How to rename a component in Angular CLI?

Question

Is there any shortcut to rename a component with the Angular CLI other than manually editing all the component files such as folder name, .css, .ts, spec.ts and app.module.ts?

Answer 1

No!

There is no command which will change the name of all files generated using the component create command. So created ts, html, css/scss, .spec.ts files need to be manually renamed/edited.

I am a frequent user of angular cli and I think this would be a nice-to-have command as some time we just create angular components and need to rename them. As this rename command is not there, deleting the created angular component, directive, etc and again running the command to create the component is really a pain.

Here is the discussion link to add this feature rename angular component

Answer 2

Currently Angular CLI doesn't support the feature of renaming or refactoring code.

You can achieve such functionality with the help of some IDE.

Intellij, Eclipse, VSCode etc.. has default support the refactoring.

Nowadays VSCode is showing some uptrend,personally I'm a fan of this

Refactoring with VSCode

Determinig reference : - VS Code help you find all references of a variable by selecting variable and pressing shortcut SHIFT + F12. This works incredibly well with Type Script.

Renaming all instances of reference :- After finding all the references you can press F2 will open a popup and you can change the value and click enter this will update all the instances of reference.

Renaming files and imports You can rename a file and its import references with a plugin. More details can be found here

With above steps after renaming the variables and files you can achieve the angular component renaming.

Answer 3

Here is a checklist I use to rename a component:

1.Rename the component class (VSCode Rename Symbol will update all the references)

<Old Name>Component => <New Name>Component

2.Rename @Component selector along with references (use VSCode's Replace in Files):

app-<old-name> => app-<new-name>

Result:
@Component({
  selector: 'app-<old-name>' => 'app-<new-name>',
  ...
})

<app-{old-name}></app-{old-name}> => <app-{new-name}></app-{new-name}>

3.Rename component folder (when renaming folder in VSCode, it will update references in module and other components)

src\app\<module>\<old-name> => src\app\<module>\<new-name>

4.Rename component files (renaming manually will be the fastest, but you can also use a terminal to rename all at once)

<old-name>.component.* => <new-name>.component.*

Bash:
find . -name "<old-name>.component.*" -exec rename 's/\/<old-name>\.component/\/<new-name>.component/' '{}' +

PowerShell: 
Get-Item <old-name>.component.* | % { Rename-Item $_ <new-name>.component.$($_.Extension) }

Cmd:
rename <old-name>.component.* <new-name>.component.*

5.Replace file references in @Component (use VSCode's Replace in Files):

<old-name>.component => <new-name>.component

Result:
@Component({
  ...
  templateUrl: './<old-name>.component.html' => './<old-name>.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./<old-name>.component.scss'] => ['./<new-name>.component.scss']
})

That should be sufficient

Answer 4

While the OP asks for a CLI command, some of the answers focus on the IDEs. In this answer I just confirm, that the current WebStorm/IntelliJ does allow renaming the component. All that needs to be done is attempting to rename the class in the .ts file. You will be presented with:

and the rename will be performed in all relevant places.

Answer 5

I personally have not found any command for the same. Just make a new component (renamed name) and copy paste the previous component's html, css, and ts. In ts obviously the class name would be replaced. Its the safest method but does take a little time.

Answer 6

As the first answer indicated, currently there is no way to rename components so we're all just talking about work-arounds! This is what i do:

1. Create the new component you liked.

   ng generate component newName

2. Use Visual studio code editor or whatever other editor to then conveniently move code/pieces side by side!

3. In Linux, use grep & sed (find & replace) to find/replaces references.

   grep -ir "oldname"

   cd your folder

   sed -i 's/oldName/newName/g' *

Answer 7

In WebStorm, you can right click → Refactor → Rename on the name of the component in the TypeScript file and it will change the name everywhere.

Answer 8

If you are using VS Code, you can rename the .ts, .html, .css/.scss, .spec.ts files and the IDE will take care of the imports for you. Therefore there will be no complaints from the files that import files from your component (such as app.module.ts). However, you will still have to rename the component name everywhere it is being used.

Answer 9

Just rename the files and components as you normally would think, then restart ng serve. Easy peasy.

Rename the files, paths, and references. The key is that you have to close your running server and start it again after everything is renamed.