How do I pass data to Angular routed components?

In one of my Angular 2 routes's templates (FirstComponent) I have a button

first.component.html

Pass data and route

My goal is to achieve:


Button click -> route to another component while preserving data and without using the other component as a directive.

This is what I tried...

1ST APPROACH

In the same view I am storing collecting same data based on user interaction.

first.component.ts

export class FirstComponent {
     constructor(private _router: Router) { }

     property1: number;
     property2: string;
     property3: TypeXY; // this a class, not a primitive type

    // here some class methods set the properties above

    // DOM events
    routeWithData(){
         // here route
    }
}

Normally I'd route to SecondComponent by

this._router.navigate(['SecondComponent']);

eventually passing the data by

this._router.navigate(['SecondComponent', {p1: this.property1, p2: property2 }]);

whereas the definition of the link with parameters would be

@RouteConfig([
      // ...
      { path: '/SecondComponent/:p1:p2', name: 'SecondComponent', component: SecondComponent} 
)]

The issue with this approach is that I guess I can't pass complex data (e.g. an object like property3) in-url;

2ND APPROACH

An alternative would be including SecondComponent as directive in FirstComponent.

However I want to route to that component, not include it!

3RD APPROACH

The most viable solution I see here would be to use a Service (e.g. FirstComponentService) to

• store the data (_firstComponentService.storeData()) on routeWithData() in FirstComponent

• retrieve the data (_firstComponentService.retrieveData()) in ngOnInit() in SecondComponent

While this approach seems perfectly viable, I wonder whether this is the easiest / most elegant way to achieve the goal.

In general I'd like to know whether I'm missing other potential approaches to pass the data between components, particularly with the less possible amou

Update 4.0.0

See Angular Angular Router - Fetch data before navigating for more details.

Original

Using a service is the way to go. In route params you should only pass data that you want to be reflected in the browser URL bar.

See Angular Angular Cookbook Component Communication - Bidirectional Service.

The router shipped with RC.4 re-introduces data
constructor(private route: ActivatedRoute) {}


const routes: RouterConfig = [
{path: '', redirectTo: '/heroes', pathMatch: 'full'},
{path: 'heroes', component: HeroDetailComponent, data: {some_data: 'some value'}}
];


class HeroDetailComponent {
ngOnInit() {
this.sub = this.route
.data
.subscribe(v => console.log(v));
}

ngOnDestroy() {
this.sub.unsubscribe();
}
}


See also the Plunker.

Stack Overflow Q#36835123, score: 312