Since the implementation of RFC 748, Glimmer and Ember components accept a Signature
type parameter as part of their
definition. This parameter is expected to be an object type with (up to) three members: Args
, Element
and Blocks
.
Args
represents the arguments your component accepts. Typically this will be an object type mapping the names of your
args to their expected type. If no Args
key is specified, it will be a type error to pass any arguments to your
component.
The Element
field declares what type of element(s), if any, the component applies its passed ...attributes
to. This
is often the component's root element. Tracking this type ensures any modifiers used on your component will be
compatible with the DOM element(s) they're ultimately attached to. If no Element
is specified, it will be a type error
to set any HTML attributes or modifiers when invoking your component.
The Blocks
field specifies the names of any blocks the component yields to, as well as the type of any parameter(s)
those blocks will receive. If no Blocks
key is specified, it will be a type error to invoke your component in block
form.
Note that the inverse
block is an alias for else
. These should be defined in Blocks
as else
, though
{{yield to="inverse"}}
will continue to work.
{% code title="app/components/super-table.ts" %}
import Component from '@glimmer/component';
export interface SuperTableSignature<T> {
// We have a `<table>` as our root element
Element: HTMLTableElement;
// We accept an array of items, one per row
Args: {
items: Array<T>;
};
// We accept two named blocks: a parameter-less `header` block
// and a `row` block which will be invoked with each item and
// its index sequentially.
Blocks: {
header: [];
row: [item: T, index: number];
};
}
export default class SuperTable<T> extends Component<SuperTableSignature<T>> {}
{% endcode %}
{% code title="app/components/super-table.hbs" %}
{% endcode %}
Since Ember components don't have this.args
, it takes slightly more boilerplate to make them typesafe.
{% code title="app/components/greeting.ts" %}
import Component from '@ember/component';
import { computed } from '@ember/object';
export interface GreetingSignature {
Args: {
message: string;
target?: string;
};
Blocks: {
default: [greeting: string];
};
}
// We define this type alias so that we can extend it below:
type GreetingArgs = GreetingSignature['Args'];
// This line declares that our component's args will be 'splatted' on to the instance:
export default interface Greeting extends GreetingArgs {}
export default class Greeting extends Component<GreetingSignature> {
@computed('target')
private get greetingTarget() {
// Therefore making `this.target` a legal `string | undefined` property access:
return this.target ?? 'World';
}
}
{% endcode %}
{% code title="app/components/greeting.hbs" %}
{% endcode %}
Ember components also support positional arguments in their signature. Such usage is relatively rare, but components such as {{animated-if}}
do take advantage of it.
{% code title="app/components/greeting.ts" %}
// ...
export interface GreetingSignature {
Args: {
Named: {
message: string;
target?: string;
};
Positional: [extraSpecialPreamble: string];
};
Blocks: {
default: [greeting: string];
};
}
type GreetingArgs = GreetingSignature['Args']['Named'];
export default interface Greeting extends GreetingArgs {}
export default class Greeting extends Component<GreetingSignature> {
static positionalParams = ['extraSpecialPreamble'];
declare readonly extraSpecialPreamble: string;
// ...
}
{% endcode %}
Positional args are specified as a Positional
tuple nested within Args
, the same way they are in helper and modifier signatures. You can also specify positional args with ComponentLike
types in this way.
Note that both Positional
args and the Element
type are not fully integrated with the string-based APIs on the @ember/component
base class. This means, for example, that there's no enforcement that tagName = 'table'
and Element: HTMLTableElement
are actually correlated to one another.