Expandable table rows in angular 4 with angular material

Question

How would you make rows expandable in angular material tables? One requirement is that I need to be using the angular material table. I would also prefer to use the material

Answer 1

It is not possible out of the box, but you can solve it with a little custom code. Take a look at this discussion and this solution (not from me, but the basis for this answer).

In short: Use the material table and add a click-method to the rows:

Add a component for the expanded area. The row_detail.html contains the html which is in the expanded area.

@Component({
  selector: 'app-inline-message',
  templateUrl: 'row_detail.html',
  styles: [`
    :host {
      display: block;
      padding: 24px;
      background: rgba(0,0,0,0.03);
    }
  `]
})
export class InlineMessageComponent {
  @Input() content1: string;
  @Input() content2: string;
}

In your component where the table lives you need the method to expand the row. First, add this to your component...

expandedRow: number;
@ViewChildren('myRow', { read: ViewContainerRef }) containers;

... and then add the method:

/**
   * Shows the detail view of the row
   * @param {number} index
   */
expandRow(index: number, row: DataFromRowFormat) {

    if (this.expandedRow != null) {
      // clear old message
      this.containers.toArray()[this.expandedRow].clear();
    }

    if (this.expandedRow === index) {
      this.expandedRow = null;
    } else {
      const container = this.containers.toArray()[index];
      const factory: ComponentFactory = this.resolver.resolveComponentFactory(InlineMessageComponent);
      const messageComponent = container.createComponent(factory);

      messageComponent.instance.content1= "some text";
      messageComponent.instance.content2 = "some more text";
    }
}