Migrating to Aurelia 2

Aurelia 2 is a complete rewrite of Aurelia that shares many of the same loved and familiar features of Aurelia 1. Understandably, in the spirit of progress, not everything is the same. In this section, we are going to guide you through what has changed and how you can migrate over your Aurelia 1 applications to Aurelia 2.

MIGRATION WORKFLOW

Option 1: Quick Start with Compat Package (Recommended for Initial Migration)

The fastest way to get your AU1 application running in AU2 is to use the compatibility package. This approach lets you get a working AU2 application first, then gradually migrate features.

Step 1: Create a new AU2 project

npx makes aurelia new-project
cd new-project
npm install @aurelia/compat-v1

Step 2: Copy your AU1 source files

• Copy your src/ directory from your AU1 project

• Copy any custom configuration files (excluding aurelia_project/)

Step 3: Update your main.ts

import { Aurelia } from 'aurelia';
import { compatRegistration } from '@aurelia/compat-v1';
import { MyApp } from './my-app';

Aurelia
  .register(compatRegistration)
  .app(MyApp)
  .start();

Step 4: Update package.json dependencies Remove AU1 dependencies and ensure you have the AU2 equivalents:

• Remove: aurelia-framework, aurelia-bootstrapper, etc.

• Add: aurelia, @aurelia/compat-v1

Option 2: Manual Migration (For New AU2 Features)

If you want to fully embrace AU2 features from the start:

Step 1: Project Structure

src/
  main.ts          # Entry point (same location as AU1)
  my-app.ts        # Root component (skeleton default)
  my-app.html      # Root template (skeleton default)
  components/      # Your components
  resources/       # Custom elements, attributes, etc.

Step 2: Bootstrapping Migration

AU1 main.ts:

import { Aurelia } from 'aurelia-framework';
import { PLATFORM } from 'aurelia-pal';

export function configure(aurelia: Aurelia): void {
  aurelia.use
    .standardConfiguration()
    .feature(PLATFORM.moduleName('resources/index'));

  aurelia.start().then(() => aurelia.setRoot(PLATFORM.moduleName('app')));
}

AU2 main.ts:

import { Aurelia } from 'aurelia';
import { MyApp } from './my-app';

Aurelia
  .app(MyApp)
  .start();

Step 3: Router Migration

AU1 router config:

import { Router, RouterConfiguration } from 'aurelia-router';

export class App {
  router: Router;

  configureRouter(config: RouterConfiguration, router: Router): void {
    config.title = 'My App';
    config.map([
      { route: ['', 'home'], name: 'home', moduleId: PLATFORM.moduleName('./home') }
    ]);
    this.router = router;
  }
}

AU2 router config:

import { IRoute } from '@aurelia/router';

export class App {
  static routes: IRoute[] = [
    { path: ['', 'home'], component: () => import('./home') }
  ];
}

Navigation in AU2:

import { IRouter, resolve } from 'aurelia';

export class MyComponent {
  private readonly router = resolve(IRouter);

  async navigateToHome() {
    await this.router.load('home');
  }
}

Critical Breaking Changes That Require Code Changes

1. Compose Element - MAJOR BREAKING CHANGE

AU1 compose:

<!-- AU1 - used module paths -->
<compose view-model.bind="'./components/user-card'" model.bind="user"></compose>
<compose view.bind="'./templates/user-template.html'" view-model.bind="user"></compose>

AU2 au-compose - DOES NOT WORK WITH MODULE PATHS:

<!-- AU2 - requires imported components or template strings -->
<au-compose component.bind="UserCard" model.bind="user"></au-compose>
<au-compose template.bind="userTemplate" model.bind="user"></au-compose>

Migration Required:

// AU1 - Dynamic module loading with strings
export class MyComponent {
  componentPath = './components/user-card';
}

// AU2 - Must import components or use template strings
import { UserCard } from './components/user-card';

export class MyComponent {
  userCard = UserCard;  // Component class
  // OR
  userTemplate = '<div>${name}</div>';  // Template string
}

