NgxExpressUniversal

Angular Cli (1.30) + Angular Material 2 + Angular Universal.

This is a rough guide of how to get up and running with all of the above. A blog post to accompany the code can be found here. The starting point is an Angular-cli generated app with Material 2 added. The aim of this repo is to be a guide to the minimum steps required to get everything up and running so production concerns like error handling, caching and performance etc... are not covered (but hopefully will be in a separate repo with all the best practices later).

quick links

To get started with Angular cli, to install Angular Material2, and to install Angular Universal.

getting started with the sample

git clone https://github.com/JayChase/ngx-express-universal.git
cd ngx-express-universal
npm install
npm run build-all
npm run server

steps to create the project

add universal

These steps are just a checklist for the Angular cli story so use that for full details.

• install @angular/platform-server (--save-dev)
• add src/tsconfig.server.json
• add src/main.server.ts
• add src/app.server.module.ts
• change src/app.module.ts

BrowserModule.withServerTransition({
      appId: 'cli-uni'
    })

• add server app to .angular-cli.json

apps: [
  ...,
   {
      "name": "uni",
      "platform": "server",
      "root": "src",
      "outDir": "dist-server",
      "assets": [
        "assets",
        "favicon.ico"
      ],
      "index": "index.html",
      "main": "main.server.ts",
      "test": "test.ts",
      "tsconfig": "tsconfig.server.json",
      "testTsconfig": "tsconfig.spec.json",
      "prefix": "app",
      "styles": [
        "styles.css"
      ],
      "scripts": [],
      "environmentSource": "environments/environment.ts",
      "environments": {
        "dev": "environments/environment.ts",
        "prod": "environments/environment.prod.ts"
      }
    }
]

• exclude dist-server in .gitignore

add an express server

• install express @types/node @types/express (--save)
• add server-src/tsconfig.json (standard node.js tsconfig with output path set to ../server)
• add build-server script to package.json
• add server-src/server.ts

require('zone.js/dist/zone-node');
const renderModuleFactory = require('@angular/platform-server').renderModuleFactory;
const AppServerModuleNgFactory = require('../dist-server/main.d8532c2d5f13c00de031.bundle.js').AppServerModuleNgFactory; // bundle name set by npm script build-set-server-main-bundle
// const index = require('fs').readFileSync('./dist-server/index.html', 'utf8'); // for server side rendering
const index = require('fs').readFileSync('./dist/index.html', 'utf8'); // for server to client transition
const express = require('express');
const path = require('path');
const app = express();
const port = process.env.port || 3000;

app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, '../dist'), {
    index: false
}));

app.use('*', function (req, res, next) {
    // res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname,'../dist/index.html'));
    renderModuleFactory(
        AppServerModuleNgFactory, { document: index, url: req.baseUrl }).then(html => {
            res.send(html);
        });
});

app.listen(port, function () {
    console.log('listening on port: ' + port);
});

"build-server": "tsc -p ./server-src/tsconfig.json"

fix missing css bundle (for server side rendering)

To get the Material styles working on the server side add the style bundle to the server index.html.

• install glob and @types/glob (--save-dev)
• add build/addStyleBundle.js
• add build-uni-add-css to package.json

"build-uni-add-css": "node build/addStyleBundle"

• add to src/index.html
• change server/server.ts to use dist-server/index.html

const index = require('fs').readFileSync('./dist/index.html', 'utf8'); 

update server.ts with main.*.js bundle name on build

• add build/setServerMainBundle.js
• add build-set-server-main-bundle

"build-set-server-main-bundle": "node build/setServerMainBundle"

chosing between server side render or server to client transition

Just switch between the server or app index.html. So for server side the index in server.ts should be:

const index = require('fs').readFileSync('./dist-server/index.html', 'utf8');

and for server client transition

const index = require('fs').readFileSync('./dist/index.html', 'utf8');