Angular

ANGULAR NEWS : Integrating Technologies with Angular, and Diversity Within the Community

Published Oct 28, 2019

Updated Feb 14, 2023

3 min read

This article was written over 18 months ago and may contain information that is out of date. Some content may be relevant but please refer to the relevant official documentation or available resources for the latest information.

Spice up your Angular project with some new tools, and dive into the topic of tech diversity. Dan Wahlin, Lukas Ruebbelke, and Austin McDaniel go over the many ways you can implement Angular. Guest speaker Shmuela Jacobs introduces her group Ng Girls and discusses the importance of diversity in Tech.

Learn about Docker, Typescript, Desktop Applications, and even Virtual Reality -all done with Angular!

Using Other Technologies with Angular

Docker and TypeScript with Angular — An Interview with Dan Wahlin

Dan Wahlin, a Google Developer Expert for Angular shares some ways to improve developing with Angular: using TypeScript and Docker.

Typescript and Angular

For those who aren’t yet familiar with Typescript: Typescript is a superset of Javascript that provides static typing to the language. So instead of having your let foo = 0; you’ll need to specify let foo: number = 0;. Everything is precompiled before being shipped off to the browser.

While this may seem counterintuitive for an explicitly dynamically typed language, Typescript is actually very useful to ensure consistency across your project and allows backend developers to more easily understand front-end code. For beginners, Typescript’s strict typeset provides guardrails that catch more bugs and “smelly” code, and is a great way to gain a higher understanding of the code.

Using Typescript with newer versions of Angular is no problem, as the angular-cli already bundles them together. Even the docs use Angular + Typescript examples!

Docker

Docker may not be front-end specific, but it is a great solution for creating development environments that match your production environments. While there is a bit of a learning curve, Dan Wahlin assures that the platform is a fine solution for deploying multiple containers. More on the use of Docker and Typescript in his interview:

{% youtube 1Grc2om9574 %}

Desktop Applications using Angular and Electron with Lukas Ruebbelke

Lukas Ruebbelke is a frequent tech blogger, Angular developer, and Google Developer Expert with a penchant for incorporating music into his projects.

Electron

Electron is an open-source framework that allows the use of front-end components to build desktop GUI applications. This means that you can use Angular while accessing OS specific tools, rather than needing to be concerned over browser types and version compatibility. Electron also allows client profiles for the user, reducing repetitive script calls when switching between clients and projects. Electron takes a node.js runtime and utilizes Chromium as a renderer to build the applications.

{% youtube 79LS5bnU3C4 %}

VR & WebGL with Angular — Austin McDaniel Shares New Projects

Austin McDaniel has been working extensively with Angular, WebGL, and VR these days, while also hosting Angular Air on a regular basis.

Virtual Reality

For those VR and WebGL fans, the future has come for you in Angular. Austin talks about how Angular has enabled him to create a WebGL renderer far less error prone than other technologies. His Angular tool takes ThreeJS (a popular javascript WebGL library) and breaks down the objects into easy-to-use angular components and is open sourced for others to use.

Just another amazing example of how technology has progressed, and Angular’s flexible use cases!

{% youtube C2jw08VJgZs %}

Tech Diversity Introducing NgGirls — An Angular Diversity Initiative with Shmuela Jacobs

It’s no secret that there’s a lack of women in the tech industry, but groups like Ng Girls are popping up to help alleviate the issue.

Shmuela Jacobs is a front-end developer with a passion for Angular and sharing knowledge with others. She’s the founder of NgGirls, an organization that aims to promote diversity in tech. Shmuela discusses the importance of diversity in the tech field and is trying to educate people that gender does not play a role in your joy or success in programming.

Although NgGirls is aimed towards women, men are also welcome. NgGirls creates a safe place for people to respect one another regardless of any differences and learn Angular together. NgGirls is growing, and you can even start your own local NgGirls group. Learn more about NgGirls at http://ng-girls.org/.

{% youtube qZChaal_ARs %}

Thank so much for reading this article. We hope you enjoyed! For more information on Angular, be sure to check out http://angular.io.

