There is no such thing as the best or worst front-end technology in the world. Many programmers accept that it is built for particular projects and jobs. For instance, Jeff Delaney - Founder of the Fireship Project, argues that each framework has its flaws & success. There is one factor you can use to determine which solution is more popular among developers. It is the increasing popularity of technology.
Every ambitious developer is aware that the software business is driven by innovation. Every year, new technologies emerge in the market. However, only a few become popular with time and respond to each industry, customer, and consumer with new-age expectations.
And one of the tools with such rising popularity is Angular. Let us discover why Angular is so popular in modern application development!
Angular is a JavaScript-based framework for developing online, desktop, and mobile apps. Created back in 2009 by Google, it is entirely written in Typescript, which Microsoft developed. Angular ranked the third most popular web framework in 2021. As of now, it is chosen by 26.2% of professionals.
As Jeremy Wilken in his book “Angular in Action “ puts it, “The core value proposition of Angular is to make it possible to build applications that work for nearly any platform- whether mobile, web, or desktop.”
Google's Angular was chosen by 13,000 of the roughly 50,000 respondents polled. This framework is utilized by 2.3 million programmers, according to GitHub. The technology has received 81,400 stars on this page, and the number of Angular enthusiasts is growing monthly.
Furthermore, around 7000 businesses have picked this specific solution for developing their web services. Examples include Google, Amazon, Udemy, Tinder, Snapchat, and many more companies.
It might lead to the question - why is everybody choosing Angular?
Angular is widely used, productive, has a vibrant community, is fully documented, and builds lightning-fast programs that can run on various platforms. Unsurprisingly, Angular has become one of the top three web frameworks. It's possible to go right with it.
And, in an ever-changing digital environment, Angular is always stepping up to meet the needs of developers.
Before delving into Angular, it's important to understand the distinctions between it and AngularJS. Angular was created from the ground up as an alternative to AngularJS and varied in numerous ways:
Applications in AngularJS are broken into modules such as templates, controllers, scopes, and providers, only sections of which may be found in an Angular application - albeit Angular still contains templates and providers.
According to Shyam Seshadri, “AngularJS is not completely MVC; the controller will never have a direct reference to the view. It is great because it keeps the controller independent of the view & allows us to easily test the controller without needing to instantiate a DOM.”
AngularJS promotes TypeScript for apps that were previously written with JavaScript. In addition, performing asynchronous operations in AngularJS primarily depended on Promises, whereas Angular fully relies on the RxJS library, which embodies the Observable pattern.
It is wrong to claim that Angular and AngularJS are the same frameworks and that an AngularJS application can be easily moved to Angular. While migration tools might be useful, developing the AngularJS application from the start in Angular cuts the labor extensively.
Here are some more differences between Angular and AngularJS that you should know!
Developers use Angular, a popular JavaScript-based web development framework, to construct online apps. Angular has capabilities such as HTTP service, materials, and animations that allow developers to design major apps while saving time writing long code.
For instance, Grasshopper is an elite mobile app created by expert coders from Google's experimental workshop. The app guides you through learning to code in an accessible & fun way.
Here are the major reasons why you should learn Angular.
Angular prioritizes the developer experience. JavaScript is notorious for introducing some of the strangest behavior known to developers. Angular includes complete TypeScript support to ease difficulties, which gives type safety in our apps.
TypeScript existed for four years before Angular became a framework, and the designers of Angular realized the need for type safety in big business projects to increase productivity and reduce problems in production code. As a result, they chose to be among the first JavaScript adopters.
If you ask developers, they would say it's the right move. TypeScript has gained considerable recognition and is a community favorite. According to the most recent State of JavaScript Survey, 93% of respondents were happy with TypeScript, indicating that Angular made the best choice.
Many other frameworks have now followed suit, reinforcing Angular as the benchmark.
But what makes TypeScript a favorite? TypeScript is a JavaScript superset. To put it simply, TypeScript is JavaScript with extra features. As a result, all JavaScript projects are completely functional under TypeScript. The language's key selling point is its types. Let's see why.
Here, we have a simple function definition for computing the sum of two values in the preceding example. What if we try to pass in both a string and a number? JavaScript would not object. A value would be assessed correctly.
