Angular2 Exception: Can't bind to 'routerLink' since it isn't a known native property

>=RC.5

import the RouterModule See also https://angular.io/guide/router

@NgModule({ 
  imports: [RouterModule],
  ...
})

>=RC.2

app.routes.ts

import { provideRouter, RouterConfig } from '@angular/router';

export const routes: RouterConfig = [
  ...
];

export const APP_ROUTER_PROVIDERS = [provideRouter(routes)];

main.ts

import { bootstrap } from '@angular/platform-browser-dynamic';
import { APP_ROUTER_PROVIDERS } from './app.routes';

bootstrap(AppComponent, [APP_ROUTER_PROVIDERS]);

<=RC.1

Your code is missing

  @Component({
    ...
    directives: [ROUTER_DIRECTIVES],
    ...)}

You can't use directives like routerLink or router-outlet without making them known to your component.

While directive names were changed to be case-sensitive in Angular2, elements still use - in the name like <router-outlet> to be compatible with the web-components spec which require a - in the name of custom elements.

register globally

To make ROUTER_DIRECTIVES globally available, add this provider to bootstrap(...):

provide(PLATFORM_DIRECTIVES, {useValue: [ROUTER_DIRECTIVES], multi: true})

then it's no longer necessary to add ROUTER_DIRECTIVES to each component.

---

For people who find this when attempting to run tests because via npm test or ng test using Karma or whatever else. Your .spec module needs a special router testing import to be able to build.

import { RouterTestingModule } from '@angular/router/testing';

TestBed.configureTestingModule({
    imports: [RouterTestingModule],
    declarations: [AppComponent],
});

http://www.kirjai.com/ng2-component-testing-routerlink-routeroutlet/

---

Word of caution when coding with Visual Studio (2013)

I have wasted 4 to 5 hours trying to debug this error. I tried all the solutions that I found on StackOverflow by the letter and I still got this error: Can't bind to 'routerlink' since it isn't a known native property

Be aware, Visual Studio has the nasty habit of autoformatting text when you copy/paste code. I always got a small instantaneous adjustment from VS13 (camel case disappears).

This:

<div>
    <a [routerLink]="['/catalog']">Catalog</a>
    <a [routerLink]="['/summary']">Summary</a>
</div>

Becomes:

<div>
    <a [routerlink]="['/catalog']">Catalog</a>
    <a [routerlink]="['/summary']">Summary</a>
</div>

It's a small difference, but enough to trigger the error. The ugliest part is that this small difference just kept avoiding my attention every time I copied and pasted. By sheer chance, I saw this small difference and solved it.

---

For >= V5

import { RouterModule, Routes } from '@angular/router';

const appRoutes: Routes = [
    {path:'routing-test', component: RoutingTestComponent}
];

@NgModule({
    imports: [
    RouterModule.forRoot(appRoutes)
    // other imports here
    ]
})

component:

@Component({
    selector: 'my-app',
    template: `
        <h1>Component Router</h1>
        <a routerLink="/routing-test" routerLinkActive="active">Routing Test</a>
        <router-outlet></router-outlet>
        `
})

For < V5

Also can use RouterLink as a directives ie. directives: [RouterLink]. that worked for me

import {Router, RouteParams, RouterLink} from 'angular2/router';

@Component({
    selector: 'my-app',
    directives: [RouterLink],
    template: `
        <h1>Component Router</h1>
        <a [routerLink]="['RoutingTest']">Routing Test</a>
        <router-outlet></router-outlet>
        `
})

@RouteConfig([
    {path:'/routing-test', name: 'RoutingTest', component: RoutingTestComponent, useAsDefault: true},
])

---

In general, whenever you get an error like Can't bind to 'xxx' since it isn't a known native property, the most likely cause is forgetting to specify a component or a directive (or a constant that contains the component or the directive) in the directives metadata array. Such is the case here.

