Due to the increasing complexity of client-side programming in recent years, a framework is becoming more and more desirable for the developer. The requirements for a web application are now at least as high as for a desktop application. A framework enables the developer to cover the broad and complex requirements on the web.
What is Angular?
One of these front-end frameworks is Angular. The developer can develop complex applications and bring familiar as well as new architectural concepts to the client. The work can be oriented not only on the server but also on the client via Javascript.
Where did Angular come from?
Angular is an open-source front-end JavaScript framework used primarily for developing single-page web applications (SPAs) and dynamic web applications.
In 2009, Google released Angular.js, the earlier version of the framework. Since then, it has been maintained and evolved by a combination of developer communities and support from Google. The versions after Angular 2 are just referred to as Angular.
Angular uses HTML and Typescript to create single-page client applications. HTML attributes are extended with directives. In addition, Angular implements the Model-View-Controller (MVC) and Model-View-View Model (MVVM) architectural patterns, which provide a solid foundation for application performance.
The MVVM separates data, the model, and the controller. This separation makes it easier to manage complex web applications. Data binding enables changes to the website to trigger changes to the DOM. Thanks to bidirectional data binding, design changes are reflected on the site.
Angular is supported by all modern web browsers and is also compatible with mobile browsers.
What is possible with Angular?
Angular is focused on a component-based architecture and was developed using Typescript. It combines modern architectural approaches to handle complex web application requirements. It separates the responsibilities and for that the view from the logic. The developer can split an application in such a way that it becomes maintainable, testable and extensible. The idea is to break the application into small testable pieces so that the developer paradigms of “single-responsibility” and “separation-of-concerns” can be adhered to. Angular helps with many emerging issues such as creating components, databinding to the UI/HTML, transforming data against the UI with pipes, offloading “work” to services, communicating with an API, etc.
In addition, by using Typescript, Angular has a similar type safety as developers know from other languages like C# or Java. However, Angular is not bound to Typescript and thus it allows the developer to also use Javascript with ES5 or ES2015/ES6.
Angular allows you to communicate with components, feed them data, and accept events from components; it thus makes components reusable and more isolated. The flexibility to develop the view separately as HTML, for example, allows different teams to work on architecture and design.
To achieve maximum flexibility and be versatile, Angular draws on other projects or their functionality, such as RxJS. By including third-party libraries, you can extend your applications with almost any JavaScript library and use its variability. This allows you to create complete applications that are larger and more powerful than a “normal” website: A web application that has the same rights and obligations as an application in a known language, for example, for the desktop.
What are the advantages of using Angular?
There is certainly a whole range of advantages that speak for the use of Angular. The main advantages are as follows:
1. Custom and reusable components
Angular allows developers to create their own components. These components can be reused, combined and nested, providing a construction kit for building the application.
2. Use of TypeScript’s data types
By using Angular, users can effortlessly call data from TypeScript code on the web page and respond to appropriate user input without having to manually write any code. This enables the integration of third-party libraries without implementing another intermediate layer (glue code).
3. Productivity and code consistency
The entire framework is based on components and services, which can be thought of as building blocks. The application can be developed faster and more consistently if you write the components according to the guidelines and code structures or create a class of service.
4. Easy testing
Angular can be used to perform unit testing and end-to-end testing of the application. The framework is suitable for performing both simple testing for unit testing and end-to-end testing. The number of developers/users does not matter. It is possible to test any part of your application.
5. Code reduction and good maintainability
By using TypeScript, Angular applications get an object-oriented architecture, which in turn leads to a clear and ultimately well-maintainable source code. In addition, Angular eliminates the need for much of the code that you would normally write. In addition, the source code becomes significantly smaller. The reduction of code is justified by the automation of standard tasks. Angular applications gain an object-oriented architecture through the use of TypeScript. This in turn leads to a clear and ultimately easily maintainable source code.
6. High compatibility
Angular is cross-platform and compatible with all major browsers such as Chrome or Firefox. In order to be able to develop comparatively easy, large and small applications with modern web technologies, companies need appropriate resources and reliable tools. The JavaScript ecosystem is in a constant state of flux. New frameworks appear daily and disappear just as quickly. Despite all this, Angular seems to be a tool that companies can rely on.
What are some Angular Code Examples?
Property-Binding
Within our HTML template we use square brackets to access properties of elements. To affect the HTMLElement.hidden property of a component, we do the following:
<p [hidden]=”‘true'”>{{text}}</p>
Event-Binding
We have the ability to listen to events and change the component through user interaction. For this we use event bindings, which are defined in Angular using round brackets and contain the name of the event. If we want to listen to the click event of an HTML element, we proceed as follows:
<button (click)=”someFunction()”>Button Text</button>
Loops with *ngFor and String Interpolation
As in any framework, another feature is the output of list-like data structures. In Angular, there is the *ngFor directive for this.
<ul>
<li *ngFor=”let book of books”>
<span>{{book.title}}</span> – <small>{{book.subtitle}}</small>
</li>
</ul>
This steps through the “books” list and displays all elements within that list using string interpolation (“{{ }}”).
How can I learn more?
This article is a part of a greater series centred around the technologies and themes found within the first edition of the Devoteam TechRadar. To read further into these topics, please download the TechRadar.