This article was co-written by Nadia S.C. and Tracy Lee

This Dot is a consultancy dedicated to guiding companies through their modernization and digital transformation journeys. Specializing in replatforming, modernizing, and launching new initiatives, we stand out by taking true ownership of your engineering projects.

We love helping teams with projects that have missed their deadlines or helping keep your strategic digital initiatives on course. Check out our case studies and our clients that trust us with their engineering.

Angular Signals for Simpler State Management and DOM Performance

In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, host Rob Ocel is joined by Adam Rackis, Danny Thompson, and guest Braydon Coyer, Senior Front-End Developer at LogicGate to talk about using Angular Signals for improved state management and DOM performance. Braydon explains how Signals simplify Angular development and offer better readability and efficiency compared to traditional methods like RxJS. The conversation also touches on hiring in the AI era, discussing challenges around take-home tests and live coding, and how AI tools like ChatGPT are changing the interview process. Chapters - 00:00 - Introduction - 00:57 - The Angular Renaissance - 02:24 - Signals in Angular - 03:27 - Transitioning to Signals - 04:19 - Signals in Utility Development - 05:09 - RxJS and Signals - 07:52 - Signals vs Other State Management Solutions - 09:34 - Testing Signals - 10:29 - Control Flow and Standalone Components in Angular - 12:02 - Angular's Evolution and Accessibility - 13:28 - Angular’s Framework Governance - 17:10 - Hiring in the Age of AI - 19:15 - Pair Programming and Real-Time Problem Solving - 22:24 - The Role of AI in Interviews - 27:58 - Wrapping Up Follow Braydon Coyer Twitter: https://x.com/BraydonCoyer Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/braydon-coyer/ Github: https://github.com/braydoncoyer...

