Angular 2 View will not update after variable change in subscribe

I have a problem where my view will not change when I update my variable in my observable subscription. I am trying to show a loading spinner while I wait for a response from my backend and then display the response, but the spinner won't hide. My subscription looks like this:

this.isRequesting = "true";
this.questionService.onSubmit(form, this.questions).subscribe( (value) => {
        this._ngZone.run( () => {
             this.fileLocation = JSON.stringify(value);
             console.log(this.fileLocation);
            this.isRequesting = "false";
            console.log(this.isRequesting);
        });
    });

And my html for this component looks like this:

<spinner *ngIf="isRequesting=='true'"></spinner>

I can see that isRequesting changes to "false" in my console after I get a response back from the backend (Springboot), but the view still does not change. The spinner was from SpinKit and I modified this tutorial for my spinner to work.

I have tried:

1. The way in the tutorial (with stopRefreshing() in the error and complete parameters of the observable)
2. ngZone to force my view to update.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to get my view to update or any way to get my spinner to hide after I get a response from my backend?

are you seeing any error on console? This could be due to fact that angular is not running change detection after you have made updates to value. I think you don't need ngZone.run as it will run code outside the angular zone.

this.questionService.onSubmit(form, this.questions).subscribe( (value) => {
            this.fileLocation = JSON.stringify(value);
            console.log(this.fileLocation);
            this.isRequesting = "false";
            console.log(this.isRequesting);
    });

If due to some reason you need to run this outside Angular zone, then you should inform angular to run a change detection cycle by either of this method.

• just wrap update of isRequesting in set timeout

   setTimeout( () => this.isRequesting = "false", 0);
  

• invoking change detection manually

   import {ChangeDetectorRef} from '@angular/core'
   constructor(private ref: ChangeDetectorRef){}
  
   this.questionService.onSubmit(form, this.questions).subscribe( (value)=> {
       //existing code
       console.log(this.isRequesting);
       this.ref.detectChanges();
   });
  

You can also try this solution: Guide from Thoughtram

Short version:

 import { ChangeDetectorRef } from '@angular/core';
    ...
    constructor(private cd: ChangeDetectorRef) {}
    ...
    ... .subscribe( () => {
           <yourstuff>
           this.cd.markForCheck();
        }

and you are good.

Background: when changing a value via .subscribe() angular does not notify that it should run changedetection. So you need to run it yourself.

You can switch (on/off) template updating via changeDetection. You have to put your choice of strategy into component definition. You can choose Default or OnPush strategy.

@Component({
    selector: '...............',
    templateUrl: '.......html',
    styleUrls: ['..........scss'],
    changeDetection: ChangeDetectionStrategy.Default
})

if you are using it in expression *ngIf remember *ngIf = false will not work as expression you need to add

<ul *ngIf=" somefunction(x) ? false: true">