Component

Note: This documentation is for the old 0.2.0 version of A-Frame. Check out the documentation for the current 1.5.0 version

In the entity-component-system pattern, a component is a reusable and modular chunks of data that plugged into an entity to add appearance, behavior, and/or functionality. As an abstract analogy, if a smartphone were defined as an entity, we might use components to give it appearance (color, shape), to define its behavior (vibrate when called, shut down on low battery), or to add functionality (camera, screen). In A-Frame, a component modifies entities which are 3D objects in the scene.

Try to contain most logic within components in A-Frame experiences, even if the logic is one-off or ad-hoc. This encourages reusability, modularity, and sharing of code.

Components are roughly analoguous to CSS. Like how CSS rules modify the appearance of elements, component properties modify the appearance, behavior, and functionality of entities.

Table of Contents

Components provide all of the features and extensibility of A-Frame. There is a lot to cover:

What a Component Looks Like

A component holds a bucket of data in the form of one or more component properties. This data is used to modify the entity. Consider an engine component, we might define properties such as horsepower or cylinders.

Abstract representation of a component by @rubenmueller of The VR Jump.

From the DOM

In A-Frame, we attach and configure a component to an entity using an HTML attribute for a component name and a inline-style-like syntax for the properties:

<a-entity light="type: point; color: crimson; intensity: 2.5"></a-entity>

For a component that takes a single flat property value, it looks like a normal HTML attribute:

<a-entity position="0 1 4"></a-entity>

Under the Hood

A component is registered using AFRAME.registerComponent, which we pass a component name to register a component under and a component definition. Below is the outer skeleton for the position component:

AFRAME.registerComponent('position', {
// ...
});

A component defines a schema that defines its properties, giving anatomy to the component. The position component takes a flat vec3, or an {x, y, z} object.

AFRAME.registerComponent('position', {
schema: { type: 'vec3' },

// ...
});

Then a component defines lifecycle methods that handles what it does with its data, giving physiology to the component. During initialization and on attribute updates, the position component takes its vec3 value and applies it to its three.js Object3D:

Components will often be talking to the three.js API.

AFRAME.registerComponent('position', {
schema: { type: 'vec3' },

update: function () {
var object3D = this.el.object3D;
var data = this.data;
object3D.position.set(data.x, data.y, data.z);
}
});

The position component uses only a small subset of the component API. We’ll go over everything the component API has to offer.

Properties

Property Description
data Parsed data object of the component derived from the schema default values, mixins, and the entity’s attributes.
el Reference to the entity element.
schema Component property names, types, default values, parsers, and stringifiers.

Methods

Method Description
init Called once when the component is initialized. Used to set up initial state and instantiate variables.
update Called both when the component is initialized and whenever the component’s data changes (e.g, via setAttribute). Used to modify the entity.
remove Called when the component detaches from the element (e.g., via removeAttribute). Used to undo all previous modifications to the entity.
tick Called on each render loop or tick of the scene. Used for continuous changes.
play Called whenever the scene or entity plays to add any background or dynamic behavior. Used to start or resume behavior.
pause Called whenever the scene or entity pauses to remove any background or dynamic behavior. Used to pause behavior.

Schema

A component’s schema defines and describes the property or properties it takes. A component can either a single-property component (one flat value) or a multi-property component (multiple named values).

A single-property schema might look like:

schema: {
type: 'int', default: 5
}

A multi-property schema might look like:

schema: {
color: { default: '#FFF' },
target: { type: 'selector' },
uv: {
default: '1 1',
parse: function (value) {
return value.split(' ').map(parseFloat);
}
},
}

Property Types

All properties have property types. Property types define how the component parses incoming data from the DOM, and they prescribe a default value if one is not defined in the property definition. A-Frame comes with several built-in property types such as boolean, int, number, selector, src, string, and vec3.

Each type assigns a parse and a stringify function. Parsers deserialize the incoming string value from the DOM to be put into the component’s data object. Stringifiers serialize values back to the DOM when calling setAttribute with a non-string value. Alternatively, we can define our own property types by providing our own parse and/or stringify functions.

Schema Inference

Property types can either be assigned explicitly, or the schema will infer one given the default value.

