Angular is a popular open-source web application framework developed and maintained by Google. It is used to build dynamic, single-page applications (SPAs) and web apps with rich user interfaces. Angular is built on TypeScript, a superset of JavaScript, which provides static typing and other features that enhance code quality and development experience.
Key Features of Angular:
Component-Based Architecture: Angular applications are built using components, which are modular, reusable, and encapsulated pieces of the UI.
Two-Way Data Binding: Angular synchronizes the data between the model (the underlying data) and the view (the UI) in real-time, ensuring that changes in one reflect immediately in the other.
Dependency Injection: Angular has a powerful dependency injection system that makes it easy to manage and inject dependencies (services, components) into your application.
Directives: Directives are special markers in the DOM that Angular interprets and transforms into behavior. For example, *ngFor is used for looping, and *ngIf is used for conditional rendering.
Routing: Angular provides a robust routing mechanism that enables developers to define navigation paths and manage the application’s state in the URL.
Forms: Angular has strong support for building forms, including both template-driven and reactive forms, with validation and error handling features.
Testing: Angular is designed with testability in mind, providing tools like Karma and Jasmine for unit testing, and Protractor for end-to-end testing.
CLI: Angular comes with a powerful Command Line Interface (CLI) that helps in scaffolding new projects, generating components, services, and other elements, as well as managing dependencies and building the project.
Angular Versions:
There are lots of improvements in the Angular version but I am sharing some important information.
Angular 2:- Written entirely in typescript
Component-based instead of Controller
ES6 and typescript supported
Angular 4:- 1) Changes in core library
2) Lot of performance improvement is made to reduce size of AOT compiler generated code.
3) Animation features are separated from @angular/core to @angular/animation.
4) Else block in *ngIf introduced:
Angular 5:- Build optimiser:
Compiler Improvements
Improved in faster Compiler support:
ng serve --aot
Angular 6:- 1) Remove support for
<template>
tag and used
<ng-template>
2) to update the package use below command
ng update packagename
Angular 7:- major release on core framework, Angular material and CLI.
Angular 8:- Added support for SASS, make more release in core framework.
Angular 9:- Smaller bundle sizes and augmented performance.
Faster testing.
Better debugging.
Improved build times, enabling AOT on by default.
Angular 10:- Angular Package Format no longer includes ESM5 or FESM5 bundles, saving download and install time when running yarn or npm install for Angular packages and libraries.
For the compiler, name spans have been added for property reads and method calls.
Angular 11:- Automatic Inlining of Fonts
Updates on Operation Byelog
Improved Reporting and Logging
Updated Language Service Preview
Angular 12:-
1) Nullish Coalescing:- The nullish coalescing operator (??) has been helping developers write cleaner code in TypeScript classes for a while now.
Example:-
{{salary !== null && salary !== undefined ? salary : calculateSalary() }}
Becomes:
{{ salary ?? calculateSalary() }}
2) Stylish Improvements
Angular components will now support inline Sass in the styles field of the @Component decorator. Previously, Sass was only available in external resources due to the Angular compiler.
To enable this feature in your existing applications add “inlineStyleLanguage”: “scss” to angular.json
3) Running ng build now defaults to production for new v12 projects which saves teams some extra steps and helps to prevent accidental development builds in production.
Angular 13:-
1) Support for TypeScript 4.4
2) Enhancements to Angular Tests
3) 100% Ivy and No More Support for View Engine
4) Angular CLI Enhancements
Angular 14
1. Standalone Components, Directives, and Pipes (Developer Preview):
Introduced a developer preview for standalone components, allowing components to be defined without the need for an Angular module (NgModule). This simplifies the structure of Angular applications.
2. Typed Forms:
Angular 14 introduced typed reactive forms, providing stronger typing in forms, which helps catch errors at compile time and improves developer productivity.
3. Optional Injectors in Embedded Views:
This feature enables more flexible dependency injection, allowing developers to create embedded views with optional injectors.
4. Enhanced Template Diagnostics:
Improved diagnostics to catch more common template errors at compile time, like nullish coalescing (??) misuse, ensuring better type safety.
5. CLI Improvements:
Enhancements to the Angular CLI, including better debugging and build performance, especially in development mode.
Angular 15
1. Standalone API Stabilization:
Standalone components, directives, and pipes became fully stable, making it easier to build and share isolated Angular features without needing modules.
2. New Directive Composition API:
Introduced a new way to compose directives, allowing developers to create more flexible and reusable components.
3. Better Optimizations:
Further improvements to build times, bundle sizes, and performance through better tree-shaking and optimization strategies.
4. Extended Internationalization (i18n) Capabilities:
Improvements in i18n, making it easier to work with localized applications.
5. Router Enhancements:
Introduced title as a route configuration option, making it simpler to manage dynamic page titles.
Angular 16
1. Hydration Support:
Angular 16 introduced hydration, enabling server-side rendering (SSR) applications to hydrate the server-rendered content on the client side, leading to faster loading times and better SEO.
2. Signal-Based Reactivity (Developer Preview):
Introduced a developer preview of signals for reactive state management, providing a more fine-grained way to handle reactivity in Angular applications.
3. Dependency Injection Improvements:
Enhanced the Dependency Injection system with @Self and @Optional metadata, making it easier to manage hierarchical dependencies.
4. Zone.js Optional:
Angular 16 made Zone.js optional, giving developers more control over change detection strategies and enabling better performance for applications that don’t require Zone.js
5. Faster Builds:
Optimized build processes with improved incremental builds, reducing the time required to build and serve Angular applications.
Angular 17
1. Full Signals Support:
Signals, a new reactive primitive, became fully supported in Angular 17. Signals offer a more efficient and predictable way to manage reactivity in Angular applications compared to traditional observables.
2. Directive Composition API Stabilization:
Finalized the directive composition API, making it easier to compose complex UIs by reusing directives across different components.
3. Enhanced Router Features:
Introduced new router features, such as lazy-loading guards and improved preloading strategies, to enhance the performance and flexibility of Angular applications.
4. Improved SSR and Hydration:
Further improvements to server-side rendering and hydration, making Angular applications faster and more SEO-friendly.
5. Faster Builds and Development Server:
Continued focus on optimizing build times and improving the development experience with an even faster development server.
Angular 18
1. Improved Signals API:
Angular 18 is expected to refine the Signals API further, making it even more intuitive and powerful for developers to manage state in Angular applications.
2. Optional NgModules Everywhere:
Building on the work started with standalone components, Angular 18 is likely to make NgModules optional across the board, simplifying the architecture of Angular applications.
3. Performance Optimizations:
Further performance optimizations, especially around large-scale applications, with improvements to tree-shaking, lazy-loading, and bundle size reduction.
4. Advanced Tooling Support:
Enhancements to the Angular CLI and DevTools, providing better support for modern development workflows, including more granular control over build processes and debugging.