What is the best way to pass dynamic values to a service constructor from a component?

After days of attempting to grasp 'the Angular paradigm', I still find myself struggling to understand something about services that are not singletons. It seems impossible for me to pass a runtime-determined value to a service constructor, as I am only able to use hardcoded values.

Let's say I want to develop a service that maintains a persistent connection to various remote APIs for different objects - such as on/off switches. How can I make the component dynamically provide the unique connection URL to the service at runtime, without knowing it during compile-time? The URL is provided to the component upon instantiation, but I'm stuck on how to relay it further.

//app.component.ts
import { Component } from '@angular/core';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-root',
  template: `
  <app-toggler-control *ngFor="let control of controls" 
    name='{{ control.name }}' 
    baseUrl='{{ control.baseUrl }}'
    icon='{{ control.icon }}'
    username = '{{ control.username }}'
    password = '{{ control.password }}'
  ></app-toggler-control>
  `
})
export class AppComponent {
  title = 'testapp1';
  controls:any[] = [
    {
      'name': 'Fan1',
      'baseUrl': 'baseUrl1',
      'icon': '../assets/images/Fan.png',
      'username': 'authuser1',
      'password': 'P@$$w0rd!'
    },
    {
      'name': 'Lamp1',
      'baseUrl': 'baseUrl2',
      'icon': '../assets/images/Lamp.png',
      'username': 'authuser1',
      'password': 'P@$$w0rd!'
    },
    {
      'name': 'Valve1',
      'baseUrl': 'baseUrl3',
      'icon': '../assets/images/Valve.png',
      'username': 'authuser1',
      'password': 'P@$$w0rd!'
    },
  ]
}
//toggler-control.component.ts
import { Component, Input, OnInit } from '@angular/core';
import { TogglerCommsService } from '../toggler-comms.service'

@Component({
  selector: 'app-toggler-control',
  template: `
  <button style="background-color:{{this.currentState==true?'green':'red'}};">
    <img (click)="this.toggleState()" src="{{ this.icon }}" width="50px">{{ this.name }}
  </button>
  `,
  providers: [
    TogglerCommsService,
    {provide: 'url', useValue: 'needs to be replaced by baseUrl[1,2,or 3]'},  
    {provide: 'name', useValue: 'needs to be Fan1, Lamp1 or Valve1'}
  ]
})
export class TogglerControlComponent implements OnInit {
  @Input() name:string = '';
  @Input() baseUrl:string = '';
  @Input() icon:string = '';
  @Input() username:string = '';
  @Input() password:string = '';
  currentState!:boolean;
 

  constructor(private togglerComms:TogglerCommsService) { }

  ngOnInit(): void {
    console.log('init for: ', this.name);
    this.togglerComms.getState().subscribe((val)=>{this.currentState=val;});
  }

  toggleState(): void {
    this.currentState = !this.currentState;
    this.togglerComms.setState(this.currentState);
  }

}
//toggler-comms.service.ts
import { Inject, Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { Observable, of } from 'rxjs';
import { delay } from 'rxjs/operators';

@Injectable({
  providedIn: 'any'
})
export class TogglerCommsService {
  controlName:string = '';
  remoteEndpoint:string = '';
  mockState:boolean = Math.random() < 0.5;  

  //I want to provide the URL upon construction/instantiation
  constructor(@Inject('url') url:string, @Inject('name') name:string) { 
    console.log("Connecting to ",url);
    this.remoteEndpoint = url;
    this.controlName = name;
  }

  getState():Observable<boolean> {
    console.log('Querying ' + this.remoteEndpoint + ' for state of ' + this.controlName + ' control.');
    return of(this.mockState).pipe(delay(1000));
  }

  setState(newState:boolean) {
    console.log('Updating ' + this.remoteEndpoint + ' with desired state of ' + this.controlName + ' control (' + (newState === true ? 'on':'off') + ').')
    this.mockState = newState;
  }
}

I find myself in a paradox where the chicken and egg scenario plays out. Angular indicates the component relies on the service while I need the service to be instantiated/constructed with values passed by the component instance. How do I change the following part of toggler-control.component.ts to utilize variables instead?

providers: [
    TogglerCommsService,
    {provide: 'url', useValue: 'needs to be replaced by baseUrl[1,2,or 3]'},  
    {provide: 'name', useValue: 'needs to be Fan1, Lamp1 or Valve1'}
  ]

There must be an obvious and essential aspect that I'm just overlooking.

Answer №1

You have the ability to configure things using standard methods - it may not be extravagant, but it gets the job done:

ngOnInit(): void {
  this.togglerComms.init(...whatever...);
}

By specifying

providers: [ TogglerCommsService ]
, a new service instance is generated for each component, allowing each component to manipulate its own service as needed.

If there are multiple components simultaneously, multiple services will be created. https://stackblitz.com/edit/angular-6e6ry7?file=src%2Fapp%2Fapp.component.ts

This concept is analogous to having a field in the component itself, but Angular handles dependency injection, executes OnInit and OnDestroy functions automatically, and grants access to child components.

Answer №2

From my current understanding, when using a service to provide values to another service's constructor, the service is constructed before the component utilizing it. The service's token is then injected into the component's construction. This means that the component cannot pass construction arguments to the service directly. Instead, the recommended approach, as hinted by Petr, is to set the values in the service instance within the OnInit() function of the consuming component.

ngOnInit(): void {
    console.log('Initializing for: ', this.name);
    this.togglerComms.controlName = this.name;
    this.togglerComms.remoteEndpoint = this.baseUrl;
    this.togglerComms.getState().subscribe((val)=>{this.currentState=val;});
  }

The advice here is to remove all injection-related code from the service constructor and leave it empty, like in the TogglerCommsService constructor below.

  //I want to provide the URL upon construction/instantiation <== too bad!
  constructor() { //@Inject('url') url:string, @Inject('name') name:string) { 
    //console.log("Connecting to ",url);
    //this.remoteEndpoint = url;
    //this.controlName = name;
  }

Also, eliminate any extra providers from the TogglerControlComponent specification as shown in the snippet below.

providers: [
    TogglerCommsService,
    //{provide: 'url', useValue: 'wishes it was the baseUrl[1,2,or 3]'}, 
    //{provide: 'name', useValue: 'wishes it was Fan1, Lamp1 or Valve1'}
  ]

Lastly, ensure each component receives its own instance of the service by including the service in the providers array of the component metadata. This is known as "sandboxing," as explained in the Angular DI Guide.

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