Given a default value, the schema will infer a property type and inject a parser and stringifer into the property definition:

schema: {
default: false
}

// Will process to:

schema: {
default: 32,
type: 'number',
parse: function numberParse (value) {
return parseFloat(value, 10);
},
stringify: function defaultStringify (value) {
return value.toString();
}
}

And given only a type, the schema will infer a default value:

schema: {
type: 'vec3'
}

// Will process to:

schema: {
type: 'vec3',
default: { x: 0, y: 0, z: 0 },
parse: AFRAME.utils.coordinates.parse,
stringify: AFRAME.utils.coordinates.stringify
}

Single-Property Schemas

Single-property schemas define only a single anonymous flat property. They must define either a type or a default value to be able to infer an appropriate parser and stringifier.

For example, the rotation component takes a vec3:

AFRAME.registerComponent('rotation', {
schema: {
// Default value will be 0, 0, 0 as defined by the vec3 property type.
type: 'vec3'
}

// ...
});

And for example, the visible component takes a boolean:

AFRAME.registerComponent('visible', {
schema: {
// Type will be inferred to be boolean.
default: true
},

// ...
});

Multi-Property Schemas

Multi-property schemas it consists of one or more named property definitions. Unlike single-property schemas, each property has a name. When a component has properties then the HTML usage syntax will look like physics="mass: 2; velocity: 1 1 1".

For example, a physics component might look like:

AFRAME.registerComponent('physics-body', {
schema: {
boundingBox: {
type: 'vec3',
default: { x: 1, y: 1, z: 1 }
},
mass: {
default: 0
},
velocity: {
type: 'vec3'
}
}
}

Lifecycle Methods

With the schema being the anatomy, the lifecycle methods are the physiology; the schema defines the data, the lifecycle methods use the data. A component has access to this.data which in a single-property schema is a value and in a multi-property schema is an object.

The handlers will almost always interact with the entity. We recommend checking out the Entity documentation.

Component.init()

init is called once in a component’s lifecycle when it is attached to the entity. The init handler is generally used to set up state and instantiate variables that may used throughout a component. Not every component will need to define init. It is similar to createdCallback or React.ComponentDidMount.

For example, the look-at component‘s init handler sets the state of the target to null and instantiates a Vector object:

init: function () {
this.target3D = null;
this.vector = new THREE.Vector3();
},

// ...

Example uses of init by some A-Frame components:

Component Usage
camera Create and set a THREE.PerspectiveCamera on the entity.
cursor Attach event listeners.
light Register light to the lighting system.
look-at Create a helper vector.
material Set up variables, mainly to visualize the state of a component.
wasd-controls Set up an object to keep track of pressed keys. Bind methods.

Component.update(oldData)

update is called both at the beginning of a component’s lifecycle and every time a component’s data changes (e.g., as a result of setAttribute). The update handler often uses this.data to modify the entity. The update handler has access to the previous state of a component’s data via its first argument. The previous state of a component can be used to tell exactly which properties changed in order to do granular updates.

For example, the visible component’s update handler toggles the visibility of the entity:

update: function () {
this.el.object3D.visible = this.data;
}

Example uses of update by some A-Frame components:

Component Usage
camera Set THREE.PerspectiveCamera object properties such as aspect ratio, fov, or near/far clipping planes.
look-at Set or update target entity to track the position of.
material If component is just attaching, create a material. If shader has not changed, update material. If shader has changed, replace the material.
wasd-controls Update the position based on the current velocity. Update the velocity based on the keys pressed.

Component.remove()

remove is called when a component detaches from the entity (e.g., as a result of removeAttribute). This is used to remove all modifications, listeners, and behaviors to the entity that a component has added in its lifetime.

For example, when the light component detaches, it removes the light it previously attached to the entity:

remove: function () {
this.el.removeObject3D('light');
}

Example uses of remove by some A-Frame components:

Component Usage
camera Remove the THREE.PerspectiveCamera from the entity.
geometry Set a plain THREE.Geometry on the mesh.
material Set a default THREE.MeshBasicMaterial on the mesh and unregister material from the system.
wasd-controls Remove keydown and keyup listeners.

Component.tick(time)

tick is called on every single tick or render loop of the scene. Expect it to run on the order of 60-90 times per second. The global uptime of the scene in seconds is passed into the tick handler, which is used to calculate time deltas.

