Load JSON content from a local file with http.get() in Angular 2

I’m trying to load a local JSON file with http.get() in Angular 2. I tried something that I found here on Stack Overflow. It looks like this:

This is my app.module.ts where I import the HttpModule and the JsonModule from @angular/http:

import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { FormsModule } from '@angular/forms';
import { HttpModule, JsonpModule } from '@angular/http';
import { RouterModule, Routes } from '@angular/router';

import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import { NavCompComponent } from './nav-comp/nav-comp.component';
import { NavItemCompComponent } from './nav-comp/nav-item-comp/nav-item-comp.component';


@NgModule({
    declarations: [
        AppComponent,
        NavCompComponent,
        NavItemCompComponent
    ],
    imports: [
        BrowserModule,
        FormsModule,
        HttpModule,
        JsonpModule,
        RouterModule.forRoot(appRoutes)
    ],
    providers: [],
    bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})

export class AppModule { }

In my component, I import Http and Response from @angular/http. Then I have a function called loadNavItems(), where I try to load my JSON content with a relative path using http.get() and print the result with console.log(). The function is called in ngOnInit():

import { Component, OnInit } from '@angular/core';
import { Http, Response } from '@angular/http';

@Component({
    selector: 'app-nav-comp',
    templateUrl: './nav-comp.component.html',
    styleUrls: ['./nav-comp.component.scss']
})
export class NavCompComponent implements OnInit {

    navItems: any;

    constructor(private http: Http) { }

    ngOnInit() {
        this.loadNavItems();
    }

    loadNavItems() {
        this.navItems = this.http.get("../data/navItems.json");
        console.log(this.navItems);
    }
}

My local JSON file looks like this:

[{
        "id": 1,
        "name": "Home",
        "routerLink": "/home-comp"
    },
    {
        "id": 2,
        "name": "Über uns",
        "routerLink": "/about-us-comp"
    },
    {
        "id": 3,
        "name": "Events",
        "routerLink": "/events-comp"
    },
    {
        "id": 4,
        "name": "Galerie",
        "routerLink": "/galery-comp"
    },
    {
        "id": 5,
        "name": "Sponsoren",
        "routerLink": "/sponsoring-comp"
    },
    {
        "id": 6,
        "name": "Kontakt",
        "routerLink": "/contact-comp"
    }
]

There aren’t any errors in the console, and I just get this output:

In my HTML template I would like to loop the items like this:

<app-nav-item-comp *ngFor="let item of navItems" [item]="item"></app-nav-item-comp>

I made this with a solution I found here on Stack Overflow, but why doesn’t it work?

Edit relative path:

I also get a problem with my relative path, but I’m sure it’s the right one when I use ../data/navItems.json. In the screenshot, you can see the nav-comp.component.ts file, where I load the JSON content using a relative path from the JSON file which is in the folder called data? What’s wrong? Does the console print an 404 error, because it can’t find my JSON file from the relative path?

Answer

My own solution

I created a new component called test in this folder:

I also created a mock called test.json in the assets folder created by angular cli (important):

This mock looks like this:

[
        {
            "id": 1,
            "name": "Item 1"
        },
        {
            "id": 2,
            "name": "Item 2"
        },
        {
            "id": 3,
            "name": "Item 3"
        }
]

In the controller of my component test, import follow rxjs like this:

import 'rxjs/add/operator/map'

This is important, because you have to map your response from the HTTP GET call, so you get JSON content and can loop it in your ngFor. Here is my code how I load the mock data. I used http get and called my path to the mock with this path this.http.get("/assets/mock/test/test.json"). After this I map the response and subscribe it. Then I assign it to my variable items and loop it with ngFor in my template. I also export the type. Here is my whole controller code:

import { Component, OnInit } from "@angular/core";
import { Http, Response } from "@angular/http";
import 'rxjs/add/operator/map'

export type Item = { id: number, name: string };

@Component({
  selector: "test",
  templateUrl: "./test.component.html",
  styleUrls: ["./test.component.scss"]
})
export class TestComponent implements OnInit {
  items: Array<Item>;

  constructor(private http: Http) {}

  ngOnInit() {
    this.http
      .get("/assets/mock/test/test.json")
      .map(data => data.json() as Array<Item>)
      .subscribe(data => {
        this.items = data;
        console.log(data);
      });
  }
}

And my loop in its template:

<div *ngFor="let item of items">
  {{item.name}}
</div>

It works as expected! I can now add more mock files in the assets folder and just change the path to get it as json. Notice that you have also to import the HTTP and Response in your controller. The same in you app.module.ts (main) like this:

import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { HttpModule, JsonpModule } from '@angular/http';


import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import { TestComponent } from './components/molecules/test/test.component';


@NgModule({
  declarations: [
    AppComponent,
    TestComponent
  ],
  imports: [
    BrowserModule,
    HttpModule,
    JsonpModule
  ],
  providers: [],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})
export class AppModule { }