Angular 17 - input with transform

[LukasMachetanz]

Is this a regression?

No

Description

Spectator does not correctly work using input having transform configured.

public id = input.required<number, string>({ transform: numberAttribute });

I would expect that Spectator correctly deals with this signature as well.

Please provide a link to a minimal reproduction of the bug

No response

Please provide the exception or error you saw

No response

Please provide the environment you discovered this bug in

No response

Anything else?

No response

Do you want to create a pull request?

No

[LukasMachetanz]

@kfrancois, I guess this could be connected to #637.

[kfrancois]

@LukasMachetanz thank you for logging this issue!

Before we can work on this issue, could you provide some more information around the expected/current behaviour, or perhaps a reproduction?

I've tried the example you mentioned, and I'm not sure what should change around the current behaviour.

Note that this commit addressed input signals with transform: 8cacdda#diff-3d128bff012b5140680c3a116bbeaceaa9721628c0e1ac71b672330a8b30dad0R11

In your example, input.required<number, string> would mean that if one were to pass an id into createComponent({ props: { id } }), the type of id is number | undefined, not string | number | undefined.

At the moment, this is a conscious choice (see discussion here #649). If you believe this is wrong, we can re-open the discussion around this.

I hope this helps already!

[LukasMachetanz]

@kfrancois, thank you for the fast reply.

---

Let's assume having the following component:

import { ChangeDetectionStrategy, Component, input, numberAttribute } from "@angular/core";

@Component({
  selector: "pui-some",
  template: "SomeComponent",
  changeDetection: ChangeDetectionStrategy.OnPush,
  standalone: true
})
export class SomeComponent {
  public id = input.required<number, number | string>({ transform: numberAttribute });
}

And let's assume having the following test:

import { createComponentFactory } from "@ngneat/spectator";
import { SomeComponent } from "./some.component";

describe("SomeComponent", () => {
  const createComponent = createComponentFactory({
    component: SomeComponent
  });

  it("renders the component", () => {
    // TS2322: Type string is not assignable to type number
    const spectator = createComponent({ props: { id: "1" } });

    expect(spectator.component).toBeInstanceOf(SomeComponent);
  });
});

---

I would assume that it is possible to provide "1" as an input to id. Using the component within an template would allow <pui-some id="1" /> and <pui-some [id]="1" /> as well.

Therefore, I am wondering if I am understanding something wrong or if the behaviour within the test is really by intention?

Any help appreciated. :)

[LukasMachetanz]

@kfrancois, do you have any opinion on this?

[kfrancois]

@LukasMachetanz sorry for my slow response here - my personal opinion is that the current behaviour makes sense in most cases, as we'd want to pass in the type that the component actually uses (rather than the type that the transform function will accept).

My reasoning here is:

• Transform functions should be unit tested separately
• When testing a component, you want to be testing the component itself, not any transform functions its inputs might use

However, I understand that my opinion might not be universally applicable. As such, we could make the typing of InferInputSignal weaker to allow your proposal (basically by flipping <infer K, infer _> to <infer _, infer K>).

If we were to make this change, the drawback is that in the following example:

public id = input.required({ transform: numberAttribute });

The inferred type for id is InputSignalWithTransform<number, unknown> meaning that we'll accept unknown as an input for id. Personally, I think this is a worse API (see reasoning above) but if the general sentiment leans the other way, this can definitely be changed!

[LukasMachetanz]

@kfrancois, thank you for responding and sharing your opinion. I fear that I see this differently though. I would expect to test against the public interface of SomeComponent, hence to provide id as a number or as a string. A user of the mentioned component could do the same within the template after all. Additionally, I would not like to be forced to make the transform function public due to the test. In my opinion this is an implementation detail of the component itself.

Regarding the inferred type: In my opinion the inferred type should be the accepted type of the transform function. In the case of numberAttribute it would be unknown, but for a custom transform function it could be properly typed. Therefore this is no problem from my point of view. I would totally expect this.