Exploring Material 3 Design With Angular Material

Angular Material team is soon going to roll out the stable usage of it's Material 3 (M3) integration. This integration is already part of it's `next` major release. In this article, we are going to use the yet to be released `18` (or `next`) version of Angular, Angular CLI and Angular Material. The goal of this article is to give a quick idea about what is coming up with Angular Material in it's next major release. ## Creating a `v18` Angular Project ```bash npx @angular/cli@next new angular-material-3 ``` Then select `Sass (SCSS)` for styling and `No` for `SSR/SSG/Prerendering`. ```bash ? Which stylesheet format would you like to use? Sass (SCSS) [ https://sass-lang.com/documentation/syntax#scss ] ? Do you want to enable Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and Static Site Generation (SSG/Prerendering)? No ``` And lastly, move into the project folder: ```bash cd angular-material-3 ``` ## Adding Angular Material `v18` Let's add `@angular/material` into the newly created project: ```bash ng add @angular/material@next ``` And select answers as below: ```bash ? Choose a prebuilt theme name, or "custom" for a custom theme: Custom ? Set up global Angular Material typography styles? Yes ? Include the Angular animations module? Include and enable animations ``` ### New M3 Themes When selecting the theme, notice that now we are getting options of new themes: | Theme Name | | ---------------- | | Rose & Red | | Azure & Blue | | Magenta & Violet | | Cyan & Orange | These are new themes created by Angular Material team to be compatible to M3. If you have selected **Custom**, your `styles.scss` would look like below: ```scss @use "@angular/material" as mat; @include mat.core(); $angular-material-3-theme: mat.define-theme( ( color: ( theme-type: light, primary: mat.$azure-palette, tertiary: mat.$blue-palette, ), density: ( scale: 0, ), ) ); :root { @include mat.all-component-themes($angular-material-3-theme); } ``` The syntax is almost similar to what it was in Material 2 (M2) integration with Angular Material. But, notice the usage of new palettes. We are using `$azure-palette` and `$blue-palette`. Below are all new palettes introduced in M3 integration with Angular Material, that can be used with the `primary` and `tertiary` options: - `$red-palette` - `$green-palette` - `$blue-palette` - `$yellow-palette` - `$cyan-palette` - `$magenta-palette` - `$orange-palette` - `$chartreuse-palette` - `$azure-palette` - `$violet-palette` - `$rose-palette` ## Creating basic app Let's create a simple application to see and understand basic usages of updated `SASS` `mixins` for M3 in Angular Material. We are going to use [Angular Material Schematics](https://material.angular.io/guide/schematics) to generate components: ```bash ng generate @angular/material:navigation layout ng generate @angular/material:dashboard dashboard ng generate @angular/material:address-form address-form ng generate @angular/material:table table ng generate @angular/material:tree tree ng generate @angular/cdk:drag-drop drag-drop ``` ### Updating layout Go to `src/app/layout/layout.component.html` and add `` in `` like below: ```angular-html ``` Next, let's add and modify some styling in `src/app/layout/layout.component.scss` so that sidenav content looks more M3 oriented: ```scss .sidenav-container { height: 100%; } .sidenav { width: 240px; padding: 0 8px; box-sizing: border-box; } .mat-toolbar.mat-primary { position: sticky; top: 0; z-index: 1; } mat-sidenav-content { padding-right: 16px; } .sidenav-scroll-wrapper { height: calc(100dvh - 64px - 16px); overflow: auto; border-radius: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; } .sidenav-content { max-height: 100%; overflow-y: auto; padding: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; @media (pointer: fine) { &::-webkit-scrollbar { background-color: transparent; width: 8px; } &::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb { border-radius: 4px; } } } @media (max-width: 959.98px) { mat-sidenav-content { padding-right: 8px; padding-left: 8px; } .sidenav-scroll-wrapper { height: calc(100dvh - 64px); } .sidenav-content { overflow-y: visible; padding: 8px; } } ``` ### Using layout Now, simply go to `src/app/app.component.html` and update it's content with below: ```angular-html ``` Also, don't forget to import `LayoutComponent` in `src/app/app.component.ts`. At this point, the output looks like below:  Let's add some colors in the content area so that it's easy to distinguish. ### Theming layout Create a file `src/app/layout/_layout-component.theme.scss` with below content: ```scss @use "@angular/material" as mat; @mixin theme($theme) { .sidenav-scroll-wrapper { background-color: rgba(mat.get-theme-color($theme, primary-container), 0.75); } .sidenav-content { @media (pointer: fine) { &::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb { background-color: mat.get-theme-color($theme, primary); } } } } ``` Notice the usages of `get-theme-color` mixin: 1. To get color of the `primary-container` role, we