Build Options

Developers have two options for using Ionic components: Standalone or Modules. This guide covers both options as well as the benefits and downsides of each approach.

While the Standalone approach is newer and makes use of more modern Angular APIs, the Modules approach will continue to be supported in Ionic. Most of the Angular examples on this documentation website use the Modules approach.

Standalone

info

Ionic UI components as Angular standalone components is supported starting in Ionic v7.5.

Overview

Developers can use Ionic components as standalone components to take advantage of treeshaking and newer Angular features. This option involves importing specific Ionic components in the Angular components you want to use them in. Developers can use Ionic standalone components even if their Angular application is NgModule-based.

See the Standalone Migration Guide for instructions on how to update your Ionic app to make use of Ionic standalone components.

Benefits

1. Enables treeshaking so the final build output only includes the code necessary to run your app which reduces overall build size.
2. Avoids the use of NgModules to streamline the development experience and make your code easier to understand.
3. Allows developers to also use newer Angular features such as ESBuild.

Drawbacks

1. Ionic components need to be imported into every Angular component they are used in which can be time consuming to set up.

Usage with Standalone-based Applications

caution

All Ionic imports should be imported from the @ionic/angular/standalone submodule. This includes imports such as components, directives, providers, and types. Importing from @ionic/angular may pull in lazy loaded Ionic code which can interfere with treeshaking.

Bootstrapping and Configuration

Ionic Angular needs to be configured when the Angular application calls bootstrapApplication using the provideIonicAngular function. Developers can pass any IonicConfig values as an object in this function. Note that provideIonicAngular needs to be called even if no custom config is passed.

main.ts

import { enableProdMode, importProvidersFrom } from '@angular/core';
import { bootstrapApplication } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { RouteReuseStrategy, provideRouter } from '@angular/router';
import { provideIonicAngular, IonicRouteStrategy } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';

import { routes } from './app/app.routes';
import { AppComponent } from './app/app.component';
import { environment } from './environments/environment';

if (environment.production) {
  enableProdMode();
}

bootstrapApplication(AppComponent, {
  providers: [
    { provide: RouteReuseStrategy, useClass: IonicRouteStrategy },
    provideIonicAngular({ mode: 'ios' }),
    provideRouter(routes),
  ],
});

Components

In the example below, we are importing IonContent and IonButton from @ionic/angular/standalone and passing them to imports for use in the component template. We would get a compiler error if these components were not imported and provided to the imports array.

home.page.ts

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { IonButton, IonContent } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-home',
  templateUrl: 'home.page.html',
  styleUrls: ['home.page.scss'],
  standalone: true,
  imports: [IonButton, IonContent],
})
export class HomePage {
  constructor() {}
}

Icons

The icon SVG data needs to be defined in the Angular component so it can be loaded correctly. Developers can use the addIcons function from ionicons to map the SVG data to a string name. Developers can then reference the icon by its string name using the name property on IonIcon.

We recommend calling addIcons in the Angular component constructor so the data is only added if the Angular component is being used.

For developers using Ionicons 7.2 or newer, passing only the SVG data will cause the string name to be automatically generated.

home.page.ts

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { IonIcon } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';
import { addIcons } from 'ionicons';
import { logoIonic } from 'ionicons/icons';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-home',
  templateUrl: 'home.page.html',
  styleUrls: ['home.page.scss'],
  standalone: true,
  imports: [IonIcon],
})
export class HomePage {
  constructor() {
    /**
     * On Ionicons 7.2+ this icon
     * gets mapped to a "logo-ionic" key.
     * Alternatively, developers can do:
     * addIcons({ 'logo-ionic': logoIonic });
     */
    addIcons({ logoIonic });
  }
}

Icons can also be registered in entry points such as app.component.ts to avoid the need to call addIcons multiple times. Developers should be aware that the initial application chunk may increase because the registered icons will need to be loaded at application start. However, if your application uses a small number of icons the impact of this may be minimal.

app.component.ts

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { addIcons } from 'ionicons';
import { logoIonic } from 'ionicons/icons';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-root',
  templateUrl: 'app.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['app.component.scss'],
  standalone: true,
})
export class AppComponent {
  constructor() {
    /**
     * Any icons you want to use in your application
     * can be registered in app.component.ts and then
     * referenced by name anywhere in your application.
     */
    addIcons({ logoIonic });
  }
}

