README
xng-breadcrumb
A lightweight, declarative and configurable breadcrumbs solution for Angular 6 and beyond. https://www.npmjs.com/package/xng-breadcrumb
About
- In applications with deep navigation hierarchy, it is essential to have breadcrumbs.
- Breadcrumbs easily allow going back to states higher up in the hierarchy.
Demo
Live Demo - A demo app showcasing xng-breadcrumb
usage in an Angular app. Navigate through different links to see breadcrumbs behavior.
Features
✅ Angular Router integration: Just add
<xng-breadcrumb></xng-breadcrumb>
anywhere in the app. Breadcrumb labels will be auto-generated even without any configuration.✅ Map Breadcrumb labels to Routes in Route Config: Define breadcrumbs in Application Route Config itself.
✅ Update labels dynamically: Change breadcrumbs dynamically using
BreadcrumbService.set()
. You can either use route path or breadcrumb alias to change breadcrumb for a route.✅ Skip Breadcrumbs for certain routes: Skip specific routes from displaying in breadcrumbs, conditionally.
✅ Customization: You can the customize breadcrumb template to show icons as label prefix, use pipes on text, add i18n, etc. Separator and Styles can also be customized with ease.
Quickstart
- Install via npm or yarn
npm install --save params-xng-breadcrumb
//------------- OR --------------
yarn add xng-breadcrumb
- Import 'BreadcrumbModule' in your Application
import {BreadcrumbModule} from 'xng-breadcrumb';
@NgModule({
...
imports: [BreadcrumbModule],
...
})
export class AppModule { }
- Add 'xng-breadcrumb' selector, wherever you plan to show breadcrumbs
<xng-breadcrumb></xng-breadcrumb>
- (Optional) Use BreadcrumbService, if you want to change breadcrumbs behavior(visibility, label, etc) dynamically.
import { BreadcrumbService } from 'xng-breadcrumb';
constructor(private breadcrumbService: BreadcrumbService) {}
// Code examples with BreadcrumbService are given below, under Usage section
🎉🎉 That's it. You should see auto-generated breadcrumbs appearing for each route.
Note: XngBreadcrumb has a peer dependency on @angular/router
. Include RouterModule
in App imports, if you haven't already.
Angular Version Compatibility
xng-breadcrumb | Angular |
---|---|
4.x.x | 6.x, 7.x |
5.x.x | 8.x, 9.x |
Setup Guide
Map Breadcrumb labels to Routes in Route Config
- define 'breadcrumb' within the data property of route.
- a 'breadcrumb' can be defined as a string OR as an object.
- Use breadcrumb as a string if you are just providing breadcrumb text
- Use breadcrumb as an object if you are providing additional properties like 'alias', 'skip', 'info'. In this case, 'label' property denotes breadcrumb text.
breadcrumb as a string
{
path: 'dashboard',
loadChildren: './dashboard/dashboard.module#DashboardModule',
data: { breadcrumb: 'Home' }
},
{
path: 'add',
component: MentorAddComponent,
data: { breadcrumb: 'New' }
}
breadcrumb as an object
{
path: 'dashboard',
loadChildren: './dashboard/dashboard.module#DashboardModule',
data: {
breadcrumb: {
label: 'Home',
info: { mydata: { icon: 'home', iconType: 'material' } }
}
}
},
{
path: 'add',
component: MentorAddComponent,
data: { breadcrumb: { skip: true, alias: 'mentorAdd' } }
}
Update labels dynamically
- Breadcrumb label can be updated based on route path or alias
- For simple routes, route path is enough. Ex:
breadcrumbService.set(<route path> , <breadcrumb label>)
- For long deep routes, you can use alias.
