Angular Navbar Component Overview

The Ignite UI for Angular IgxNavbarComponent is an application header component that informs the user of their current position in an app, and helps them move back (much like the “back” button in a browser). The Navigation Bar can also provide links to quick actions such as search or favorite, helping users navigate smoothly through an application without trying to move to invalid routes or states. The bar sits at the top of the container it is placed in.

Angular Navbar Example

Getting Started with Ignite UI for Angular Navbar

To get started with the Ignite UI for Angular Navbar component, first you need to install Ignite UI for Angular. In an existing Angular application, type the following command:

ng add igniteui-angular

For a complete introduction to the Ignite UI for Angular, read the getting started topic.

The first step is to import the IgxNavbarModule inside our app.module.ts file.

// app.module.ts

import { IgxNavbarModule } from 'igniteui-angular';
// import { IgxNavbarModule } from '@infragistics/igniteui-angular'; for licensed package

@NgModule({
    ...
    imports: [..., IgxNavbarModule],
    ...
})
export class AppModule {}

Alternatively, as of 16.0.0 you can import the IgxNavbarComponent as a standalone dependency, or use the IGX_NAVBAR_DIRECTIVES token to import the component and all of its supporting components and directives.

// home.component.ts

import { IGX_NAVBAR_DIRECTIVES } from 'igniteui-angular';
// import { IGX_NAVBAR_DIRECTIVES } from '@infragistics/igniteui-angular'; for licensed package

@Component({
    selector: 'app-home',
    template: '<igx-navbar title="Ignite UI for Angular"></igx-navbar>',
    styleUrls: ['home.component.scss'],
    standalone: true,
    imports: [IGX_NAVBAR_DIRECTIVES]
    /* or imports: [IgxNavbarComponent] */
})
export class HomeComponent {}

Now that you have the Ignite UI for Angular Navbar module or directives imported, you can start using the igx-navbar component.

Using the Angular Navbar

Then in the template of our component we can add the following code to show a basic navbar with a title:

<!--navbar.component.html-->

<igx-navbar title="Ignite UI for Angular">
</igx-navbar>

Add Menu Button

In order to add a menu button, we will show the action button using the actionButtonIcon property, and make it use a menu icon as follows:

<!--navbar.component.html-->

<igx-navbar title="Sample App" actionButtonIcon="menu" [isActionButtonVisible]="true">
</igx-navbar>

Note

The actionButtonIcon uses the Material fontset by design.

Add Icon Buttons

We can make our app a little more functional by adding options for searching, favorites and more. To do that let's grab the IgxIconButton and IgxIcon modules and import them in our app.module.ts file.

// app.module.ts

...
import {
    IgxNavbarModule,
    IgxIconButtonDirective,
    IgxIconModule
} from 'igniteui-angular';
// import { IgxNavbarModule, IgxButtonModule, IgxIconModule } from '@infragistics/igniteui-angular'; for licensed package

@NgModule({
    ...
    imports: [..., IgxIconButtonDirective, IgxIconModule],
})
export class AppModule {}

Next, we need to update our template with an icon button for each of the options we want our app to provide:

<!--navbar.component.html-->

 <igx-navbar title="Sample App">
    <button igxIconButton="flat">
        <igx-icon>search</igx-icon>
    </button>
    <button igxIconButton="flat">
        <igx-icon>favorite</igx-icon>
    </button>
    <button igxIconButton="flat">
        <igx-icon>more_vert</igx-icon>
    </button>
</igx-navbar>

If all went well, you should see the following in your browser:

Add Custom Action

What if we want to use a custom template for our app navigation on the left-most part of the navbar? We can easily achieve this by using the igx-navbar-action directive, which will render the content we have provided. We will do that by using a button with the Font Awesome home icon.

/* navbar.component.css */

@import url("https://unpkg.com/@fortawesome/fontawesome-free-webfonts@^1.0.9/css/fontawesome.css");
@import url("https://unpkg.com/@fortawesome/fontawesome-free-webfonts@^1.0.9/css/fa-regular.css");
@import url("https://unpkg.com/@fortawesome/fontawesome-free-webfonts@^1.0.9/css/fa-solid.css");

<!--navbar.component.html-->

 <igx-navbar title="Sample App">
    <igx-navbar-action>
        <button igxIconButton="flat">
            <igx-icon family="fa" name="fa-home"></igx-icon>
        </button>
    </igx-navbar-action>
        
    <button igxIconButton="flat">
        <igx-icon>search</igx-icon>
    </button>
    <button igxIconButton="flat">
        <igx-icon>favorite</igx-icon>
    </button>
    <button igxIconButton="flat">
        <igx-icon>more_vert</igx-icon>
    </button>
</igx-navbar>

Finally, this is how our navbar should look like with its custom action button icon:

Add Navigation Icon

If we want to create a navbar with an icon navigating back, we should follow a couple of steps. First, we can use the actionButtonIcon property to choose a suitable icon from the Material fontset. Then, we can make a simple check if there are any previously visited pages to go back to, and pass the result to the isActionButtonVisible property. The last step is to create a method for navigating back and hook it to the action property.

