit to localhost:4200 shows the dev platform. If you click the buttons, you see how the route changes, independent from if the click originated in the platform or the micro frontend.

Angular platform with micro frontend

$ npm run build example-micro-frontend
$ npm install -g http-server
$ http-server dist/example-micro-frontend --port 4201

$ npm start example-platform

A visit to localhost:4200 shows the Angular platform. The bundle file main.js is served from localhost:4201 without hot-reloading.

Prerequisites

You have an Angular application that acts as a platform and an Angular application that acts as a micro frontend. A build of the micro frontend results in a single build that registers custom elements on loading.

Usage

The general idea of this library is the delegation of the modification of the browser url such that only the platform application modifies it. This is achieved by preventing Angular in the micro frontend application from accessing the browser url and instead using inputs and outputs of the web component to pass route changes from and to the router module of the platform. The micro frontend routes and the platform routes are both defined starting after the base href but the micro frontend routes typically define a single top-level route like /micro-frontend and only receive routes starting with that route. In the component mounted at /micro-frontend, it is then possible to use an absolute path /abc to refer to a route external to the micro frontend and a relative path ./abc to refer to a route relative to the route /micro-frontend.

Create a host component

To be able to reference your custom element in the routes, you need to create a host component. You can use the aerRouting on the custom element to pass route changes to the micro frontend and to allow the micro frontend to pass route changes to the platform.

platform/micro-frontend-host.component.ts

import { Component } from "@angular/core";

@Component({
  selector: "app-host",
  template: `<mf-entry aerRouting></mf-entry>`,
})
export class MicroFrontendHostComponent {}

Create a host module

To lazy load your custom element, you need to create a host module in the platform. Import AngularElementsRouterModule to be able to use the aerRouting directive. Use the schema CUSTOM_ELEMENTS_SCHEMA to make Angular accept the custom element in the host component. Use the path ** to pass all sub paths to the custom element.

platform/micro-frontend-host.module.ts

import { AngularElementsRouterModule } from "ngx-elements-router";
import { MicroFrontendHostComponent } from "./micro-frontend-host.component";

const routes: Routes = [
  {
    path: "**",
    component: MicroFrontendHostComponent,
  },
];

@NgModule({
  declarations: [MicroFrontendHostComponent],
  imports: [RouterModule.forChild(routes), AngularElementsRouterModule],
  schemas: [CUSTOM_ELEMENTS_SCHEMA],
})
export class MicroFrontendHostModule {}

Bind the micro frontend to a route

Choose a route under which your micro frontend should be loaded. Use the LoadBundleGuard to load the bundle of your micro frontend on the first activation of the route.

platform/app-routing.module.ts

import { LoadBundleGuard } from "ngx-elements-router";

const routes: Routes = [
  {
    path: "micro-frontend",
    canActivate: [LoadBundleGuard],
    data: {
      bundleUrl: "http://localhost:4201/main.js",
    },
    loadChildren: () =>
      import("./micro-frontend-host/micro-frontend-host.module").then(
        (m) => m.MicroFrontendHostModule
      ),
  },
];

NOTE

Since Angular 11, your bundle name might be main-es2015.js.

Register routing in the micro frontend

Use the EntryRoutingService in the Angular component representing the custom element. This way, route changes are passed to the Angular router in the micro frontend and in the other direction to the platform.

micro-frontend/entry-component.ts

import { EntryRoutingService } from 'ngx-elements-router';

@Component({
  selector: 'mf-angular-entry',
  template: `<router-outlet></router-outlet>`,
})
export class EntryComponent implements OnChanges, OnDestroy {
  @Input() route?: string;
  @Output() routeChange = new EventEmitter<string>();

  route$ = new Subject<string | undefined>;

  private readonly subscription: Subscription;

  constructor(private entryRoutingService: EntryRoutingService) {
    this.subscription = this.entryRoutingService.registerRouting(
      this.routeChange,
      this.route$
    );
  }

  ngOnDestroy(): void {
    this.subscription.unsubscribe();
  }

  ngOnChanges() {
    this.route$.next(this.route);
  }

Create a custom element from the entry component

The module in your micro frontend needs to define the custom element in the browser on bootstrap of the module.

micro-frontend/app-module.ts

import { EntryComponent } from "./entry.component";
import { createCustomElement } from "@angular/elements";

@NgModule({
  declarations: [EntryComponent],
  imports: [BrowserModule],
  providers: [],
})
export class AppModule {
  constructor(private injector: Injector) {}

  ngDoBootstrap() {
    const customElement = createCustomElement(EntryComponent, {
      injector: this.injector,
    });
    window.customElements.define("mf-entry", customElement);
  }
}

