Is it possible to get native element for formControl?

I've got Angular reactive form. I created formControls and assigned it to input fields by[formControl]=.... As I understand it creates nativeElement <-> formControl link.

My question: is it possible to get nativeElement for formControl? I want to do something like myFormControl.nativeElement.focus()

Solution 1:

The code below does not work with pure ngModel binding, so I did a lot of experiments. Latest, also confirmed by Maximillian Schwarzmuller should be the one:

@Directive({
    selector: '[ngModel], [formControl]', // or 'input, select, textarea' - but then your controls won't be handled and also checking for undefined would be necessary
})
export class NativeElementInjectorDirective {
    constructor(private el: ElementRef, private control : NgControl, @Optional() private model : NgModel) {
        if (!! model)
            (<any>model.control).nativeElement = el.nativeElement;
        else
            (<any>control).nativeElement = el.nativeElement;
    }
}

So if this directive is provided and exported in the main module, it will attach a custom nativeElement property to all FormControl.

It's a shame it's not coming out-of-the box...

Solution 2:

I can share one terrible solution but it works for me.

In reactive forms we can use either

1) FormControlDirective

ts

myControl = new FormControl('')

template

<input type="text" [formControl]="myControl">

or

2) FormControlName

ts

myForm: FormGroup;

constructor(private fb: FormBuilder) {}

ngOnInit() {
  this.myForm = this.fb.group({
    foo: ''
  });
}

template

<form [formGroup]="myForm">
  <input type="text" formControlName="foo">
</form>

So for these directives i could write some patch like

1) FormControlDirective

const originFormControlNgOnChanges = FormControlDirective.prototype.ngOnChanges;
FormControlDirective.prototype.ngOnChanges = function() {
  this.form.nativeElement = this.valueAccessor._elementRef.nativeElement;
  return originFormControlNgOnChanges.apply(this, arguments);
};

2) FormControlName

const originFormControlNameNgOnChanges = FormControlName.prototype.ngOnChanges;
FormControlName.prototype.ngOnChanges = function() {
  const result =  originFormControlNameNgOnChanges.apply(this, arguments);
  this.control.nativeElement = this.valueAccessor._elementRef.nativeElement;
  return result;
};

After that we can easily access to native element having FormControl instance

1) FormControlDirective

focusToFormControl() {
  (<any>this.myControl).nativeElement.focus();
}

2) FormControlName

focusToFormControlName(name) {
  (<any>this.myForm.get(name)).nativeElement.focus();
}

Plunker Example