AngularJS 1.5+ Components do not support Watchers, what is the work around?

Question

I\'ve been upgrading my custom directives to the new component architecture. I\'ve read that components do not support watchers. Is this correct? If so how do you detect cha

Answer 1

To anyone interested in my solution, I end up resorting to RXJS Observables, which what you will have to use when you get to Angular 2. Here is a working fiddle for communications between components, it gives me more control on what to watch.

JS FIDDLE RXJS Observables

class BoxCtrl {
    constructor(msgService) {
    this.msgService = msgService
    this.msg = ''

    this.subscription = msgService.subscribe((obj) => {
      console.log('Subscribed')
      this.msg = obj
    })
    }

  unsubscribe() {
    console.log('Unsubscribed')
    msgService.usubscribe(this.subscription)
  }
}

var app = angular
  .module('app', ['ngMaterial'])
  .controller('MainCtrl', ($scope, msgService) => {
    $scope.name = "Observer App Example";
    $scope.msg = 'Message';
    $scope.broadcast = function() {
      msgService.broadcast($scope.msg);
    }
  })
  .component("box", {
    bindings: {},
    controller: 'BoxCtrl',
    template: `Listener: 

    {{$ctrl.msg}}

    Unsubscribe A`
  })
  .factory('msgService', ['$http', function($http) {
    var subject$ = new Rx.ReplaySubject();
    return {
      subscribe: function(subscription) {
        return subject$.subscribe(subscription);
      },
      usubscribe: function(subscription) {
        subscription.dispose();
      },
      broadcast: function(msg) {
        console.log('success');
        subject$.onNext(msg);
      }
    }
  }])