host | Brian Treese

Angular Directive Composition API: Enhance Components with Host Directives (v19+)

March 27, 2025

Applying multiple directives to components creates verbose templates and makes it easy to forget required directives. Angular's Directive Composition API lets you embed directives directly into components, creating reusable component behaviors that can't be accidentally omitted. This tutorial demonstrates how to use host directives to add functionality like auto-focus, click-outside detection, and accessibility features directly into components, reducing template complexity and improving maintainability.

Angular Angular Components Angular Styles

Angular Component Styling: Every Way to Add Styles (Complete Guide)

March 06, 2025

Angular offers multiple ways to add styles to components, each with different use cases and trade-offs. From inline styles in the decorator to external stylesheets, from programmatic styling with Renderer2 to CSS custom properties, choosing the right approach impacts maintainability and performance. This comprehensive guide walks through every styling method available in Angular, helping you make informed decisions for your components.

Angular Angular Components Angular Styles

Angular Component Theming: CSS Custom Properties and :host-context

February 27, 2025

Component theming in Angular requires understanding how styles cascade and how to adapt components to different contexts. This tutorial demonstrates multiple theming strategies using CSS :host and :host-context selectors, along with CSS custom properties. You'll learn how to create flexible components that adapt their appearance based on where they're used, whether in a sidebar, main content area, or different color schemes. Each approach has trade-offs that we'll explore in detail.

Angular Angular Components Angular Forms

Angular :host and :host-context: Style Component Host Elements

January 23, 2025

Styling Angular components can be tricky, especially with encapsulated styles. But :host and :host-context let you target a component’s root element and adapt styles based on its context—without global CSS hacks. In this guide, you'll learn how to apply, modify, and control styles using these selectors, making your components smarter and more flexible. Let’s dive in!