As a newcomer to Angular, my main focus is on understanding the order in which the files are processed within an application. To the best of my knowledge, the processing order is as follows:
- First, main.ts is processed where the bootstrap method associated with the imported platform accepts the root module file as its argument.
- Next, app.module.ts is processed, importing all required packages and application files. This is also where various components, directives, and application root components are declared for use, resulting in the rendering of the component tree model from top to bottom.
- Finally, this is where I encounter some difficulty in comprehension.
Starting from the rendering of the root component, Angular traverses through the parent-child path down the component tree, rendering them in sequence. For example, after declaring AppComponent, we have BookItemComponent, followed by BookItemList component and, lastly, favoriteDirective.
So, if AppComponent renders the initial custom DOM element in the applications markup, then BookItemComponent creates another custom DOM element inside it with an input selector called bookItem. Next comes BookItemList with an array of book items named bookItems, and finally, FavoriteDirective applies host binding to create a specific class for the host element.
The tricky part arises when there are bindings within the markup of BookItemComponent that rely on code from BookItemListComponent or FavoriteDirective. In such cases, would Angular skip ahead to look at those files? Or would it pause the processing of BookItemComponent, search for a data match, or perhaps move forward in order and return to fill in the gaps later once the necessary data is available?
I often struggle to follow the rendering process when faced with scenarios like these. It's possible that I may be approaching this concept incorrectly. Any insights on this matter would be greatly appreciated.