Icons registered in an application entry point can then be referenced by name anywhere in the application.

home.page.html

<!-- 
  logoIonic was registered in app.component.ts instead of home.page.ts,
  but it can still be used in home.page.html.
-->
<ion-icon name="logo-ionic"></ion-icon>

Routing

Developers who wish to use routerLink, routerAction, or routerDirection on Ionic components should import the IonRouterLink directive. Developers who wish to use these routing features on anchor (<a>) elements should import IonRouterLinkWithHref instead.

home.page.ts

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { RouterLink } from '@angular/router';
import { IonButton, IonRouterLink } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-home',
  templateUrl: 'home.page.html',
  styleUrls: ['home.page.scss'],
  standalone: true,
  imports: [
    IonButton,
    RouterLink, // required to get base routerLink behavior for @angular/router
    IonRouterLink, // use IonRouterLinkWithHref if you are using an <a> element instead
  ],
})
export class HomePage {}

home.page.html

<ion-button routerLink="/foo" routerDirection="root">Go to Foo Page</ion-button>

Testing

Ionic Angular's standalone components use ES Modules. As a result, developers using Jest should ensure that ES Modules are transpiled to a format that Jest can use. Developers using Jest should add the following to their Jest config:

{
  ...,
  "transformIgnorePatterns": ["node_modules/(?!(@ionic/angular|@ionic/core|ionicons|@stencil/core|@angular/*)/)"]
}

Usage with NgModule-based Applications

caution

All Ionic imports should be imported from the @ionic/angular/standalone submodule. This includes imports such as components, directives, providers, and types. Importing from @ionic/angular may pull in lazy loaded Ionic code which can interfere with treeshaking.

Bootstrapping and Configuration

Ionic Angular needs to be configured in the providers array of app.module.ts using the provideIonicAngular function. Developers can pass any IonicConfig values as an object in this function. Note that provideIonicAngular needs to be called even if no custom config is passed.

app.module.ts

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { RouteReuseStrategy } from '@angular/router';

import { IonicRouteStrategy, provideIonicAngular } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';

import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import { AppRoutingModule } from './app-routing.module';

@NgModule({
  declarations: [AppComponent],
  imports: [BrowserModule, AppRoutingModule],
  providers: [provideIonicAngular(), { provide: RouteReuseStrategy, useClass: IonicRouteStrategy }],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent],
})
export class AppModule {}

Components

In the example below, we are importing IonContent and IonButton from @ionic/angular/standalone and passing them to imports array in the Angular component's NgModule for use in the component template. We would get a compiler error if these components were not imported and provided to the imports array.

home.module.ts

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { IonButton, IonContent } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';
import { HomePage } from './home.page';

import { HomePageRoutingModule } from './home-routing.module';

@NgModule({
  imports: [IonButton, IonContent, HomePageRoutingModule],
  declarations: [HomePage],
})
export class HomePageModule {}

Icons

The icon SVG data needs to be defined in the Angular component so it can be loaded correctly. Developers can use the addIcons function from ionicons to map the SVG data to a string name. Developers can then reference the icon by its string name using the name property on IonIcon. The IonIcon component should be added in app.module.ts just like the other Ionic components.

We recommend calling addIcons in the Angular component constructor so the data is only added if the Angular component is being used.

For developers using Ionicons 7.2 or newer, passing only the SVG data will cause the string name to be automatically generated.

home.page.ts

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { addIcons } from 'ionicons';
import { logoIonic } from 'ionicons/icons';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-home',
  templateUrl: 'home.page.html',
  styleUrls: ['home.page.scss'],
})
export class HomePage {
  constructor() {
    /**
     * On Ionicons 7.2+ this icon
     * gets mapped to a "logo-ionic" key.
     * Alternatively, developers can do:
     * addIcons({ 'logo-ionic': logoIonic });
     */
    addIcons({ logoIonic });
  }
}