In our codebase, misusing a function can lead to difficult-to-trace issues. TypeScript addresses these difficulties by allowing developers to annotate the parameter list and return the type of a function.
Annotating values helps the compiler to check your code for issues intelligently. The compilation will only succeed if the sum() function is called properly. However, TypeScript will help you in tracking down the problem. This additional layer of inspection might aid programmers in debugging their code.
Maintaining a large corporate application can be smooth with the right configuration. Before building application logic, a solid foundation must exist to enable code reuse and scalability.
It’s why frameworks like Angular are used. Its features encourage developers to use the finest design pattern principles in their applications. Singletons, dependency injection, and factory functions are some examples. These are design patterns that are available to developers today!
Shyam Seshadri's book ‘Angular: Up and Running’ states that “Angular allows you to write modular services & have them injected wherever needed. It greatly improves the testability and reusability of the same.”
To explain this, consider Angular's most prominent feature, dependency injection. Dependency injection is a method that allows a program to generate and manage object instances. Let's break it down with an example.
Here, we are creating a new instance of the Car class. It is associated with a property called a car. It can be challenging to manage since instances must be generated, organized, and deleted. Here Angular saves you with dependency injection. Instances are generated & maintained on your behalf using dependency injection. We must add it to the constructor() function's parameter list.
Angular will recognize that you want an instance of the Car class during compilation, and the instance will be "injected" by the framework. Angular's dependency injection approach is versatile for individuals who like to fine-tune this behavior.
Throughout history, developers have proven that separating concerns in software is beneficial. There are several advantages, including encapsulation, clarity, reusable code, and division of labor. Angular projects are densely packed with files, which is a good thing. It becomes clear what each file accomplishes concerning our project.
Classes are further annotated using decorators to identify their functions inside the framework. Do you need to make a component? Make use of the @Component decorator. What about issuing a directive? Make use of the @Directive decorator.
Each class's duties are easily discernible. You can boost your productivity by isolating the application's display layer from the business logic of a component & can focus on the work at hand.
Angular's structure is divided into modules. The entire technology is built around a modular framework known as NgModules. Developers break code into discrete, distinct sections, and the resulting modules ensure excellent code consistency. Angular provides the same paradigm, saving time and lowering production costs without considering components.
Our goal as developers is to stay up with the current developments. Google created the Angular framework. The words "complacent" or "stagnant" aren’t usually associated with a firm like Google.
You can count on Google to keep its framework up to date with the newest and best practices. Indeed, the core developers have committed to releasing major releases every six months. It's like getting to celebrate Christmas twice a year!
The framework's maintainers are always working to enhance it by supporting the most recent versions of package dependencies, deprecating obsolete features, providing good documentation, and optimizing their engines.
Although Angular is open source, Google significantly funds the project's activities. Angular is more than just a framework; it's an ecosystem of packages designed to handle some of the most frequent problems you'll face.
In need of a router? No problem with Angular! New to designing? For app prototyping, Angular includes a package that exposes hundreds of UI components. Want to link to Firebase? There's also a package for that!
Google maintains these packages to ensure they are compatible with the most recent version of Angular. You'll never have to wait to upgrade your project because a package still needs to be updated to be compatible with the most recent version of Angular. All packages are updated with the core Angular framework to ensure complete compatibility.
Many frameworks available are basic. It requires the developer to consider the optimal project structure method. While this is useful, it can lead to certain issues. Scalability difficulties may arise. Onboarding new developers can be time-consuming since they must grasp your project's structure and design practices.
Angular eliminates this problem by offering a preset directory structure and organization within your project. The CLI will assist you in creating the right file names. But there’s more to it.
It is beneficial and can help develop online applications, native mobile apps, and desktop programs for Mac, Windows, and Linux. These are also present in React and Flutter. The main distinction is what is included in the base package.
Angular is an all-in-one framework that includes all of the required functionalities. For instance, PayPal leverages Angular to create dynamic web pages that can receive real-time feeds of PayPal transaction data. Angular is at the heart of PayPal's responsive mobile and web app experiences.
All projects built using Angular are single-page apps. It is aided by the website being updated following the user's needs. The page does not need to be reloaded; the area now in use is updated. Take Netflix's navigation mechanism, for example. You don't have to reload it, which is one of the obvious benefits of SPA Architecture.
