setter and getter for Angular

Question

In angular, there is a built in action dialog framework which I've to use to display the action pop up window when showDialog = true.

The action dialog will be shown when showDialog=true, else the action dialog will hide when showDialog=false

Have to use the setter and getter method to call cancel method when showDialog = false.

However when debugging the code, it keeps on checking the getter and setter method even though I've not trigger the action dialog.

Is there a way that I could use lifecycle method in Angular to compare the previous value and current boolean value of showDialog. Example: if previousValue.showDialog != currentValue.showDialog, then only call get showDialog(), set showDialog(), and cancel().

i was thinking of using some lifecycle method in Angular like ngAfterViewInit(). Do you know how do I store previous boolean val of showDialog, so that I can compare to the current val of showDialog.

In React, I could use getDerivedStateFromProps which has the prev props value but do you know if there is similar method in Angular.

a.html

   <action-dialog [(openDialog)]="showDialog"/>

b.html

      <button (click)="showDialog = true">
                    {{intl.cleanNow | uppercase}}
      </button>

a.ts

  get showDialog() {
      return this._showDialog;
   }

  set showDialog(val){
    if (val === false) {
        this.cancel();
    } else if (val === true) {
        this._showDialog = true;
    }
}

 cancel() { 
    this.showDialog = false;
    this.form.reset({
        throttle: this._originalThrottle || 50
    });
}

Answer 1

You can use the ngOnChanges life cycle hook. This life cycle hook gets an variable of type simpleChanges and one of it value is previous value.

@Component({
  selector: 'app-test',
  templateUrl: './test.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./test.component.scss']
})
export class TestComponent implements OnInit, OnChanges {
  @Input() test: string;
  constructor() { }

  ngOnChanges(changes: SimpleChanges) {
    console.log(changes);
  }

  ngOnInit() { }
}

This is how you call this component from parent component:

<app-test [test]="'2'"></app-test>

This will be the console:

test: SimpleChange, currentValue: "2", firstChange: true, previousValue: undefined

So you can know the current value, the previous value and even if this was the first change or not