Using require vs bindings in components

[alextsg]

I noticed that in the components section, it states that the require object is for referencing inherited logic alongside $onInit. What's the recommendation for using require versus putting a function in the component's bindings? For example, should I be doing:

require : {
   parent: '^parent'
}
...
$ctrl.parent.doStuff();

or

bindings: {
    doStuff: '&'
}
...
$ctrl.doStuff()

Thanks! Sorry if this is the wrong place for this!

[toddmotto]

Good question indeed! If you can, use bindings as much as possible and think about stateless/stateful components. Using require kind of goes against the principles of pure components, and inheriting controllers isn't as easy to test, or as reliable IMO (due to DOM placement etc).

[alextsg]

Yeah makes a lot of sense. Thank you!

[toddmotto]

Anytime :)!

[Prasanna-Sridharan]

Hi @alextsg @toddmotto I guess using 'require' makes sense when you want to utilize a directive API (like a service, e.g. custom logger API) which is not a parent to the component. Also require supports multiple API's to be referred. To access parent scope, 'bindings' are helpful and minimal. Please correct me if am wrong.