AngularJs Best Practices Did you know that over more than 570 new websites are created every minute? How? Of course, using technologies that are rapidly changing, in fact, they are changing so fast that most of us do not even recognize those changes and consider them as a norm. AngularJS is one of such technologies that was introduced in the ’90s as a programming language and was explicitly designed to build web applications. Unlike the older AngularJS that were used to build dynamic web apps, Angular 2 frameworks are beyond the browser development and allow developers to build basic apps for Android as well as iPhone devices. In a web app development environment, Angular has established itself as the widely used framework and its popularity graph is constantly rising after the arrival of its much-awaited version AngularJS 4.0. Besides of its insanely fast nature, every Angular expert struggle with various issues that directly claim to AngularJS performance even though it has a lot of its own optimizations. However, incorrect use of AngularJS methods restricts an application to stand in the market. Therefore, following the best practices to improve the performance optimization of the tech becomes extremely crucial which can simply be done by hiring AngularJS Application development experts. Let’s discuss the Angular best practices:
1. Angular Universal Angular Universal is a technology that renders Angular application on the server. While normal application executes in the browser, render pages in the DOM in response to user actions, Angular universal job is to execute on the server by generating static application pages. Due to this the application renders even more quickly giving users a chance to view the application layout before it becomes fully interactive. Also, using Angular Universal, one can easily build SEO-friendly websites.
2. ES Linting Angular is an advanced programming language which has robust tools to check various parameters during the development of the application or a website. The linting tool checks the TypeScript code for stylistic and programmatic errors. It also checks whether the code sticks to standards and conventions. It helps in modularizing the code and make it more readable for the new developers. It consists of: ●
Configurable rules which let you check errors levels so that you can easily differentiate between error or warning.
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Robust set of default rules that exist in JSHint and JSLint making migration to this tool fairly easy.
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Rules for style checking which helps to keep the code consistent for the entire team
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Tools to write plugins
3. Use of Interceptors
When HTTP request or response to inject some custom logic, the HTTP Interceptor executes some custom logic before or after the HTTP call. Adding the authentication token to every
HTTP request is important. However, that token is generated from the client-side which needs to be validated from the server for various security reasons.
With the help of HTTP interceptors, custom logic can be added for logging, authentication, session/state management, caching, modifying Response, URL rewriting, the timestamp in the request /response. The interceptors act as a hook up for HTTP calls.
4. Test Coverage Unit testing is one of the most important aspects of large-scale Angular applications. If you’re using Angular CLI, it becomes extremely easier for you to test and run coverage reports. The following command is used to run the unit tests: ng test --watch=false --code-coverage Once the unit tests are written and run successfully, they help to report issues in the application. A folder is generated soon after the successful generation of tests.
Ahead Of Time Compile
As the Angular application consists of several components and HTML templates which are difficult for the browser to iterate, Angular application needs a compiler so that the application can run easily in the browser. Therefore, Angular uses AOT (Ahead Of Time Compiler) whose responsibility is to convert the Angular HTML and TypeScript code into useful and efficient JavaScript code before the browser could download and use the older code. Is Ahead Of Time Compiler Similar to Just In Time? AOT is considered as a more appealing alternative than JIT for production purpose. In fact, while coding, the application uses just-in-time (JIT) compiler. The only difference between AOT and JIT is of timing and tooling. AOT is used during the build phase using one set of libraries, whereas, JIT is used for every runtime using a different set of libraries. Why AOT Compilation is Preferred More? The compilation is done to uncover many component-template binding errors. When we use JIT compilation, it discovers the errors during the runtime, which is late in the process. The ahead-of-time (AOT) compiler as its name suggests can track template errors sooner during the build phase which not just save time but also makes the application highly efficient. AOT helps in: ● ● ● ● ●
Faster rendering Fewer asynchronous requests Smaller Angular framework download size Earlier detection of template errors Better security
Lazy Load
A large-scale application consists of several featured modules which is why the app takes a lot of time to load. Lazy loading ensures faster performance and better user experience. How? It allows developers to load JavaScript components asynchronously on the activation of a specific route. Initially, the overall size of an application grows. Sooner or later you come to a point where the application starts to stack gradually. At that time, Lazy loading helps to reduce the initial load time for a medium as well as vast applications. How to set up a lazy-loaded feature module?
Create a feature module ● Create the feature module’s routing module ● Configure the routes ●
Benefits of using Lazy Loading:
Load application areas only on user request ● Faster load time for users that only visit certain (priority) areas ● Expand application features without increasing the size of the initial load bundle ●
Polyfill Responsibly As we know that Angular is built on the latest standards of the web platform, it becomes challenging to target a wide range of browsers as they do not support modern browsers. Polyfill scripts are used to use modern browsers. Polyfills serves only what’s required. You can easily write modern JavaScript code without worrying too much about browser support as well as not penalizing modern browsers with unnecessary polyfills.
What’s the Easiest Way to Keep up with the Technology? Stay Up To Date Every new version of technology comes with many reassessed and refined concepts. After the release of Angular 2, in the last version of this blog we told you about Angular 4. However, now Angular 8 is going to get released soon. That’s how technology grows. Now Angular can be used in many different programming languages like Dart, Typescript or ECMAScript 5 among others. You must adopt a new version of the framework to stay up to date. In the new release, some major improvements and functionality are added to enhance application performance. The new versions of Angular make the applications smaller and faster. The latest versions of Angular offers around 49.78% reduction in main bundle size in comparison to Angular 2. It’s much quicker to complete while ensuring smaller loading time. New updates with improved functionality offer more efficient migration along with more added features.