Angular2 Exception: Can’t bind to ‘routerLink’ since it isn’t a known native property

angular

Obviously the beta for Angular2 is newer than new, so there's not much information out there, but I am trying to do what I think is some fairly basic routing.

Hacking about with the quick-start code and other snippets from the https://angular.io website has resulted in the following file structure:

angular-testapp/
    app/
        app.component.ts
        boot.ts
        routing-test.component.ts
    index.html

With the files being populated as follows:

index.html

<html>

  <head>
    <base href="/">
    <title>Angular 2 QuickStart</title>
    <link href="../css/bootstrap.css" rel="stylesheet">

    <!-- 1. Load libraries -->
    <script src="node_modules/angular2/bundles/angular2-polyfills.js"></script>
    <script src="node_modules/systemjs/dist/system.src.js"></script>
    <script src="node_modules/rxjs/bundles/Rx.js"></script>
    <script src="node_modules/angular2/bundles/angular2.dev.js"></script>
    <script src="node_modules/angular2/bundles/router.dev.js"></script>

    <!-- 2. Configure SystemJS -->
    <script>
      System.config({
        packages: {        
          app: {
            format: 'register',
            defaultExtension: 'js'
          }
        }
      });
      System.import('app/boot')
            .then(null, console.error.bind(console));
    </script>

  </head>

  <!-- 3. Display the application -->
  <body>
    <my-app>Loading...</my-app>
  </body>

</html>

boot.ts

import {bootstrap}    from 'angular2/platform/browser'
import {ROUTER_PROVIDERS} from 'angular2/router';

import {AppComponent} from './app.component'

bootstrap(AppComponent, [
    ROUTER_PROVIDERS
]);

app.component.ts

import {Component} from 'angular2/core';
import {RouteConfig, ROUTER_DIRECTIVES, ROUTER_PROVIDERS, LocationStrategy, HashLocationStrategy} from 'angular2/router';

import {RoutingTestComponent} from './routing-test.component';

@Component({
    selector: 'my-app',
    template: `
        <h1>Component Router</h1>
        <a [routerLink]="['RoutingTest']">Routing Test</a>
        <router-outlet></router-outlet>
        `
})

@RouteConfig([
    {path:'/routing-test', name: 'RoutingTest', component: RoutingTestComponent, useAsDefault: true},
])

export class AppComponent { }

routing-test.component.ts

import {Component} from 'angular2/core';
import {Router} from 'angular2/router';

@Component({
    template: `
        <h2>Routing Test</h2>
        <p>Interesting stuff goes here!</p>
        `
})
export class RoutingTestComponent { }

Attempting to run this code produces the error:

EXCEPTION: Template parse errors:
Can't bind to 'routerLink' since it isn't a known native property ("
        <h1>Component Router</h1>
        <a [ERROR ->][routerLink]="['RoutingTest']">Routing Test</a>
        <router-outlet></router-outlet>
        "): AppComponent@2:11

I found a vaguely related issue here; router-link directives broken after upgrading to angular2.0.0-beta.0. However, the "working example" in one of the answers is based on pre-beta code – which may well still work, but I would like to know why the code I have created is not working.

Any pointers would be gratefully received!

Best Answer

>=RC.5

import the RouterModule See also https://angular.io/guide/router

@NgModule({ 
  imports: [RouterModule],
  ...
})

>=RC.2

app.routes.ts

import { provideRouter, RouterConfig } from '@angular/router';

export const routes: RouterConfig = [
  ...
];

export const APP_ROUTER_PROVIDERS = [provideRouter(routes)];

main.ts

import { bootstrap } from '@angular/platform-browser-dynamic';
import { APP_ROUTER_PROVIDERS } from './app.routes';

bootstrap(AppComponent, [APP_ROUTER_PROVIDERS]);

<=RC.1

Your code is missing 

  @Component({
    ...
    directives: [ROUTER_DIRECTIVES],
    ...)}

You can't use directives like routerLink or router-outlet without making them known to your component.

While directive names were changed to be case-sensitive in Angular2, elements still use - in the name like <router-outlet> to be compatible with the web-components spec which require a - in the name of custom elements.

register globally

To make ROUTER_DIRECTIVES globally available, add this provider to bootstrap(...):

provide(PLATFORM_DIRECTIVES, {useValue: [ROUTER_DIRECTIVES], multi: true})

then it's no longer necessary to add ROUTER_DIRECTIVES to each component.

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