If you need dynamic component loading in AU2, you must create a module loader:

// Custom loader for dynamic components
const componentMap = new Map([
  ['user-card', () => import('./components/user-card')],
  ['admin-panel', () => import('./components/admin-panel')]
]);

async loadComponent(name: string) {
  const loader = componentMap.get(name);
  if (loader) {
    const module = await loader();
    return module.default || module[Object.keys(module)[0]];
  }
  return null;
}

2. Module Loading - No More PLATFORM.moduleName

AU1:

config.map([
  { route: 'users', moduleId: PLATFORM.moduleName('./pages/users') }
]);

AU2:

static routes: IRoute[] = [
  { path: 'users', component: () => import('./pages/users') }
];

AU1 feature loading:

aurelia.use.feature(PLATFORM.moduleName('resources/index'));

AU2 - Create a resources array to register globally:

// resources/index.ts - AU2 pattern
import { MyCustomElement } from './my-custom-element';
import { MyValueConverter } from './my-value-converter';
import { MyBindingBehavior } from './my-binding-behavior';

export const GlobalResources = [
  MyCustomElement,
  MyValueConverter,
  MyBindingBehavior,
];

// main.ts
import { GlobalResources } from './resources/index';
import { MyApp } from './my-app';

Aurelia
  .register(...GlobalResources)
  .app(MyApp)
  .start();

3. Other Critical Changes

1. Binding commands: Replace .delegate with .trigger

2. Replaceable parts: Replace with <au-slot> elements

3. View decorators: Replace @noView/@inlineView with template property

4. Event preventDefault: No longer automatic - use .trigger:prevent when needed

COMPAT PACKAGE

An quickest way to get an application in v1 up an running in v2 is to include the compat package. It can be done via 2 steps:

1. installing the compat package via

npm install @aurelia/compat-v1

1. include the compat package into your app:

import { compatRegistration } from '@aurelia/compat-v1';

...
Aurelia
  .register(compatRegistration, ...)
  .app(...)
  .start()

BREAKING CHANGES

Event

In v2, preventDefault is no longer called by default. This breaking change could show up in unexpected places:

• click events: in v1, clicking on a button inside a form will not submit the form, while it will in v2, as the click event default behavior is no longer prevented {% hint style="info" %} Even though clicking default behavior is not prevented, form submission without an action will not reload the page as this default behavior is still prevented in v2, so you don't need to add :prevent to every button click, or form submit listener. {% endhint %}- drag events: in v1, implementing drag/drop will have preventDefault called automatically, but in v2, they will need to be explicitly called by the application

Sometimes, if it's desirable to call preventDefault in an event binding, use prevent modifier, like the following example:

<button click.trigger:prevent="doWork()">Submit manually</button>

<div dragstart.trigger="prepareDragdrop()" drop.trigger:prevent="onDrop()">

Read more about modifiers in event modifier doc here

Scope selection

In v2, when trying to bind with a non-existent property, the closest boundary scope (scope of the owning custom element) will be selected, instead of the immediate scope of the binding (v1 behavior).

Internal binding property observeProperty has been renamed to observe

In v1, if you happen to use .observeProperty method from bindings in your application/library, then change it to observe instead. The parameters of the signature remain the same.

Internal binding property sourceExpression has been renamed to ast

In v1, if you happen to use .sourceExpression property from bindings in your application/library, then change it to ast instead. The type of the property remains the same.

Enhance API changes:

In v1, enhance method on an Aurelia instance has the signature:

class Aurelia {
  ...

  enhance(elementOrConfig: Element | IEnhancementConfig): View;
}

In v2, enhance method on an Aurelia instance has the signature:

interface IAurelia {
  ...

  enhance(enhancementConfig: IEnhancementConfig): IEnhancedView;
}

Parent container and resources can be specified through this config.

View model ref binding (view-model.ref="...")

In v2, in order to get a reference to the underlying component view model, use component.ref instead of view-model.ref This is to make terminologies consistent as we are moving towards component oriented terms.

If attribute (if.bind="...")

