Angular Error – No directive with exportAs set to ngForm

While running unit tests for the Angular app (Angular 2/Angular 4), I came across the error such as following:

Failed: Template parse error:
There is no directive with “exportAs” set to “ngForm”

Here is the screenshot of the error. Note that the form referenced in this blog is a template-driven form.

Figure 1. Angular Error No Directive with ExportAs set to ngForm

This blog represents the resolution of above error.

Template and Unit Test Code Before the Fix

The template code defined the template reference variable, #signupForm, for form element as shown in the following code.

<form (ngSubmit)="onSubmit()" #signupForm="ngForm">
</form>

Following was the unit test code prior fix/resolution:

import { TestBed, async } from '@angular/core/testing';

import { SignupComponent } from './signup.component';
import {FormsModule} from '@angular/forms';

describe('SignupComponent', () => {
  beforeEach(async(() => {
    TestBed.configureTestingModule({
      <strong>declarations: [
        SignupComponent
      ],</strong>
    }).compileComponents();
  }));

  it('should create the app', async(() => {
    const fixture = TestBed.createComponent(SignupComponent);
    const app = fixture.debugElement.componentInstance;
    expect(app).toBeTruthy();
  }));

});

Unit Test Code after the Fix/Resolution

Pay attention to the inclusion of FormsModule in imports array.

import { TestBed, async } from '@angular/core/testing';

import { SignupComponent } from './signup.component';
import {FormsModule} from '@angular/forms';

describe('SignupComponent', () => {
  beforeEach(async(() => {
    TestBed.configureTestingModule({
      <strong>declarations: [
        SignupComponent
      ],
      imports: [
        FormsModule,
      ],</strong>
    }).compileComponents();
  }));

  it('should create the app', async(() => {
    const fixture = TestBed.createComponent(SignupComponent);
    const app = fixture.debugElement.componentInstance;
    expect(app).toBeTruthy();
  }));

});

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Ajitesh Kumar

I have been recently working in the area of Data analytics including Data Science and Machine Learning / Deep Learning. I am also passionate about different technologies including programming languages such as Java/JEE, Javascript, Python, R, Julia, etc, and technologies such as Blockchain, mobile computing, cloud-native technologies, application security, cloud computing platforms, big data, etc. I would love to connect with you on Linkedin.
Check out my latest book titled as First Principles Thinking: Building winning products using first principles thinking.

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