As the internet grows, web applications are becoming quite common. Even right now, you are probably using a web application to read this article. From social media to healthcare, from ecommerce to online banking, web applications have been integrated everywhere. These apps prove to be convenient and help us in out regular day-to-day lives, offering smooth user experiences and interfaces. However, all these apps have to be built from somewhere, or using a programming language. One of the famous frameworks used for developing these web apps is Angular, and it has definitely made it easier to create robust apps. So, what is Angular?
What is Angular?
Angular is a platform and framework that is mainly used to build single-page client applications. The main programming languages used in Angular include HTML and TypeScript. However, Angular itself is written in TypeScript. It implements some of the core and optional functionality as a set of TypeScript libraries that you import into your applications.
As a framework, Angular has a number of clear advantages while also providing a standard structure that developers can work with. This enables users to create large applications in a maintainable manner.
Why Angular?
One of the most widely used client-side scripting language is JavaScript. It is written into HTML documents to enable interactions with web pages in many unique ways. And given that it is relatively easy to learn, it is well-suited to develop modern applications. However, even with all that functionality, JavaScript is not that suitable for developing single-page applications that require modularity, testability, and developer productivity.
Nowadays, there is a wide array of frameworks and libraries that are designed to provide alternative solutions. And with respect to front-end web development, Angular has addressed most, if not all, of the issues that developers face when they are using JavaScript alone.
Features of Angular
Angular as a framework has quite a number of features. Some of them include:
- Document Object Model
The Document Object Model (DOM) treats any XML or HTML document as a tree structure in which each node represents a part of the document. Angular uses regular DOM extensively. This is important given that there are times when you would have to do about ten updates on the same HTML page. Instead of updating the ones that were already updated, Angular will update the entire tree structure of HTML tags.
- TypeScript
TypeScript defines a set of types of JavaScript, which helps users write JavaScript code that is much easier to understand. All code written in TypeScript compiles with JavaScript and can run smoothly on any platform. However, it is not necessary to use TypeScript when developing an Angular application. On the other hand, it is highly recommended as it offers better syntactic structure. It also makes the code easier to understand and maintain.
- Data binding
Data binding is the process that enables users to manipulate web page elements through a web browser. It uses dynamic HTML and does not require complex scripting or programming. Data binding is mainly used in web pages that include interactive components, such as calculators, tutorials, forums, or even games. It also enables a better incremental display of a web page when pages have a large amount of data.
Angular uses a lot of data binding, specifically two-way binding. The model state reflects any changes that have been made in the corresponding UI elements. Furthermore, the UI state reflects any changes in the model state. This feature enables the framework to connect the DOM to the model data through the controller.
Advantages of Angular
Angular as a framework comes with a whole host of advantages:
- Custom components
Angular gives developers the freedom to build their own components that can pack functionality along with rendering logic into reusable pieces. It also plays well with web components.
- Data binding
Angular gives developers the freedom to effortlessly move data from JavaScript code to the view, and react to user events without having to write any separate code manually.
- Browser compatibility
Angular is a cross-platform framework, making it compatible with multiple browsers. An Angular application can typically run on all browsers and any OS.
- Testing
Tests are first-class tools, and Angular has been built from the ground up with testability in mind. You will have the ability to test every part of your application, which is important in ensuring that you develop an app that is functional.
Example
Angular is not that complicated to understand. Furthermore, the code is divided into different sections.
- Component
Angular mainly uses components as part of its code to define functions and different parts of the page. For example, the code below shows a basic home component:
- Template
Every component is linked to a template that will display the HTML code. The template can either be inline or in a separate file. From the code above, the component is linked to an external template, which has been defined below:
Real-world use cases
Angular is widely used by most top tier companies. Some of them include:
- Nike
- Upwork
- HBO
- Forbes
Conclusion
Angular is truly an amazing framework for developing next-generation web applications. And with all its functionalities and flexibility, it can be leveraged by developers to build better applications. Furthermore, it can be integrated with other frameworks such as node.js and MongoDB to build better applications.
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