Angular, what is it?
Angular is one of the development frameworks, which relates to the front end. It is surrounded by the Angular community, which helps Angular to be popular. It was found by developers in Google.
Let’s try to grasp why it is so popular and what are the key advantages/disadvantages of this development framework.
One of Angular’s peculiarities lies in the fact that it actually adds on some features that JavaScript lacks, static typing. Thus, it is a Typescript programming language.
This framework is a single page one. It means that Angular is mainly used for constructing single page apps. It is used for mobile and web app development.
Angular has many versions and updates, which one can get from open source. It is mainly used for large apps and by corporations.
Some Historical points
It emerged not long ago in 2012 with the name AngularJS.
Model and View. This feature is one of the most loved by developers. It lies in the ability to work and synchronise with model and view in two ways.
TypeScript. The framework had undergone a significant review. Afterward, it has changed its name to Angular 2.0. The new feature that differentiated it from previous versions of the framework was usage of TypeScript as a programming language in capacity of JavaScript substitution.
In 2016 it was reviewed again and received the name Angular 4. Still it has used TypeScript.
Nowadays we are using the upgraded Angular 10.
The decision was to call all versions as Angular to avoid any misunderstandings.
So, the 10th upgrade of Angular and it’s advantages.
From the time of creation it practically seized the developers due to its several perks and advantages, making them use it widely, namely as follows:
Developed by guys from Google. It is trusted, it is widespread, it is reliable. This community is huge and supportive. Angular’s community is aimed at helping to resolve any issues, and contribute to the further framework’s development.
Two-way Model and View work with data. Synchronisation of model and view is one of the keys of popularity. The data is being exchanged in both ways. Hence, one does not need any extra struggles.
TypeScript as a programming language. Mainly it compensates for some features of JavaScript, such as syntactic issues and errors. Overall, it makes the coding process easier.
Tailor to environment
Angular is designed in a way that the web development products created with its help are internationally applied. Thus, it is widely used locally in many areas of the globe in many languages. It also relates to numbers and specific things, such as dates, etc. Everything is adjustable and code is generated as to the local requirements.
Effortless coding
Angular consists of modules of codes. These codes are to do particular tasks. A web development product, such as an app, can consist of many modules, but each of them is responsible for smth particular. Sometimes modules consist of other modules. This makes coding effortless. It helps the app to be easily manageable, fastens the loading processes, and loads things that are needed for that case. Generally speaking, the way framework architectures by components, or tiny parts of UI.
Dependency technique
Angular has a special technique which allows injecting dependencies to boost the efficiency of the web development products.
Router package
Angular, as a web development framework, has powerful tools, such as routers. It provides flexibility to the navigation.
Cross Platform mobile apps
Ionic/ReactJS are another incredible part of the framework that provide web developers the possibility to create apps for usage by iOS and Android. VueJS and React JS are also supported by Angular, but they are less widely used in comparison to Ionic when it comes to mobile apps creation.
Open-source packages
There is a great probability that apps and things to be created have already been created by someone else for someone else. That is why Angual has packages with components and features that were already created by developers for certain goals and requirements.
Testing
In order to provide a good testing capability, its creators are using Jasmine framework. It allows the use of different testing cases for different types of errors. It allows developers to run a lot of tests smoothly and efficiently.
Disadvantages
Nothing in this world comes without drawbacks. Angular is no exception and its list is not short.
Complex complexity
Each and every of the following drawbacks is related to the notion of complexity. Despite the ability to provide effortless coding, it is complex in its essence.
Hard to learn
Angular takes some time to grasp it. It can be the case also for people with experience, but of course it mainly relates to web development new-comers. Therefore, the learning process is quite steep and slow in comparison to other frameworks. However, only to complete beginners.
Search Engine Optimization
The way Angular is rendering the web pages creates some limitations and constraints to marketing specialists, they have some more work to do. It is because search engines are not able to crawl every piece of content on every page of the website. Therefore, it is a bit of a problem to obtain proper ranking and visibility through search machines. To make it all visible and searchable one needs some additional efforts. Good news is that it is still possible to do.
Limited SEO Capabilities
Angular is just great for building powerful single-page web applications. However, as with all single-page web applications, there is a disadvantage when it comes to search engine optimization.
Angular … how many versions do you say?
Too many versions and updates may be a bit of a burden as it requires additional learning efforts for web developers. Till the time they master one version, another one comes up into the world, so they have to be updated. Instead of working, developers have to study, as well as they have to take care of resolving the conflicts among different versions.
This drawback also creates data migration issues among versions and requires additional application of migration techniques.
Competition
Angular has a lot of competition nowadays. It is not only React, but Vue, Aurelia, Backbone, Riot, and others. The complexity and disadvantages unfortunately do not play in favor of Angular. That is why there are so many competitors.
Angular or not Angular?
Tough question especially when there are so many options around. However, when one needs to develop web apps for big enterprises, not for SEO purposes, for long-term usage or create websites with dynamic UX and content, then Angular development services is a good option. Angular is a holistic, versatile, dynamic, changeable, and diverse web development framework loved by many.
Websites developed with its help have spectacular UX and great appearance in addition to the striking performance. Less effort and less time are key features of Angular when it’s used for proper projects. It offers flexibility and interactivity for websites for such industries as retail, online magazines and newspapers, video content, and etc.