Oct 30, 2024

1 min

Angular

Exploring Angular Forms: A New Alternative with Signals

Exploring Angular Forms: A New Alternative with Signals In the world of Angular, forms are essential for user interaction, whether you're crafting a simple login page or a more complex user profile interface. Angular traditionally offers two primary approaches: template-driven forms and reactive forms. In my previous series on Angular Reactive Forms, I explored how to harness reactive forms' power to manage complex logic, create dynamic forms, and build custom form controls. A new tool for managing reactivity - signals - has been introduced in version 16 of Angular and has been the focus of Angular maintainers ever since, becoming stable with version 17. Signals allow you to handle state changes declaratively, offering an exciting alternative that combines the simplicity of template-driven forms with the robust reactivity of reactive forms. This article will examine how signals can add reactivity to both simple and complex forms in Angular. Recap: Angular Forms Approaches Before diving into the topic of enhancing template-driven forms with signals, let’s quickly recap Angular's traditional forms approaches: 1. Template-Driven Forms: Defined directly in the HTML template using directives like ngModel, these forms are easy to set up and are ideal for simple forms. However, they may not provide the fine-grained control required for more complex scenarios. Here's a minimal example of a template-driven form: ` ` 2. Reactive Forms: Managed programmatically in the component class using Angular's FormGroup, FormControl, and FormArray classes; reactive forms offer granular control over form state and validation. This approach is well-suited for complex forms, as my previous articles on Angular Reactive Forms discussed. And here's a minimal example of a reactive form: ` ` Introducing Signals as a New Way to Handle Form Reactivity With the release of Angular 16, signals have emerged as a new way to manage reactivity. Signals provide a declarative approach to state management, making your code more predictable and easier to understand. When applied to forms, signals can enhance the simplicity of template-driven forms while offering the reactivity and control typically associated with reactive forms. Let’s explore how signals can be used in both simple and complex form scenarios. Example 1: A Simple Template-Driven Form with Signals Consider a basic login form. Typically, this would be implemented using template-driven forms like this: ` ` This approach works well for simple forms, but by introducing signals, we can keep the simplicity while adding reactive capabilities: ` ` In this example, the form fields are defined as signals, allowing for reactive updates whenever the form state changes. The formValue signal provides a computed value that reflects the current state of the form. This approach offers a more declarative way to manage form state and reactivity, combining the simplicity of template-driven forms with the power of signals. You may be tempted to define the form directly as an object inside a signal. While such an approach may seem more concise, typing into the individual fields does not dispatch reactivity updates, which is usually a deal breaker. Here’s an example StackBlitz with a component suffering from such an issue: Therefore, if you'd like to react to changes in the form fields, it's better to define each field as a separate signal. By defining each form field as a separate signal, you ensure that changes to individual fields trigger reactivity updates correctly. Example 2: A Complex Form with Signals You may see little benefit in using signals for simple forms like the login form above, but they truly shine when handling more complex forms. Let's explore a more intricate scenario - a user profile form that includes fields like firstName, lastName, email, phoneNumbers, and address. The phoneNumbers field is dynamic, allowing users to add or remove phone numbers as needed. Here's how this form might be defined using signals: ` > Notice that the phoneNumbers field is defined as a signal of an array of signals. This structure allows us to track changes to individual phone numbers and update the form state reactively. The addPhoneNumber and removePhoneNumber methods update the phoneNumbers signal array, triggering reactivity updates in the form. ` > In the template, we use the phoneNumbers signal array to dynamically render the phone number input fields. The addPhoneNumber and removePhoneNumber methods allow users to reactively add or remove phone numbers, updating the form state. Notice the usage of the track function, which is necessary to ensure that the ngFor directive tracks changes to the phoneNumbers array correctly. Here's a StackBlitz demo of the complex form example for you to play around with: Validating Forms with Signals Validation is critical to any form, ensuring that user input meets the required criteria before submission. With signals, validation can be handled in a reactive and declarative manner. In the complex form example above, we've implemented a computed signal called formValid, which checks whether all fields meet specific validation criteria. The validation logic can easily be customized to accommodate different rules, such as checking for valid email formats or ensuring that all required fields are filled out. Using signals for validation allows you to create more maintainable and testable code, as the validation rules are clearly defined and react automatically to changes in form fields. It can even be abstracted into a separate utility to make it reusable across different forms. In the complex form example, the formValid signal ensures that all required fields are filled and validates the email and phone numbers format. This approach to validation is a bit simple and needs to be better connected to the actual form fields. While it will work for many use cases, in some cases, you might want to wait until explicit "signal forms" support is added to Angular. Tim Deschryver started implementing some abstractions around signal forms, including validation and wrote an article about it. Let's see if something like this will be added to Angular in the future. Why Use Signals in Angular Forms? The adoption of signals in Angular provides a powerful new way to manage form state and reactivity. Signals offer a flexible, declarative approach that can simplify complex form handling by combining the strengths of template-driven forms and reactive forms. Here are some key benefits of using signals in Angular forms: 1. Declarative State Management: Signals allow you to define form fields and computed values declaratively, making your code more predictable and easier to understand. 2. Reactivity: Signals provide reactive updates to form fields, ensuring that changes to the form state trigger reactivity updates automatically. 3. Granular Control: Signals allow you to define form fields at a granular level, enabling fine-grained control over form state and validation. 4. Dynamic Forms: Signals can be used to create dynamic forms with fields that can be added or removed dynamically, providing a flexible way to handle complex form scenarios. 5. Simplicity: Signals can offer a simpler, more concise way to manage form states than traditional reactive forms, making building and maintaining complex forms easier. Conclusion In my previous articles, we explored the powerful features of Angular reactive forms, from dynamic form construction to custom form controls. With the introduction of signals, Angular developers have a new tool that merges the simplicity of template-driven forms with the reactivity of reactive forms. While many use cases warrant Reactive Forms, signals provide a fresh, powerful alternative for managing form state in Angular applications requiring a more straightforward, declarative approach. As Angular continues to evolve, experimenting with these new features will help you build more maintainable, performant applications. Happy coding!...

