How to use PrimeNG with Angular in aspnetcore-spa template - asp.net

Question

You know, I spend more time just trying to get things set up to work with Angular than I do actually developing with Angular. There must be an easier way... :(
Currently, I am using the aspnetcore-spa template, creating a project with the command "dotnet new angular" - this is version 1.0.3, which adds Angular 4.1.2 to the npm dependencies. This works great to get a project running quickly. But now I want to add PrimeNG to take advantage of their form controls. I have been struggling with this all day, and would love it if anyone could provide some assistance.
Here is what I have done in my current effort (the latest of many, starting fresh each time):
1) Added to the package.json file: "primeng": "4.1.0-rc.2"
2) Added 'primeng/primeng' to the webpack.config.vendor.js file's vendor collection.
3) Added the following to my test module (which is in turn referenced in app.module.shared.ts so I can route to it via my RouterModule):
import { FileUploadModule } from 'primeng/components/fileupload/fileupload';
And in the html for the module, in an attempt to use the file uploader control, I have (from their site - https://www.primefaces.org/primeng/#/fileupload):
<p-fileUpload name="myfile[]" url="./upload.php"></p-fileUpload>
4) ran "webpack --config webpack.config.vendor.js" from a command prompt at the root of the project folder, which completed with no errors.
Then I hit F5 to run the project, and I got this error:
Exception: Call to Node module failed with error: Error: Template parse errors:
'p-fileUpload' is not a known element:
1. If 'p-fileUpload' is an Angular component, then verify that it is part of this module.
2. If 'p-fileUpload' is a Web Component then add 'CUSTOM_ELEMENTS_SCHEMA' to the '#NgModule.schemas' of this component to suppress this message. (" type="button" (click)="onclick()" class="ui-button-info" label="Click Me">Click Me</button>-->
So, in an effort to comply, I added a reference to the ngprime module to the app.module.shared.ts file, like this (I don't really know how I should reference the module...):
import { FileUploadModule } from 'primeng/primeng';
But got the same exact error.
What am I missing???
Any help would be most appreciated.

Answer 1

I finally have this working, using the asp-prerender-module to get server-side rendering, and not having to rely on the asp-ng2-prerender-module (see my last comment). The trick, I found, was to reference the FileUploaderModule in the app.module.shared.ts file like this:
import { FileUploadModule } from 'primeng/components/fileupload/fileupload';
rather than like this:
import { FileUploadModule } from 'primeng/primeng';
The reason this matters is that the latter method of referencing will load all other components as well (see explanation here: https://www.primefaces.org/primeng/#/setup), and SOME of the PrimeNG components can not be rendered on the server due to DOM-related references (things like "window", which do not exist on the server). See the discussion here for more on this: https://github.com/primefaces/primeng/issues/1341
This change, combined with the other steps listed in my answer and, of course, actually referencing the directive in app.module (thank you #pankaj !) made everything work correctly at last. Only took me about 7 hours to figure it out. :(