used `mat.get-theme-color($theme, primary-container)` 2. To get color from tonal palette, we used `mat.get-theme-color($theme, primary)`. To learn more, checkout [Reading tonal palette colors](https://material.angular.io/guide/material-3#reading-tonal-palette-colors) and [Reading color roles](https://material.angular.io/guide/material-3#reading-color-roles). ### Using layout component theme Now, include and call this mixin in main `styles.scss` file: ```scss @use "./app/layout/layout-component.theme"; :root { @include layout-component.theme($theme); } ``` Let's see the output now:  ### Updating routes Go to your `src/app/app.routes.ts` and update the routes: ```angular-ts import { Routes } from '@angular/router'; export const routes: Routes = [ { path: '', pathMatch: 'full', redirectTo: 'dashboard', }, { path: 'dashboard', loadComponent: () => import('./dashboard/dashboard.component').then( (c) => c.DashboardComponent ), title: 'Dashboard' }, { path: 'address', loadComponent: () => import('./address-form/address-form.component').then( (c) => c.AddressFormComponent ), title: 'Address' }, { path: 'table', loadComponent: () => import('./table/table.component').then( (c) => c.TableComponent ), title: 'Table' }, { path: 'tree', loadComponent: () => import('./tree/tree.component').then( (c) => c.TreeComponent ), title: 'Tree' }, { path: 'drag-drop', loadComponent: () => import('./drag-drop/drag-drop.component').then( (c) => c.DragDropComponent ), title: 'Drag-Drop' }, ]; ``` And to load the routes, we will first update `src/app/layout/layout.component.ts`: ```angular-ts import { RouterLink, RouterLinkActive } from '@angular/router'; @Component({ selector: 'app-layout', // rest remains same imports: [ // Add below imports RouterLink, RouterLinkActive ] }) export class LayoutComponent { rootRoutes = routes.filter(r=>r.path); // rest remains same } ``` Now, replace `` content with below: ```angular-html @for (item of rootRoutes; track $index) { {{ item.title }} } ``` At this point the output looks like below:  ## Custom M3 theme We saw in the beginning that Angular Material team provides some pre-built palettes and themes. But, it is also possible to generate a theme based on a custom color. To do so, simply run below command: ```bash ng generate @angular/material:m3-theme ``` After running the above script, your will be presented some questions, answer them like below: | Question | Answer | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------- | | What HEX color should be used to generate the M3 theme? It will represent your primary color palette. (ex. #ffffff) | **`#6750A4`** | | What HEX color should be used represent the secondary color palette? (Leave blank to use generated colors from Material) | *Leave blank* | | What HEX color should be used represent the tertiary color palette? (Leave blank to use generated colors from Material) | *Leave blank* | | What HEX color should be used represent the neutral color palette? (Leave blank to use generated colors from Material) | *Leave blank* | | What is the directory you want to place the generated theme file in? (Enter the relative path such as 'src/app/styles/' or leave blank to generate at your project root) | *Leave blank* | | Do you want to use system-level variables in the theme? System-level variables make dynamic theming easier through CSS custom properties, but increase the bundle size. | **`No`** | | Choose light, dark, or both to generate the corresponding themes | **`both`** | The schematic will create a file called `m3-theme.scss` at root. You can explore the file to understand how the theme is created: ```scss // m3-theme.scss - content reduced for brevity $light-theme: mat.define-theme(( color: ( theme-type: light, primary: $_primary, tertiary: $_tertiary, ) )); $dark-theme: mat.define-theme(( color: ( theme-type: dark, primary: $_primary, tertiary: $_tertiary, ) )); ``` Now, you can simply use these newly created themes in main `styles.scss`: ```scss @use "../m3-theme"; :root { @include mat.all-component-themes(m3-theme.$light-theme); } ``` And the output will look like below:  ## Conclusion We created a `v18` Angular application. And installed `@angular/material`'s `next` (`v18`) version in it. Then we created some boilerplate components like dashboard, address-form, tree, table and drag-drop views using [Angular Material Schematics](https://material.angular.io/guide/schematics). After creating components, we modified layout component and it's styling, and we started using it in main app component. Lastly, we learned the usage of new schematic `ng generate @angular/material:m3-theme`. The code is available on [GitHub](https://github.com/Angular-Material-Dev/angular-material-3). ## Live Playground ## New Course Announcement This article was written when Material 3 was not yet stable with Angular Material. But, with Angular Material 18, support for Material 3 is stable! If you want to learn more about Angular Material for Material 3 design, I have introduced a new course, feel free to check it out! [](/courses/overview/m3-ng-components)