What does the “ng-reflect-*” attribute do in Angular2/4?

Question

Here I have a complex data structure in an Angular4 application.

It is a directed multigraph parametrized with dictionaries both on nodes and on links. My angular co

Answer 1

ng-reflect-${name} attributes are added for debugging purposes and show the input bindings that a component/directive has declared in its class. So if your component is declared like this:

class AComponent {
  @Input() data;
  @Input() model;
}

the resulting html will be rendered like this:

<a-component ng-reflect-data="..." ng-reflect-model="...">
   ...
<a-component>

They exist only when debugging mode is used - default mode for Angular. To disable them, use

import {enableProdMode} from '@angular/core';

enableProdMode();

inside main.ts file. These attributes are added by this function here:

function debugCheckAndUpdateNode(...): void {
  const changed = (<any>checkAndUpdateNode)(view, nodeDef, argStyle, ...givenValues);
  if (changed) {
    const values = argStyle === ArgumentType.Dynamic ? givenValues[0] : givenValues;
    if (nodeDef.flags & NodeFlags.TypeDirective) {
      const bindingValues: {[key: string]: string} = {};
      for (let i = 0; i < nodeDef.bindings.length; i++) {
        const binding = nodeDef.bindings[i];
        const value = values[i];
        if (binding.flags & BindingFlags.TypeProperty) {
          bindingValues[normalizeDebugBindingName(binding.nonMinifiedName !)] =
              normalizeDebugBindingValue(value); <------------------
        }
      }

    ...

    for (let attr in bindingValues) {
      const value = bindingValues[attr];
      if (value != null) {
        view.renderer.setAttribute(el, attr, value); <-----------------