• The primary property of If has been renamed from condition to value. If you are using if.bind, you are not affected. If you are using the multi prop binding syntax, the template looks like this:

<div if="condition.bind: yes">

Change it to:

<div if="value.bind: yes">

Binding Engine

• BindingEngine has been removed in v2, but can still be imported from @aurelia/compat-v1 package for ease of migration. The collectionObserver method on the compat package of BindingEngine is not the same with v1, per the follow comparison: v2

  collectionObserver(collection): { subscribe: (callback: (collection, indexMap)) => { dispose(): void } }

  v1

  collectionObserver(collection): { subscribe: (callback: (collection, splices)) => { dispose(): void } }

Binding commands

• .delegate command has been removed, use .trigger instead. With shadow DOM, even though .delegate works, it doesn't feel as natural as .trigger, and the performance benefits .delegate command used to give when browsers were slow adding many event listeners is no longer as big.

• .call command has been removed, use lambda functions instead to create function that preserves the this context. Refer to lambda expression

Compose

• <compose> has been renamed to <au-compose>. The bindable properties of this component have also been changed:

  • viewModel -> component

  • view -> template

  • model remains the same

• Examples migration fix:

  v1:
  <compose view.bind="...">
  <compose view-model.bind="...">
  
  v2:
  <au-compose template.bind="...">
  <au-compose component.bind="...">

• In Aurelia 2, all bindings are passed through to the underlying custom element composition, so component.ref (view-model.ref in v1) no longer means getting a reference to the composer, but the composed view model instead.

Read more about dynamic composition in v2 in this dynamic composition doc and dynamic ui composition doc.

Replaceable & replaceable part

If you are using replaceable/part/repaceable-part combo in your v1 applications, you'll need to replace them with <au-slot> elements and au-slot attributes. Refer to the au slot doc for more information.

View decorators

When migrating from v1, it is possible to encounter the @noView and @inlineView decorators. These decorators are no longer available from the core packages in v2. Instead, use the template property of the custom element decorator.

For the ease of migration, the @noView and @inlineView decorators are made available from the @aurelia/compat-v1 package. FOllowing are some example usages.

• Use the @inlineView decorator to define the template of a custom element.

  import { customElement } from 'aurelia';
  import { inlineView } from '@aurelia/compat-v1';
  
  @inlineView('foo-bar')
  @customElement('app-loader')
  export class AppLoader {
    //...
  }

• Use the @noView decorator to define a custom element without a view.

  import { customElement } from 'aurelia';
  import { noView } from '@aurelia/compat-v1';
  
  @noView
  @customElement('loading-indicator')
  export class LoadingIndicator {
    // ...
  }

General changes

• Custom attributes are no longer considered to have a binding to the primary bindable when their template usage is with an empty string, like the following examples:

  <div my-attr>
  <div my-attr="">

  Both of the above usages will be considered as "plain" usage, to avoid overriding the defaul value in the custom attribute component instance.

• Templates no longer need to have <template> tags as the start and ending tags. Templates can be pure HTML with enhanced Aurelia markup but <template> doesn't need to be explicitly defined.

• PLATFORM.moduleName is gone. This was to address a limitation in Aurelia 1. Aurelia 2 now works well with all bundlers and does not require the addition of this code to use code splitting or tell the bundler where template code is.

• Better intellisense support for TypeScript applications. Using the new injection interfaces, you can now inject strongly typed Aurelia packages such as Fetch Client, Router or Internationalization. These packages are prefixed with an "I" such as IHttpClient, IRouter and so on.

• empty binding expressions are automatically inferred based on the target of the binding, like the following example:

  <input value.bind>
  <input value.bind="">

  means:

  <input value.bind="value">

  This is automatically applied to .bind/.one-time/.to-view/.from-view/.two-way/.attr binding commands.

Plugins:

Web-Components plugin

• Remove automatic au- prefix

• Remove auto-conversion of Aurelia element -> WC element. Applications need to explicitly define this. This should make mix-matching & controlling things easier.