Create a component that sits at your micro frontend route

The priorly created EntryComponent gets the full path starting after the base href. In its router outlet, a MicroFrontendComponent is mounted if the full path is a path to the micro frontend. Inside this component, you can use an absolute path /abc to refer to a route outside of the micro frontend. You can use a relative path ./abc to refer to a route relative to the micro frontend route. It can itself have a router outlet to mount different components depending on the subpath of the micro frontend.

micro-frontend/micro-frontend.component.ts

@Component({
  selector: "mf-micro-frontend",
  template: `
    <a routerLink="/child">/child</a>
    <a routerLink="./child">/micro-frontend/child</a>
    <router-outlet></router-outlet>
  `,
})
export class MicroFrontendComponent {}

Define the routes in the micro frontend

The route structure in the micro frontend needs to be defined with the same structure as the platform. If the platform delegates all traffic at /micro-frontend to the micro frontend, then the micro frontend should define such a route. All other traffic needs to go to a route ** such that the router module of the micro frontend does not discard it as undefined routes. This way, you can navigate to links outside of the micro frontend from within the micro frontend.

micro-frontend/app-routing.module.ts

import { NoComponent } from "ngx-elements-router";

const routes: Routes = [
  {
    path: "micro-frontend",
    component: MicroFrontendComponent,
    children: microfrontendRoutes,
  },
  { path: "**", component: NoComponent },
];

Prevent direct access to the browser url

By default, the Angular router within the micro frontend tries to update the browser url. Use the NoopLocationStrategy to prevent this, such that the platform has the only access.

micro-frontend/app-routing.module.ts

import { NoopLocationStrategy } from "ngx-elements-router";

@NgModule({
  imports: [RouterModule.forRoot(routes)],
  providers: [{ provide: LocationStrategy, useClass: NoopLocationStrategy }],
  exports: [RouterModule],
})
export class AppRoutingModule {}

Setup a dev platform within the micro frontend

For the independent development of the micro frontend, a minimal dev platform consisting of an index.html with some Javascript can be of advantage. This dev platform can be used both locally and also be deployed and used together with the bundle.

To use it, include the dev-platform.js in the scripts of your micro frontend in the angular.json.

angular.json

{
"build": {
  "builder": "ngx-build-plus:build",
  "options": {
    "singleBundle": true,
    "outputHashing": "none",
    ...,
    "scripts": [
      "node_modules/ngx-elements-router/src/dev-platform.js"
    ]
  },
}

Setup an index.html in the micro frontend app.

micro-frontend/index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <title>Example Micro Frontend</title>
    <base href="/" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
    <link rel="icon" type="image/x-icon" href="favicon.ico" />
    <script src="scripts.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <button onclick="router.changeRoute('/')">Go to platform main page</button>
    <button onclick="router.changeRoute('/micro-frontend')">
      Go to micro frontend main page
    </button>
    <div id="router-outlet"></div>
    <script>
      const router = registerRouting("/micro-frontend", "mf-entry");
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

Pass Zone.js events

Zone.js registers itself globally on the window object. If the platform and the micro frontend are both Angular projects relying on Zone.js, then they concurrently access it and interfere with each others change detection cycles. To mitigate that, you can pass Zone.js microtask empty events to the micro frontend. These events are the trigger of a change detection cycle.

You can use the EntryZoneService in the Angular component representing the custom element. This way, Zone.js micro task empty events are passed to the micro frontend and a change detection cycle is triggered.

micro-frontend/entry-component.ts

import { EntryZoneService } from "ngx-elements-router";

@Component({
  selector: "mf-angular-entry",
  template: `<router-outlet></router-outlet>`,
})
export class ExampleComponent implements OnChanges, OnDestroy {
  @Input() microtaskEmpty$?: Observable<void>;
  microtaskEmpty$$ = new Subject<Observable<void>>();

  constructor(private entryZoneService: EntryZoneService) {
    this.subscription = this.entryZoneService.registerZone(
      this.microtaskEmpty$$
    );
  }

  ngOnDestroy() {
    this.subscription.unsubscribe();
  }

  ngOnChanges() {
    this.microtaskEmpty$$.next(this.microtaskEmpty$);
  }
}

Use the aerRouting on the custom element to pass micro task empty events to the micro frontend.

platform/micro-frontend-host.component.ts

import { Component } from "@angular/core";

@Component({
  selector: "app-host",
  template: `<mf-entry aerZone></mf-entry>`,
})
export class MicroFrontendHostComponent {}

Limitations

Note that this library is a workaround to make the most common use cases of the Angular router accessible in a micro frontend. It has not been tried so far, if this approach works with more advanced features like named router outlets or router child modules. Various navigation options like skipLocationChange might not be propagated properly. Feel free to open issues or contribute pull requests for functionality that you think should be supported!