Angular Route Configuration Challenge: Dynamic Route Generation

This challenge focuses on building a flexible and dynamic route configuration for an Angular application. You'll be tasked with creating a service that generates Angular routes based on a provided data structure, allowing for easy modification and expansion of the application's navigation without directly editing the routing module. This is a common requirement in applications with evolving features or content-driven navigation.

Problem Description

You need to create an Angular service called RouteGeneratorService. This service will accept an array of route objects as input and generate the Angular route configuration object that can be used in your app-routing.module.ts file. Each route object in the input array will have the following properties:

• path: (string) The route path (e.g., '/home', '/products/:id').
• component: (ComponentType<any>) The Angular component to be loaded for this route. Assume you have these components already defined.
• children: (Route[] | undefined) An optional array of child routes, following the same structure.

The service should return an array of Route objects suitable for use with RouterModule.forRoot() or RouterModule.forChild(). The generated routes should accurately reflect the structure of the input data.

Key Requirements:

• The service must handle nested routes (children).
• The service must return a valid Angular route configuration object.
• The service should be reusable and easily adaptable to different route structures.
• The service should not directly modify the Angular routing module; it should generate the configuration object.

Expected Behavior:

When the generateRoutes() method is called with a valid array of route objects, it should return an array of Route objects that can be directly used in the Angular router. The structure of the returned routes should mirror the structure of the input route objects, including nested children.

Edge Cases to Consider:

• Empty input array: Should return an empty array of routes.
• Invalid input data (e.g., missing path or component): The service should gracefully handle invalid input, potentially logging an error or returning a default configuration. For simplicity, assume the input will always be valid for this challenge.
• Circular dependencies in the children array (e.g., a route referencing itself as a child): While not required to handle this explicitly, be mindful of potential infinite loops if you were to extend this functionality.

Examples

Example 1:

Input: [
  {
    path: '',
    component: HomeComponent,
  },
  {
    path: 'products',
    component: ProductsComponent,
    children: [
      {
        path: ':id',
        component: ProductDetailComponent,
      },
    ],
  },
]

// Expected Output (simplified for clarity - actual output would be Angular Route objects)
[
  { path: '', component: HomeComponent },
  {
    path: 'products',
    component: ProductsComponent,
    children: [
      { path: ':id', component: ProductDetailComponent }
    ]
  }
]

Explanation: The input array defines two routes: a home route and a products route with a child route for product details. The service should generate an array of Route objects reflecting this structure.

Example 2:

Input: [
  {
    path: 'home',
    component: HomeComponent,
  },
  {
    path: 'about',
    component: AboutComponent,
  },
]

// Expected Output (simplified)
[
  { path: 'home', component: HomeComponent },
  { path: 'about', component: AboutComponent }
]

Explanation: A simple array of two routes.

Example 3: (Nested Children)

Input: [
  {
    path: 'admin',
    component: AdminComponent,
    children: [
      {
        path: 'users',
        component: UsersComponent,
        children: [
          {
            path: ':id',
            component: UserDetailComponent,
          },
        ],
      },
      {
        path: 'settings',
        component: SettingsComponent,
      },
    ],
  },
]

// Expected Output (simplified)
[
  {
    path: 'admin',
    component: AdminComponent,
    children: [
      {
        path: 'users',
        component: UsersComponent,
        children: [
          { path: ':id', component: UserDetailComponent }
        ]
      },
      { path: 'settings', component: SettingsComponent }
    ]
  }
]

Explanation: Demonstrates a deeper level of nested routes.

Constraints

• The service must be written in TypeScript.
• The input array can contain up to 100 route objects.
• The path property of each route object must be a non-empty string.
• The component property must be a valid Angular component type.
• Performance: The service should generate the route configuration in a reasonable amount of time (less than 100ms).

Notes

• You don't need to implement the actual Angular components (HomeComponent, ProductsComponent, etc.). Assume they are already defined.
• Focus on the logic for transforming the input data structure into an Angular route configuration.
• Consider using recursion to handle nested routes effectively.
• The Route type is part of the @angular/router module. You don't need to define it. It's an interface that describes the structure of a route.
• This challenge is designed to test your understanding of Angular routing and your ability to manipulate data structures in TypeScript.