Icons can also be registered in entry points such as app.component.ts to avoid the need to call addIcons multiple times. Developers should be aware that the initial application chunk may increase because the registered icons will need to be loaded at application start. However, if your application uses a small number of icons the impact of this may be minimal.

app.component.ts

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { addIcons } from 'ionicons';
import { logoIonic } from 'ionicons/icons';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-root',
  templateUrl: 'app.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['app.component.scss'],
})
export class AppComponent {
  constructor() {
    /**
     * Any icons you want to use in your application
     * can be registered in app.component.ts and then
     * referenced by name anywhere in your application.
     */
    addIcons({ logoIonic });
  }
}

Icons registered in an application entry point can then be referenced by name anywhere in the application.

home.page.html

<!-- 
  logoIonic was registered in app.component.ts instead of home.page.ts,
  but it can still be used in home.page.html.
-->
<ion-icon name="logo-ionic"></ion-icon>

Routing

Developers who wish to use routerLink, routerAction, or routerDirection on Ionic components should import the IonRouterLink directive. Developers who wish to use these routing features on anchor (<a>) elements should import IonRouterLinkWithHref instead.

home.module.ts

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { RouterLink } from '@angular/router';
import { IonButton, IonRouterLink } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';
import { HomePage } from './home.page';

import { HomePageRoutingModule } from './home-routing.module';

@NgModule({
  imports: [
    IonButton,
    RouterLink, // required to get base routerLink behavior for @angular/router
    IonRouterLink, // use IonRouterLinkWithHref if you are using an <a> element instead
    HomePageRoutingModule,
  ],
  declarations: [HomePage],
})
export class HomePageModule {}

home.page.html

<ion-button routerLink="/foo" routerDirection="root">Go to Foo Page</ion-button>

Modules

Overview

Developers can also use the Modules approach by importing IonicModule and calling IonicModule.forRoot() in the imports array in app.module.ts. This registers a version of Ionic where Ionic components will be lazily loaded at runtime.

Benefits

1. Since components are lazily loaded as needed, developers do not need to spend time manually importing and registering each Ionic component.

Drawbacks

1. Lazily loading Ionic components means that the compiler does not know which components are needed at build time. This means your final application bundle may be much larger than it needs to be.
2. Developers are unable to use newer Angular features such as ESBuild.

Usage

In the example below, we are using IonicModule to create a lazily loaded version of Ionic. We can then reference any Ionic component without needing to explicitly import it.

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';

import { IonicModule } from '@ionic/angular';

import { AppComponent } from './app.component';

@NgModule({
  declarations: [AppComponent],
  imports: [BrowserModule, IonicModule.forRoot()],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent],
})
export class AppModule {}

Migrating from Modules to Standalone

tip

Try our automated utility for migrating to standalone!

See https://github.com/ionic-team/ionic-angular-standalone-codemods for instructions on how to get started. All issues related to the migration utility should be filed on the linked repo.

The Standalone option is newer than the Modules option, so developers may wish to switch during the development of their application. This guide details the steps needed to migrate.

Migrating to Ionic standalone components must be done all at the same time and cannot be done gradually. The Modules and Standalone approaches use two different build systems of Ionic that cannot be used at the same time.

Developers are encouraged to try the automated migration utility, though they can also follow the steps below if they would like to manually migrate their applications.

Standalone-based Applications

Follow these steps if your Angular application is already using the standalone architecture, and you want to use Ionic UI components as standalone components too.

1. Run npm install @ionic/angular@latest to ensure you are running the latest version of Ionic. Ionic UI Standalone Components is supported in Ionic v7.5 or newer.

2. Run npm install ionicons@latest to ensure you are running the latest version of Ionicons. Ionicons v7.2 brings usability improvements that reduce the code boilerplate needed to use icons with standalone components.