For example, the look-at component’s tick handler updates the entity’s rotation to face towards a potentially moving target entity:

tick: function (t) {
// target3D and vector are set from the update handler.
if (this.target3D) {
this.el.object3D.lookAt(this.vector.setFromMatrixPosition(target3D.matrixWorld));
}
}

Example uses of tick by some A-Frame components:

Component Usage
look-at Update rotation of entity to face towards tracked target, in case the target is moving.
physics Update the physics world simulation.
wasd-controls Use current velocity to move the entity (generally the camera), update velocity if keys are pressed.

Component.pause(), Component.play()

To support pause and play, just as with a video game or to toggle entities for performance, a component can implement the play and pause handlers. These are invoked when a component’s entity calls its play or pause method. When an entity plays or pauses, all of its child entities are also played or paused. A component should implement a play and pause handler if it registers dynamic, asynchronous, or background behaviors such as animations or event listeners.

For example, the [look-controls component]’s play and pause handlers toggles its event listeners for listening to input:

pause: function () {
this.removeEventListeners()
},

play: function () {
this.addEventListeners()
}

Example uses of pause and play by some A-Frame components:

Component Usage
sound Pause/play sound.
wasd-controls Remove/attach event listeners.

Writing a Component

Line Component

Let’s build a basic line component that renders a line. We want to make the property API flexible enough to be able to specify the color and vertices:

<a-entity line="color: red; path: -1 1 0, -1 0.5 0, -1 0 0"></a-entity>

Skeleton

Here is a skeleton of the component. We’ll just need a schema, a update handler, and a remove handler:

var coordinates = AFRAME.utils.coordinates;

AFRAME.registerComponent('line', {
// Allow line component to accept vertices and color.
schema: {},

// Create or update the line geometry.
update: {},

// Remove the line geometry.
remove: {}
});

Schema

We have two properties we want to accept: color and path. Thus we will need a multi-property schema. The color property will be a simple string that will be fed to THREE.Color. The path property will need a custom parser and stringifier to handle an array of vec3s for the vertices.

// Allow line component to accept vertices and color.
schema: {
color: { default: '#333' },

path: {
default: [
{ x: -0.5, y: 0, z: 0 },
{ x: 0.5, y: 0, z: 0 }
],

// Deserialize path in the form of comma-separated vec3s: `0 0 0, 1 1 1, 2 0 3`.
parse: function (value) {
return value.split(',').map(coordinates.parse);
},

// Serialize array of vec3s in case someone does
// setAttribute('line', 'path', [...]).
stringify: function (data) {
return data.map(coordinates.stringify).join(',');
}
}
},

//...

The component API is entirely up to us. If we wanted the path to take a different syntax or abstract it further such that it maybe only accepts a starting point and a length and handle the math for the developer, we could do so.

Update

The schema will hand the data to the update handler all parsed and ready to go. Here, we want to create a line geometry if it doesn’t exist yet and update it if it does. We can create a line in three.js by combining a THREE.LineBasicMaterial and THREE.Geometry and then manually pushing vertices.

update: function (oldData) {
// Set color with material.
var material = new THREE.LineBasicMaterial({
color: this.data.color
});

// Add vertices to geometry.
var geometry = new THREE.Geometry();
this.data.path.forEach(function (vec3) {
geometry.vertices.push(
new THREE.Vector3(vec3.x, vec3.y, vec3.z)
);
});

// Apply mesh.
this.el.setObject3D('mesh', new THREE.Line(geometry, material));
},

// ...

Here, we update the line by completely replacing it. Though sometimes, we might want to more granularly update objects for better performance.

Remove

For removal of the line mesh from the entity, we use Entity.removeObject3D:

remove: function () {
this.el.removeObject3D('mesh');
}

This will remove the object from the entity’s scene graph.

Usage

Then with the line component written and registered, we can use it in HTML:

<a-scene>
<a-assets>
<a-mixin id="red" line="color: #E20049"></a-mixin>
</a-assets>

<a-entity id="happy-face" position="0 2 -10">
<a-entity mixin="red" line="path: -1 1 0, -1 0.5 0, -1 0 0"></a-entity>
<a-entity mixin="red" line="path: 1 1 0, 1 0.5 0, 1 0 0"></a-entity>
<a-entity mixin="red" line="path: -2 -1 0, 0 -2 0, 2 -1"></a-entity>
</a-entity>

<a-sky color="#FFEED0"></a-sky>
</a-scene>

And voila!

Happy face with the line component! Play with it on Codepen.