Angular is a framework created by Google and is an evolution of AngularJS. Check out more details about the platform on the HostGator blog.Angular is one of those interfaces whose success is obvious, much appreciated by developers, who often associate it with a dynamic “generator” of HTML pages. But Angular presents problems of understanding, even if only between its two versions, which evolved in parallel.
The real question today is what technology should be used to build websites capable of supporting very large traffic and pluggable to heavy server applications.
In this article, therefore, we will take stock of Angular, weighing the comparative advantages in relation to AngularJS, in addition to listing some advantages that make it so interesting.
What is Angular?
So, let’s start from the beginning: what is Angular, anyway? Simply put, it is a Framework. A frame is a working structure. Basically, it is a tool that allows developers to work more efficiently and in a more organized way.
You’ve probably noticed that you often need to do the same things in your applications: validate forms, manage navigation, throw errors…
Developers often retrieve functions they developed for one project and then reuse them in others. In this case, we can say that you have developed a kind of mini-work structure!
The advantage of a professional Framework is that it allows multiple developers to work on the same project, without getting lost in organizing the source code.
In fact, when you develop functions, you are the only one who knows them, and if one day you have to work with another developer, he will first have to familiarize himself with all of them.
On the other hand, a developer who joins a project that uses a Framework already knows the conventions and tools available to them to work.
How does Angular work?
In fact, Angular allows you to develop certain types of applications robustly and efficiently.
Understand, below, the difference between a web application and a website, because this distinction is very important to understand what you are starting with.
Website or app?
The current trend in web development is to want to completely separate:
The client part of the website: that is, the HTML, CSS and JavaScript files, which are interpreted by the browser. The server part of the website: the PHP files, if you are developing your website in PHP; the Java files if you are using Java etc. which are interpreted on the server side. It is in this part that requests are made to databases, for example.
A “website”, in the traditional sense of the term, is therefore a server application that sends HTML pages to the client’s browser each time the client requests them. When the user browses your website and changes pages, you must make a request to the server.
When filling out and submitting a form, the user needs to make a request to the server… in short, this is a very long, expensive process and could be done faster in JavaScript.
On the other hand, a “web application” is a simple HTML page that contains enough JavaScript to run on its own after the server sends it to the client.
Every time the user requests a page, the server takes care of returning it. In the case of a web application, JavaScript takes over navigation management, showing or hiding the necessary HTML elements to give the user the impression that they are browsing a traditional website!
The advantage of developing this way is that it is incredibly more agile. Imagine, you replace the delay of a request to the server with JavaScript processing!
Angular VS AngularJS
It all started in 2009, when Hevery and Abrons developed their first version of AngularJS, which was originally only intended to manipulate JSON files. Quickly, the API took a more general turn and in late 2010 AngularJS was moved to the GitHub directories, with a decidedly Open Source status.
The project was taken over, however, largely by Google. In fact, the first “real” version of AngularJS was 1.0, released in June 2012. The switch to the new one occurred in 2014, for delivery in 2016, from a very different version that is now known by the simplified word Angular, which It encompasses significant changes and a total rewrite of the product.
Then AngularJS was very popular and used to develop complex client applications. Likewise, this happened with Angular. There are, therefore, two Angulars, the first in accordance with its JavaScript origins and the second, based on Microsoft TypeScript, much more efficient and completely rewritten.
The latter we use today for websites with a lot of traffic, for example. Thus, it made it possible to carry out large applications and test them effectively. It was developed at Google’s facilities in 2009.
Below, check out a six-point summary of the important changes between Angular and AngularJS:
The controllers: The traditional MVC architecture is replaced by a reactive architecture based on web components. The MVC architecture is a classic architecture that we find in many frameworks;
Directives: The existing Directive object definition is removed and replaced with three new types of directives: components, attribute directives, and structural directives;
Scope: Scopes and scope inheritance have been simplified;
Modules: AngularJS modules are replaced with native ES6 modules;
jQLite: This lighter version of jQuery was used in AngularJS. It is being retired at Angular, mainly for performance reasons;
Bidirectional data binding: For the same performance reasons, this functionality is not available on the base. However, it is still possible to implement this mechanism with Angular.
Why Angular?
The Google team working on AngularJS officially announced Angular at a conference in October 2014 (specifically dedicated to Angular).
At the time, they announced that this new version would no longer be an update, but rather a rewrite of the entire Framework, which would cause significant changes.
Furthermore, it was announced that AngularJS would no longer be maintained from 2018 onwards. The motivations for developing a new Framework, knowing that this version would not be backwards compatible, were as follows:
Web standards have evolved, in particular the appearance of components that were developed after the release of AngularJS and that provide natively better solutions than those that exist;
JavaScript ES6 – most of the ES6 standards have been finalized and the new standard was adopted in mid-2015. ES6 provides features that can replace existing AngularJS implementations and improve their performance;
Performance – AngularJS can be improved with new ES6 approaches and features. Several Angular kernel modules have also been removed, including jqlite (a lightweight version of JQuery for Angular) which results in better performance. These new performances make Angular a perfectly suitable tool for developing mobile web applications.
What are the advantages of Angular?
The first step to understand is that AngularJS and Angular are two different products, each with its advantages and disadvantages.
Angular has the advantage of being based on Microsoft’s TypeScript, which is a JavaScript transpilation system – that is, the best way to write organized and secure JavaScript code.
TypeScript allows the programmer to explore anonymous, generic functions, all in static typing.
Furthermore, Angular has the great advantage of modularity. Many features are deported to modules, with a hierarchy in components, which, after all, is simpler than the organization based on AngularJS controllers.
Another advantage over JS is the choice of the linked data update mechanism, between the model and the MVC view, of the “one-way binding” type and not “two-way binding”.
The false opposition Angular VS PHP
Although it would be a mistake to want to oppose Angular to PHP, the subject often comes up on forums, among developers, who wonder which solution to choose.
In fact, they don’t play on the same court! Angular must be placed on top of PHP, in addition, PHP performs the central processing, but yields to Angular on the workstation to generate the pages dynamically.
PHP is a “back end” language and Angular is a “front end” product, which clearly distinguishes the two.
Perspectives
While both versions of Angular can coexist, we have known since early 2018 that the team responsible for maintaining them decided that version 1.7 of AngularJS would be the last.
It was also clarified that versions of AngularJS 1.7 will benefit from an LTS (Long Term Support), but that it will not exceed June 30, 2021.
If you are using AngularJS, it is important to consider migration, which does not necessarily need to be Angular-oriented. React can be considered or even simpler solutions like Vue and some others. This choice must take into account several aspects, such as the volume of clients to be processed simultaneously, the complexity of the applications and the transition to an MVC-type pattern, for example.