3. Remove the IonicModule call in main.ts in favor of provideIonicAngular imported from @ionic/angular/standalone. Any config passed to IonicModule.forRoot can be passed as an object to this new function.

main.ts

import { enableProdMode, importProvidersFrom } from '@angular/core';
import { bootstrapApplication } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { RouteReuseStrategy, provideRouter } from '@angular/router';
- import { IonicModule, IonicRouteStrategy } from '@ionic/angular';
+ import { provideIonicAngular, IonicRouteStrategy } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';

import { routes } from './app/app.routes';
import { AppComponent } from './app/app.component';
import { environment } from './environments/environment';

if (environment.production) {
  enableProdMode();
}

bootstrapApplication(AppComponent, {
  providers: [
    { provide: RouteReuseStrategy, useClass: IonicRouteStrategy },
    /**
     * The custom config serves as an example
     * of how to pass a config to provideIonicAngular.
     * You do not need to set "mode: 'ios'" to
     * use Ionic standalone components.
     */
-   importProvidersFrom(IonicModule.forRoot({ mode: 'ios' })),
+   provideIonicAngular({ mode: 'ios' }),
    provideRouter(routes),
  ],
});

4. Remove any references to IonicModule found elsewhere in your application.

5. Update any existing imports from @ionic/angular to import from @ionic/angular/standalone instead.

- import { Platform } from '@ionic/angular';
+ import { Platform } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';

6. Add imports for each Ionic component in the Angular component where they are used. Be sure to pass the imports to the imports array on your Angular component.

app.component.ts

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
+ import { IonApp, IonRouterOutlet } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-root',
  templateUrl: 'app.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['app.component.scss'],
  standalone: true,
+ imports: [IonApp, IonRouterOutlet],
})
export class AppComponent {
  constructor() {}
}

7. If you are using Ionicons, define the icon SVG data used in each Angular component using addIcons. This allows you to continue referencing icons by string name in your component template. Note that you will need to do this for any additional icons added.

test.component.ts

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
+ import { IonIcon } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';
+ import { addIcons } from 'ionicons';
+ import { alarm, logoIonic } from 'ionicons/icons';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-root',
  templateUrl: 'app.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['app.component.scss'],
  standalone: true,
+ imports: [IonIcon],
})
export class TestComponent {
  constructor() {
+   addIcons({ alarm, logoIonic });
  }
}

8. Remove the following code from your angular.json file if present. Note that it may appear multiple times.

angular.json

- {
-   "glob": "**/*.svg",
-   "input": "node_modules/ionicons/dist/ionicons/svg",
-   "output": "./svg"
- }

9. If you are using routerLink, routerDirection, or routerAction be sure to import the IonRouterLink directive for Ionic components or IonRouterLinkWithHref directive for <a> elements.

test.component.ts

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
- import { IonButton } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';
+ import { IonButton, IonRouterLink } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-root',
  templateUrl: 'app.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['app.component.scss'],
  standalone: true,
  imports: [
    IonButton,
+   IonRouterLink
  ],
})
export class TestComponent {}

10. If you are using VSCode it is recommended to ignore the @ionic/angular/common and @ionic/angular module specifiers for import recommendations.

.vscode/settings.json

{
  "typescript.preferences.autoImportFileExcludePatterns": ["@ionic/angular/common", "@ionic/angular"]
}

NgModule-based Applications

Follow these steps if your Angular application is still using the NgModule architecture, but you want to adopt Ionic UI components as standalone components now.

1. Run npm install @ionic/angular@latest to ensure you are running the latest version of Ionic. Ionic UI Standalone Components is supported in Ionic v7.5 or newer.

2. Run npm install ionicons@latest to ensure you are running the latest version of Ionicons. Ionicons v7.2 brings usability improvements that reduce the code boilerplate needed to use icons with standalone components.

3. Remove the IonicModule call in app.module.ts in favor of provideIonicAngular imported from @ionic/angular/standalone. Any config passed to IonicModule.forRoot can be passed as an object to this new function.

app.module.ts

import { enableProdMode, importProvidersFrom } from '@angular/core';
import { bootstrapApplication } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { RouteReuseStrategy, provideRouter } from '@angular/router';
- import { IonicModule, IonicRouteStrategy } from '@ionic/angular';
+ import { provideIonicAngular, IonicRouteStrategy } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';

import { routes } from './app/app.routes';
import { AppComponent } from './app/app.component';
import { environment } from './environments/environment';

if (environment.production) {
  enableProdMode();
}

@NgModule({
  declarations: [AppComponent],
- imports: [BrowserModule, IonicModule.forRoot({ mode: 'ios' }), AppRoutingModule],
+ imports: [BrowserModule, AppRoutingModule],
  providers: [
    { provide: RouteReuseStrategy, useClass: IonicRouteStrategy },
    /**
     * The custom config serves as an example
     * of how to pass a config to provideIonicAngular.
     * You do not need to set "mode: 'ios'" to
     * use Ionic standalone components.
     */
+   provideIonicAngular({ mode: 'ios' }),
  ],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent],
})
export class AppModule {}