- Create an alias for a route in route config. Prefix alias with '@' while using the set() method. Ex:
breadcrumbService.set(@<alias> , <breadcrumb label>)
Update using route path
{
path: 'mentor',
component: MentorDetailsComponent,
children: [
{
path: ':id',
component: MentorEditComponent
}
]
}
// routepath can contain path and params similary how you defined in routes
breadcrumbService.set('mentor', 'Enabler'); // path for MentorDetailsComponent
breadcrumbService.set('mentor/:id', 'Uday Vunnam'); // path for MentorEditComponent contains param (:id)
Update using alias
{
path: 'mentor',
component: MentorDetailsComponent,
children: [
{
path: ':id',
component: MentorEditComponent
data: {
breadcrumb: {
alias: 'mentorName'
}
}
}
]
}
breadcrumbService.set('@mentorName', 'Uday Vunnam');
Skip Breadcrumbs for certain routes
You can skip a route from displaying in breadcrumbs in two ways
- make 'skip' as true for breadcrumb in route config
breadcrumb: { skip: true }
- Use the 'set()' method and pass second argument as an object with 'skip' as true
skip breadcrumb in route config
{
path: 'edit',
component: MentorEditComponent,
data: { breadcrumb: { skip: true } }
}
skip breadcrumb dynamically
breadcrumbService.set('mentor/:id/edit', { skip: true });
breadcrumbService.set('@mentorName', { skip: true }); // using alias '@mentorName'
//To make a hidden breadcrumb visible.
breadcrumbService.set('mentor/:id/edit', { skip: false });
breadcrumbService.set('@mentorName', { skip: false }); // using alias '@mentorName'
Customization
Custom Breadcrumb template (add icons, change text, add i18n ability, etc)
You can display whatever you want in the place of breadcrumb text by providing a custom template.
- Use *xngBreadcrumbItem directive to provide a custom template
- breadcrumb label is available implicitly in the template context
Change text case
{
path: '',
pathMatch: 'full',
component: HomeComponent,
data: {
breadcrumb: 'app home'
}
}
<xng-breadcrumb>
<ng-container *xngBreadcrumbItem="let breadcrumb">
<ng-container>{{ breadcrumb | titlecase }}</ng-container>
</ng-container>
</xng-breadcrumb>
Add icons in front of label
- define 'info' associated with breadcrumb in route config. 'info' has type
. you can pass string or object as you need. - 'info' is available in the context of *xngBreadcrumbItem.
- Additionally 'first' and 'last' are passed to identify 'first' and 'last' items respectively.
{
path: '',
pathMatch: 'full',
component: HomeComponent,
data: {
breadcrumb: {
label: 'app home',
info: 'home'
}
}
}
<xng-breadcrumb>
<ng-container *xngBreadcrumbItem="let breadcrumb; let info = info; let first = first">
<mat-icon *ngIf="info">{{ info }}</mat-icon>
<ng-container *ngIf="!first">{{ breadcrumb }}</ng-container>
</ng-container>
</xng-breadcrumb>
i18n ability
- Usually, internationalization is achieved in Angular using libraries like ngx-translate or transloco.
- These libraries provide a pipe to change text while language is changed.
- With ngx-translate you can change the language for breadcrumb text as shown below.
<xng-breadcrumb>
<ng-container *xngBreadcrumbItem="let breadcrumb">
<ng-container>{{ breadcrumb | translate }}</ng-container>
</ng-container>
</xng-breadcrumb>
Custom separator
- Breadcrumb uses '/' as the separator by default.
- To use custom separator pass separator as an input to
<xng-breadcrumb>
. - You can either use a simple string(>>, -, -->) or a component (mat-icon, fa-icon) as a separator.
string as separator
<xng-breadcrumb separator=">"></xng-breadcrumb>
icon or component as separator
<xng-breadcrumb [separator]="iconTemplate"></xng-breadcrumb>
<ng-template #iconTemplate>
<mat-icon>arrow_right</mat-icon>
</ng-template>
Custom Breadcrumb Styles
<xng-breadcrumb>
defines the least possible specificity for selectors, to make it easy to override them.override styles by changing the CSS for corresponding classes. (Keep this styles in app root styles file if you don't want to use ::ng-deep)
Below are classes visualization to help which class maps to which box
(Optional)xng-breadcrumb takes 'class' as input. This class will be applied to the root of the breadcrumb. This can be used to increase specificity when there are conflicting styles.