Oct 4, 2024

5 mins

AngularJavaScript

AI Leadership: Data-Driven Decision Making & Avoiding "Analysis Paralysis" with Jerry Reghunadh

In this episode of Leadership Exchange, host Rob Ocel chats with Jerry Reghunadh, Senior Director of Enterprise Architecture at Data Nimbus, about leadership, AI adoption, and data-driven decision-making. Jerry shares his career journey, insights on leveraging tools like ChatGPT and Copilot, and strategies for building effective data pipelines. They explore how companies can avoid "analysis paralysis," adopt AI strategically, and evaluate new technologies to solve real-world problems. Tune in for practical advice on aligning innovation with business goals and staying competitive in a rapidly evolving tech landscape. Chapters 00:00 – Introduction 00:31 – Jerry’s Leadership Journey 02:01 – Discussing AI in Leadership 03:59 – Experimenting with AI Tools 06:24 – Overcoming Analysis Paralysis 09:18 – Importance of Early AI Adoption 13:12 – AI’s Impact on Efficiency 14:30 – Sponsor Message 16:26 – Setting Realistic Goals for AI 19:41 – Data Management and AI 23:09 – Is AI Just a Fad? 27:22 – Testing New Technologies 29:56 – Final Thoughts on AI 30:25 – Connect with Jerry 30:44 – Closing Remarks 31:20 – Outro Follow Jerry on Social Media Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrymannel/ Sponsored by This Dot: thisdot.co...

Nov 18, 2024

1 min

AIEngineering Leadership

Generative AI in the Global Payments Industry: Insights from Dondi Black, CPO of TSYS

Dondi Black, Chief Product Officer of Issuer Solutions at TSYS, to explore the transformative journey of innovation, cultural shifts, and emerging technologies in the payments industry. Dondi shares her insights from three decades in the field, discussing how her organization leverages synergies, empowers teams, and implements measurable strategies to drive innovation and transformation. The conversation dives into the practical applications of generative AI, privacy-enhancing technologies, and a North Star approach to cultural transformation. Tracy and Dondi also touch on the importance of self-advocacy, honest feedback, and creating inclusive environments to foster innovation at every level. Chapters 00:00:04 Welcome & Introductions 00:00:34 Reflections on Transformation & Innovation 00:01:28 Synergies & Organizational Transformation 00:02:19 Measuring Success in Cultural Transformation 00:05:07 Empowering Individuals & Leadership Growth 00:08:07 Emerging Innovations: Generative AI in Fraud & Risk 00:10:15 Security Investments & AI's Industry Impact 00:12:28 The Future of Privacy-Enhancing Technologies 00:15:30 Sustaining Momentum in Transformation 00:18:28 The Industry’s Pragmatic Shift 00:20:39 Inclusive Innovation & Cultural Change 00:23:12 Advocating for Yourself & Your Ideas 00:25:27 Leaders as Coaches: The Power of Feedback 00:28:56 Sponsor Spotlight: This Dot 00:29:53 Where to Connect with Dondi 00:30:39 Closing Remarks Follow Dondi Black on Social Media Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dondi-black/ Sponsored by This Dot: thisdot.co...

Nov 25, 2024

1 min

Engineering Leadership

Let's innovate together!

We're ready to be your trusted technical partners in your digital innovation journey.

Whether it's modernization or custom software solutions, our team of experts can guide you through best practices and how to build scalable, performant software that lasts.

ANGULAR NEWS : Integrating Technologies with Angular, and Diversity Within the Community

You might also like

Angular Signals for Simpler State Management and DOM Performance

Exploring Angular Forms: A New Alternative with Signals

AI Leadership: Data-Driven Decision Making & Avoiding "Analysis Paralysis" with Jerry Reghunadh

Generative AI in the Global Payments Industry: Insights from Dondi Black, CPO of TSYS

Let's innovate together!

You might also like

Angular Signals for Simpler State Management and DOM Performance

Exploring Angular Forms: A New Alternative with Signals

AI Leadership: Data-Driven Decision Making & Avoiding "Analysis Paralysis" with Jerry Reghunadh

Generative AI in the Global Payments Industry: Insights from Dondi Black, CPO of TSYS