Since you did not specify RouterLink or the constant ROUTER_DIRECTIVES – which contains the following:

export const ROUTER_DIRECTIVES = [RouterOutlet, RouterLink, RouterLinkWithHref, 
  RouterLinkActive];

– in the directives array, then when Angular parses

<a [routerLink]="['RoutingTest']">Routing Test</a>

it doesn't know about the RouterLink directive (which uses attribute selector routerLink). Since Angular does know what the a element is, it assumes that [routerLink]="..." is a property binding for the a element. But it then discovers that routerLink is not a native property of a elements, hence it throws the exception about the unknown property.

I've never really liked the ambiguity of the syntax. I.e., consider

<something [whatIsThis]="..." ...>

Just by looking at the HTML we can't tell if whatIsThis is

a native property of something

a directive's attribute selector

a input property of something

We have to know which directives: [...] are specified in the component's/directive's metadata in order to mentally interpret the HTML. And when we forget to put something into the directives array, I feel this ambiguity makes it a bit harder to debug.

---

You have in your module

import {Routes, RouterModule} from '@angular/router';

you have to export the module RouteModule

example:

@NgModule({
  imports: [RouterModule.forChild(routes)],
  exports: [RouterModule]
})

to be able to access the functionalities for all who import this module.

---

I have tried all methods, which are mentioned above.But no one method works for me.finally i got solution for above issue and it is working for me.

I tried this method:

In Html:

<li><a (click)= "aboutPageLoad()"  routerLinkActive="active">About</a></li>

In TS file:

aboutPageLoad() {
    this.router.navigate(['/about']);
}

---

In my case I have imported the RouterModule in App module but not imported in my feature module. After import the router module in my EventModule the error goes away.

    import {NgModule } from '@angular/core';
    import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
    import {EventListComponent} from './EventList.Component';
    import {EventThumbnailComponent} from './EventThumbnail.Component';
    import { EventService } from './shared/Event.Service'
    import {ToastrService} from '../shared/toastr.service';
    import {EventDetailsComponent} from './event-details/event.details.component';
    import { RouterModule } from "@angular/router";
    @NgModule({
      imports:[BrowserModule,RouterModule],
      declarations:[EventThumbnailComponent,EventListComponent,EventDetailsComponent],
      exports: [EventThumbnailComponent,EventListComponent,EventDetailsComponent],
       providers: [EventService,ToastrService]
    })
    export class EventModule {
        
     }

---

If getting this error while unit testing please write this.

import { RouterTestingModule } from '@angular/router/testing';
beforeEach(async(() => {
  TestBed.configureTestingModule({
    imports: [RouterTestingModule],
    declarations: [AppComponent],
  });
}));

---

If you use shared modules, just add RouterModule to a Module where your component is declared and don't forget to add <router-outlet></router-outlet>

Referenced from here RouterLink does not work

---

I really appreciate @raykrow's answer when one has this problem only in a test file! That is where I encountered it.

As it is often helpful to have another way to do something as a backup, I wanted to mention this technique that also works (instead of importing RouterTestingModule):

import { MockComponent } from 'ng2-mock-component';
. . .
TestBed.configureTestingModule({
  declarations: [
    MockComponent({
      selector: 'a',
      inputs: [ 'routerLink', 'routerLinkActiveOptions' ]
    }),
    . . .
  ]

(Typically, one would use routerLink on an <a> element but adjust the selector accordingly for other components.)

The second reason I wanted to mention this alternate solution is that, though it served me well in a number of spec files, I ran into a problem with it in one case:

Error: Template parse errors:
    More than one component matched on this element.
    Make sure that only one component's selector can match a given element.
    Conflicting components: ButtonComponent,Mock

I could not quite figure out how this mock and my ButtonComponent were using the same selector, so searching for an alternate approach led me here to @raykrow's solution.

---

My solution is simple. I am using [href] instead of [routerLink]. I have tried all solutions for [routerLink]. None of them works in my case.

Here is my solution:

<a [href]="getPlanUrl()" target="_blank">My Plan Name</a>

Then write the getPlanUrl function in the TS file.

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