4. Remove any references to IonicModule found elsewhere in your application.

5. Update any existing imports from @ionic/angular to import from @ionic/angular/standalone instead.

- import { Platform } from '@ionic/angular';
+ import { Platform } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';

6. Add imports for each Ionic component in the NgModule for the Angular component where they are used. Be sure to pass the components to the imports array on the module.

app.module.ts

import { enableProdMode, importProvidersFrom } from '@angular/core';
import { bootstrapApplication } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { RouteReuseStrategy, provideRouter } from '@angular/router';
- import { provideIonicAngular, IonicRouteStrategy } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';
+ import { provideIonicAngular, IonicRouteStrategy, IonApp, IonRouterOutlet } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';

import { routes } from './app/app.routes';
import { AppComponent } from './app/app.component';
import { environment } from './environments/environment';

if (environment.production) {
  enableProdMode();
}

@NgModule({
  declarations: [AppComponent],
- imports: [BrowserModule, AppRoutingModule],
+ imports: [BrowserModule, AppRoutingModule, IonApp, IonRouterOutlet],
  providers: [
    { provide: RouteReuseStrategy, useClass: IonicRouteStrategy },
    provideIonicAngular({ mode: 'ios' })
  ],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent],
})
export class AppModule {}

For example, all modules that are using Ionic components need to have the Ionic components imported in their component module.

home.module.ts

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { CommonModule } from '@angular/common';
import { FormsModule } from '@angular/forms';
import { HomePage } from './home.page';

import { HomePageRoutingModule } from './home-routing.module';

+ import { IonContent, IonHeader, IonTitle, IonToolbar } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';

@NgModule({
  imports: [
    CommonModule,
    FormsModule,
    HomePageRoutingModule,
+    IonContent,
+    IonHeader,
+    IonTitle,
+    IonToolbar
  ],
  declarations: [HomePage]
})
export class HomePageModule {}

7. If you are using Ionicons, define the icon SVG data used in each Angular component using addIcons. This allows you to continue referencing icons by string name in your component template. Note that you will need to do this for any additional icons added. The IonIcon component should still be provided in the NgModule.

test.component.ts

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
+ import { addIcons } from 'ionicons';
+ import { alarm, logoIonic } from 'ionicons/icons';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-root',
  templateUrl: 'app.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['app.component.scss'],
})
export class TestComponent {
  constructor() {
+   addIcons({ alarm, logoIonic });
  }
}

test.module.ts

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { TestComponent } from './test.component';
+ import { IonIcon } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';

@NgModule({
  imports: [
+   IonIcon,
  ],
  declarations: [TestComponent]
})
export class TestComponentModule {}

8. Remove the following code from your angular.json file if present. Note that it may appear multiple times.

angular.json

- {
-   "glob": "**/*.svg",
-   "input": "node_modules/ionicons/dist/ionicons/svg",
-   "output": "./svg"
- }

9. If you are using routerLink, routerDirection, or routerAction be sure to import the IonRouterLink directive for Ionic components or IonRouterLinkWithHref directive for <a> elements.

test.module.ts

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { TestComponent } from './test.component';
- import { IonButton } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';
+ import { IonButton, IonRouterLink } from '@ionic/angular/standalone';

@NgModule({
  imports: [
    IonButton,
+   IonRouterLink,
  ],
  declarations: [TestComponent]
})

10. If you are using VSCode it is recommended to ignore the @ionic/angular/common and @ionic/angular module specifiers for import recommendations.

.vscode/settings.json

{
  "typescript.preferences.autoImportFileExcludePatterns": ["@ionic/angular/common", "@ionic/angular"]
}