Angular Route Configuration Mastery

This challenge will test your ability to create and manage routing within an Angular application. Effective routing is crucial for building single-page applications (SPAs) that offer a seamless user experience, allowing navigation between different views or components without full page reloads. You will implement a basic route configuration, handling navigation and ensuring that the correct components are displayed based on the URL.

Problem Description

Your task is to set up the primary route configuration for an Angular application. This involves defining routes that map URLs to specific components. You will need to:

1. Define routes: Create an array of Route objects that specify the URL path and the component to be loaded for each path.
2. Configure the RouterModule: Import and configure the AppRoutingModule (or a similar module) with your defined routes.
3. Implement a base route: Ensure a default route (e.g., the root path /) is set up to redirect to a specific component.
4. Implement child routes (optional but recommended): For a more complex scenario, demonstrate how to define child routes for a parent route.
5. Use router-outlet: Integrate the router-outlet directive in your main AppComponent template to render the routed components.

Key Requirements:

• The application should have at least three top-level routes.
• One of these routes should be a "home" or "dashboard" route that is the default when the application loads.
• You should demonstrate the use of path parameters for at least one route.
• Error handling for undefined routes should be considered (though a full 404 component implementation might be beyond the scope of this initial setup).

Expected Behavior:

• Navigating to / should display the "Home" component.
• Navigating to /products should display the "Products" component.
• Navigating to /products/:id should display the "Product Details" component, correctly displaying the id.
• Navigating to a non-existent route should ideally result in a fallback or a clear indication of an error (e.g., Angular's default behavior or a simple message).

Edge Cases:

• Handling URLs with trailing slashes.
• Navigating to routes without the application throwing errors.

Examples

Example 1: Basic Route Setup

• Input:
  • A simple Angular project structure.
  • Components: HomeComponent, AboutComponent, ContactComponent.
• Output:
  • An AppRoutingModule with routes for /, /about, and /contact mapped to their respective components.
  • AppComponent template containing <router-outlet>.
• Explanation: The AppRoutingModule is configured to direct traffic based on the URL. Navigating to /about will render the AboutComponent inside the router-outlet.

Example 2: Route with Path Parameter

• Input:
  • A previously configured AppRoutingModule.
  • A ProductListComponent and a ProductDetailComponent.
• Output:
  • The AppRoutingModule is updated to include a route like path: 'products/:id', mapped to ProductDetailComponent.
  • The ProductDetailComponent has logic to access and display the id from the route parameters.
• Explanation: When a user navigates to /products/123, the ProductDetailComponent is loaded, and the value 123 is accessible as a route parameter within the component.

Example 3: Redirect and Wildcard Route

• Input:
  • A complex application with existing routes.
  • A requirement to redirect users from /home to / and to handle any unmatching routes with a "Not Found" component.
• Output:
  • The AppRoutingModule includes a route with path: 'home' and redirectTo: '/'.
  • A wildcard route path: '**' is added to catch all other unmatched paths, redirecting to a NotFoundComponent.
• Explanation: This example demonstrates how to set up redirects for common navigational patterns and how to gracefully handle users accessing URLs that don't match any defined routes, improving the user experience and preventing errors.

Constraints

• You must use TypeScript for all code.
• The solution should be implementable within a standard Angular CLI project.
• The focus is on route configuration, not complex component logic or styling.
• Assume all necessary Angular CLI commands for project creation and component generation have been executed.

Notes

• Remember to import RouterModule and Routes from @angular/router.
• The forRoot() method is typically used in the root AppRoutingModule, while forChild() is used in feature modules. For this challenge, forRoot() will suffice.
• Consider the order of your routes, especially when using wildcards.
• Path parameters are accessed within components using the ActivatedRoute service.