.xng-breadcrumb-root {
padding: 8px 16px;
display: inline-block;
border-radius: 4px;
background-color: #e7f1f1;
}
.xng-breadcrumb-separator {
padding: 0 4px;
}
Disable Auto Generation of breadcrumb labels
- Breadcrumbs are integrated with Angular Router and labels are auto-generated(if a label is not provided for a route).
- Auto-generated label is the same as route the path segment.
- If you want to disable this, set
[autoGenerate]=false
.
<xng-breadcrumb [autoGenerate]="false"></xng-breadcrumb>
API
Route Config
property | Description | Type | Default |
---|---|---|---|
breadcrumb | Breadcrumb data provided in App route config | string | Breadcrumb |
undefined |
breadcrumb: {alias} | alias name for a route | string |
undefined |
breadcrumb: {skip} | whether to skip route from showing in breadcrumbs | boolean |
false |
breadcrumb: {info} | arbitrary info for a breadcrumb. | string | object |
undefined |
breadcrumb: {label} | same as breadcrumb. Use label when breadcrumb is defined as object | string |
undefined |
xng-breadcrumb
property | Description | Type | Default |
---|---|---|---|
separator | input: separator between breadcrumbs | string | TemplateRef<void> |
/ |
autoGenerate | input:whether to auto generate breacrumb labels | boolean |
true |
*xngBreadcrumbItem | directive: to read context in custom breadcrumb templates | NA | NA |
BreadcrumbService.set(pathOrAlias, breadcrumb)
argument | Description | Type |
---|---|---|
pathOrAlias | full route path or alias prefixed with '@' | string |
breadcrumb | breadcrumb data to update for a route | string | Breadcrumb |
Where to define breadcrumbs, if Routes path have same Route specificity
- For the same route path, you can define breadcrumbs either on parent or any descendant with empty path.
- If both are defined, the children take the precedence.
With Component and its Children
// defining breadcrumb on Component Route
{
path: ':userId',
data: { breadcrumb: 'Declaraed on Parent Component' },
children: [
{ path: '', component: ShowUserComponent }
]
}
// defining breadcrumb on children with empty path
{
path: ':userId',
children: [
{ path: '', component: ShowUserComponent, data: { breadcrumb: 'Declaraed on child with empty path' }
]
}
With Module and its Children
// defining breadcrumb on Module route
{ path: 'home', loadChildren: './home/home.module#HomeModule', data: { breadcrumb: 'Declaraed on Parent Module' } }
// Within HomeModule Routes -
{ path: '', pathMatch: 'full', component: HomeComponent, data: { breadcrumb: 'Declaraed on child with empty path' }}
Accessibility
- A
<nav>
witharia-label="breadcrumb"
identifies type of navigation as breadcrumb by screen readers. - The breadcrumb links are structured using an ordered list
<ol>
. - The last
<li>
element represents the current page, so it doesn't have to be clickable. - Separators between links have
aria-hidden=true
. This prevents the screen reader announcement of visual separators.
Local Development
If you wish to contribute to this repository, below are the steps for local development.
- Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/udayvunnam/xng-breadcrumb.git
- Run
npm install
to install the dependencies - Run
npm start
to build and watch both the library and the demo app. This opens the app athttp://localhost:4200/
automatically.
Build
Run npm run build
to build the library and demo app together. The build artifacts will be stored in the dist/
directory.
This step is used by CircleCI to build both the library and the demo app. After a successful build, a new semantic version of the library is published to npm and the demo app is deployed to Netlify.
Tests
Run ng test
to execute the unit tests via Karma.
Motivation 🎉🎉🎉
You can create your library with complete automated setup for build, tests, and release. Check this blog post for best practices and implementation details of this library blog post