Unlocking the Power of Angular: Exploring New Features and Updates
Angular, a popular JavaScript framework, has been continuously evolving to provide developers with a robust platform for building web applications. With its seventh version released, Angular has introduced several exciting features and updates that enhance its capabilities. In this article, we’ll delve into some of the most significant additions and explore how they can benefit your development workflow.
Angular Elements: A New Era of Web Components
Angular Elements is a new package that allows you to bootstrap Angular components within an existing Angular application by registering them as custom elements. This feature takes advantage of web components, which are gaining massive acceptance in the JavaScript community. With Angular Elements, you can create reusable components that can be used in other frameworks like React and Vue, as well as in the server-side of your project.
Library Support: Extending Angular Functionality
The Angular team has added schematics support, enabling you to create and publish new libraries to extend Angular functionality. This feature is particularly useful when you need to solve the same problem in multiple applications or want to share your solution with other developers.
CLI Upgrade: ng add and ng update
The Angular CLI has been upgraded with two new commands: ng add and ng update. These commands simplify the process of adding new capabilities and updating packages in your project.
- ng add: This command allows you to add new packages and features to your project with a single command.
- ng update: This command analyzes your package.json file and updates the specified package using Angular’s version recommendation system.
Data Saver Updates: Efficient Bundle Size Management
Angular 7 introduces an efficiency feature that warns you when your bundle size exceeds 2MB. You can adjust these settings by modifying the angular.json file. This feature helps you maintain a healthy bundle size and ensures optimal application performance.
Angular CDK: A Set of Tools for Building Web Experiences
The Angular CDK (Component Development Kit) is a set of tools that implement common interaction patterns while being un-opinionated about their presentation. The CDK provides a blank slate of well-tested functionality upon which you can develop your own bespoke components.
Starter Components: Material Design Made Easy
The CDK includes a set of starter components that make it easy to get started with Material Design. These components include:
- Material Sidenav: A starter Angular application with a toolbar and side navigation.
- Material Dashboard: A starter dashboard template with a dynamic grid list of cards.
- Material Data Table: A data table component with sorting and pagination.
Virtual Scroll: Efficient List Rendering
Angular 7 introduces virtual scrolling, which allows you to render large lists of items efficiently. This feature loads elements into the DOM only when they are visible, reducing the computational overhead and improving application performance.
Drag and Drop: Intuitive List Interactions
The drag and drop module enables users to interact with lists in a more intuitive way. This feature allows users to drag and drop list items within a single list or between multiple lists.
What’s Next: Angular 8 and Beyond
As we look forward to Angular 8, we can expect even more exciting features and updates. The Angular team is working on a new renderer called Ivy, which promises to bring faster rebuild times, improved type checking, and reduced bundle sizes. With Angular’s continuous evolution, developers can expect a robust and efficient platform for building web applications.