Anton Moiseev said, “The Angular framework is a platform that includes all you need for developing and deploying a web app, batteries included.” You have heard that a visually appealing website has only 0.5 secs to entice a visitor to remain and browse for more.
Angular provides this dynamism through pre-built (pre-defined) UI components and modules that adhere to Google's Material Design standards. Angular CLI may build simple code and leverage the various Material Design components. All components have predetermined styles, which aids in the speed with which the service is delivered.
The Angular Material documentation offers all of the basic examples. Any framework worth its salt must have lightning-fast speed, useful tools, and a dynamic community. Angular provides all these benefits and more.
In recent releases, Angular, the popular JavaScript framework for developing web apps, has seen substantial enhancements and additions. The Angular team adds new features and changes with each release that increase developer productivity, improve performance, and provide a more complete development experience. Angular has recently released version 16 with many new features and enhancements to improve web app speed. Let’s check them out.
Differential loading is a feature that optimizes JavaScript bundle loading dependent on the browser's capabilities. It enables Angular developers to create distinct bundles for contemporary and legacy browsers, guaranteeing that consumers receive the most optimized and efficient code for their particular browsers. It leads to speedier loading times for newer browsers while keeping older browsers compatible.
It was introduced in Angular version 16 & is a collection of stricter compiler and runtime tests that assist in identifying potential problems and mistakes at compile time rather than runtime. It requires stricter type checking, reduces runtime problems, and enhances Angular applications' general stability and maintainability. Using a strict mode can result in cleaner code and fewer runtime errors.
Angular has been working hard to improve speed and reduce bundle sizes. The framework adds optimizations and additions with each iteration to enable quicker rendering and smaller application bundles. These enhancements include differential loading, enhanced tree-shaking, slow module loading, and more efficient change detection techniques.
The Angular Language Service is a robust solution that offers intelligent code completion, navigation, and error checking within popular editors such as Visual Studio Code. It improves the programming experience by offering real-time feedback, autocompletion, and mistake detection. The Angular Language Service uses recent APIs to deliver accurate suggestions and diagnostics.
As Anton Moiseev puts it in his book ‘Angular Development with TypeScript,’ “Angular CLI has become a de facto way of starting new Angular projects.” Recent versions of the Angular CLI (Command Line Interface) have seen substantial enhancements.
It streamlines the development process by automating operations like producing components, services, and modules. The CLI also has code scaffolding, testing facilities, and build optimizations. Updating the latest CLI version guarantees access to the latest features and a more fluid development workflow.
There are several reasons why Angular is so popular. This framework is also incredibly reliable and simple for someone with a solid background. Furthermore, developers appreciate the UI templates' clear and strong syntax. It gives online projects a sleek and stunning appearance.
Angular is a strong tool for developing big corporate apps that require a clear and well-organized file structure, great readability, and logic separation from view. Ultimately, it is highly effective in helping you develop modern apps. It is backed, powered, and parented by Google, which bodes well for Angular's future.
Because Angular has a difficult learning curve, some developers choose simpler technologies. However, when employing an Angular developer, you must have a good technical background and a keen interest in the framework.
We are here to support you if you need more technical help while starting with your Angular project. MarsDevs is a one-stop shop for all your tech needs and can offer resources to help you understand Angular development better.
Need help with your Angular projects? Book a slot with MarsDevs today, and let us handle your development needs!
Businesses have picked Angular for developing powerful, scalable online apps because of its efficiency, rapid development pace, and simplicity of interaction with other platforms.
Even if you're a beginner developer, knowing Angular can help you build cross-platform applications, native mobile apps, and advanced online applications.
Angular offers a rich collection of capabilities that allow developers to create scalable and maintainable apps. Its modular architecture facilitates code structure and reuse, making it appropriate for large-scale applications.
The Angular framework is still an appealing choice for software development in 2023, with no signs of changing soon. This framework is well-liked for developing enterprise-scale online products, mobile apps, and PWAs.
The latest version of Angular is Angular v16, which brings a new set of features such as non-destructive hydration, better server-side rendering, future-proof architecture, and many more.