<!--navbar.component.html-->

<igx-navbar title="Ignite UI for Angular"
    actionButtonIcon="arrow_back"
    [isActionButtonVisible]="canGoBack()"
    (action)="navigateBack()">
</igx-navbar>

export class NavbarSample3Component {

  constructor(private _location: Location) { }

  public ngOnInit() {  }

  public navigateBack() {
    this._location.back();
  }

  public canGoBack() {
      return window.history.length > 0;
  }
}

If the sample is configured properly, you should see the following in your browser:

Note

If igx-navbar-action or igxNavbarAction is provided, the default actionButtonIcon will not be used.

Add Custom Title

If we want to provide a custom content for a navbar's title, we can achieve this by using igx-navbar-title or igxNavbarTitle directive. They will replace the default navbar's title provided by title input property. The sample below has a custom title containing a link with an image:

<!--navbar.component.html-->

<div class="sample-column">
    <igx-navbar>
        <igx-navbar-action>
            <button igxIconButton="flat">
                <igx-icon>menu</igx-icon>
            </button>
        </igx-navbar-action>

        <div igxNavbarTitle>
            <a href="https://ko.infragistics.com/products/ignite-ui-angular" target="_blank">
                <img src="https://static.infragistics.com/marketing/Website/products/ignite-ui-landing/ignite-ui-logo.svg"
                     width="120px" height="50px" alt style="margin-top: 7px;">
            </a>
        </div>

        <button igxIconButton="flat">
            <igx-icon>search</igx-icon>
        </button>
        <button igxIconButton="flat">
            <igx-icon>favorite</igx-icon>
        </button>
        <button igxIconButton="flat">
            <igx-icon>more_vert</igx-icon>
        </button>
    </igx-navbar>
</div>

Note

If igx-navbar-title or igxNavbarTitle is provided, the default title will not be used.

Styling

To get started with styling the navbar, we need to import the index file, where all the theme functions and component mixins live:

@use "igniteui-angular/theming" as *;

// IMPORTANT: Prior to Ignite UI for Angular version 13 use:
// @import '~igniteui-angular/lib/core/styles/themes/index';

Following the simplest approach, we create a new theme that extends the navbar-theme and accepts the $text-color, $background, $idle-icon-color and the $hover-icon-color parameters.

$custom-navbar-theme: navbar-theme(
    $text-color: #151515,
    $background: #dedede,
    $idle-icon-color: #151515,
    $hover-icon-color: #8c8c8c
);

Using CSS variables

The last step is to pass the newly created theme:

@include css-vars($custom-navbar-theme);

Using mixins

In order to style components for older browsers, like Internet Explorer 11, we have to use a different approach, since it doesn't support CSS variables.

If the component is using the Emulated ViewEncapsulation, it is necessary to penetrate this encapsulation using ::ng-deep. To prevent the custom theme to leak into other components, be sure to include the :host selector before ::ng-deep:

:host {
    ::ng-deep {
        // Pass the custom navbar theme to the `igx-navbar` mixin
        @include navbar($custom-navbar-theme);
    }
}

Using color palettes

Instead of hardcoding the color values, like we just did, we can achieve greater flexibility in terms of colors by using the igx-palette and igx-color functions.

igx-palette generates a color palette based on the primary and secondary colors that are passed:

$white-color: #dedede;
$black-color: #151515;
$light-navbar-palette: palette($primary: $white-color, $secondary: $black-color);

And then with igx-color we can easily retrieve color from the palette.

$custom-navbar-theme: navbar-theme(
    $text-color: color($light-navbar-palette, "secondary", 400),
    $background: color($light-navbar-palette, "primary", 400),
    $idle-icon-color: color($light-navbar-palette, "secondary", 400),
    $hover-icon-color: #8c8c8c
);

Note

The igx-color and igx-palette are powerful functions for generating and retrieving colors. Please refer to the Palettes topic for detailed guidance on how to use them.

Using schemas

You can build a robust and flexible structure that benefits from schemas. A schema is a recipe of a theme.

Extend one of the two predefined schemas, that are provided for every component, in this case - light-navbar schema:

 // Extending the navbar schema
 $light-navbar-schema: extend($_light-navbar,
    (
        text-color: (
           color: ("secondary", 400)
        ),
        background: (
           color: ("primary", 400)
        ),
        idle-icon-color:(
           color: ("secondary", 400)
        ),
        $hover-icon-color: #8c8c8c
    )
);

In order to apply our custom schemas we have to extend one of the globals (light or dark), which is basically pointing out the components with a custom schema, and after that add it to the respective component themes:

// Extending the global light-schema
$custom-light-schema: extend($light-schema,(
   navbar: $light-navbar-schema
));

// Defining navbar with the global light schema
$cutom-navbar-theme: navbar-theme(
  $palette: $light-navbar-palette,
  $schema: $custom-light-schema
);

Don't forget to include the themes in the same way as it was demonstrated above.

Demo

API References

• IgxNavbarComponent
• IgxNavbarActionDirective
• IgxNavbarTitleDirective
• IgxNavbarComponent Styles

Additional components and/or directives with relative APIs that were used:

• IgxIconComponent
• IgxIconComponent Styles

Theming Dependencies

• IgxIconComponent Theme
• IgxButtonComponent Theme

Additional Resources

Our community is active and always welcoming to new ideas.

• Ignite UI for Angular Forums
• Ignite UI for Angular GitHub