Angular

State of Angular | March 2022 Recap

Published Mar 14, 2022

Updated Feb 13, 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This article was written over 18 months ago and may contain information that is out of date.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.

State of Angular | March 2022

This event was co-hosted by This Dot Labs team members Rob Ocel, Software Architect and Engineering Lead, and Chris Trzesniewski, Senior Software Engineer.

If you would like to watch the full event, you can find the recording here: State of Angular | March 2022

What's new in the ecosystem? What will be included in the upcoming releases? What should we expect in Angular's future? These topics were discused by a featured panel:

Mark Thompson, Developer Advocate, Google
Alex Rickabaugh, Software Engineer, Google
Madleina Scheidegger, Engineering Manager for Angular, Google.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

What's new in Angular?

Since the launch of v13, the Angular Team has continued to improve and refine its features:

Extended Diagnostics.
- Gave us better guidance and some more options to make sure that we can avoid some of the most common anti-patterns in Angular.
Enhanced component a11y. 🔥
- Since the v13 launch, the Team has made a number of improvements regarding accesibility. For example, they did an audit of the components to make sure those components passed all standard accesibility checks. You can review them here: Accesibility Angular Improvements
Typed forms. One of the most important changes introduced was the ability to check the form type and throw an error if the type is not properly set.
Standalone components. They are still working on the implementation to make standalone components happen.

Other features in progress:

CDK promoting to stable
Embebbed view injector

Then, we had some time for a Q&A. The highlighted questions included:

Angular Components are often hard for newcomers to understand. Standalone Components should help mitigate this. How will this new Component type ease the learning curve?

The team agreed that 'ng modules' are hard concepts for newcomers to learn, and they had many conversations about this opinion. 'ng modules' have more than one responsibility, and often these responsabilities have different scopes. They're tough to understand because they are doing different things in different places.

Standalone components enable developers to write Angular apps without writing any 'ng modules'. Devs will still be able to use 'ng modules', and they will have the ability to perform imports. However, they won't have to learn how 'ng modules' affect the app, and that will help simplify the learning process.

According to the team, using the SCAM pattern is the cleanest approach one can use, and Standalone components will be the SCAM pattern's next level.

The team has successfully decreased the volume of tickets, issues on the backlog, and open PR's. How was the process for the team? What lessons has the team learned?

According to the team, this process has been tedious, but also rewarding. This year, the team wanted to make it easier for the community to provide feedback. For example, they created a process allowing community members to suggest a feature request, and let the community vote. If the request achieves a certain number of votes, it goes to a queue for the team to review and work on. This helps the team prioritize the most essential tickets and proposals.

Now, communities are looking for solutions to reduce the use of Javascript or Server Side rendering tools like Next.js or Remix. How is the Angular Team responding to these trends?

The team is constantly monitoring these trends, evaluating them, and learning from them. While they want to advance the framework, they don't want do that at the expense of the experience of those who adopted a previous version of Angular. Therefore, if the team choses to include any transformative changes, they want to do it in a way that shepards all users to the updated versions.

Conclusion

Angular's outlook is overwhelmingly positive, and the community is growing. It is an exciting time to be an Angular developer, and there are some really exciting features coming down the pipe, so we are really excited to see what will come next.

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About the author(s)

Daian Scuarissi
@asdaian @SDaian

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

Understanding Next.js Data Fetching for Beginners

When I started to learn Next.Js, I felt a little bit lost with some abbreviations they use to make the data fetching. All of them look pretty simmilar, but they have different meanings. If you feel the same, you are not alone. Let's discover what CSR, SSR, SSG, and ISR means, and how we can use them. It is quite confusing because I, as an Angular developer, only knew one strategy to fetch the data:HttpClient. But for example, if you are more familiar with React, you probably use a different strategy: useEffect. So, let's get started. Vercel's Next.js framework has four different data fetching options despite being known as a server-side render framework: - CSR - Client-Side Rendering is a common data fetching method using useEffect. It will fetch the data from the API every single page request on the client-side (after the page is rendered, then the function will run). - SSR - Server-Side Rendering will run a special function to fetch data from the API with every page request on the server-side (before the page is loaded, that special function will run first, creating a delay, then after that, it will serve the page). - SSG - Static Site Generation will run a special function to fetch data once when that page builds. - ISR – Incremental Static Regeneration offers a new method. Shortly put, it is a combination of SSG, and SSR, where it served statically, but at a certain time and certain condition, that page will rebuild and fetch the data from the API again. Don't worry if you don't understand any of the concepts. I will explain a little bit further shortly. CSR (Client-Side Rendering) This is a basic example of how you can use Client-Side Rendering. I'm using the well known useEffect method from React. ` You can see how it works on Stackblitz. We can highlight 2 things here: - The useEffect method to make the retrieve of the name every time the page loads. - A loading indicator, this is used to wait for the fetching data, because the data is fetched after the page is rendered. SSR (Server-Side Rendering) Just to keep in mind, when you are using Server-Side rendering, and using the method getServerSideProps(), Next.js will pre-render this page on each request using the data returned by getServerSideProps. ` You can see how it works: Stackblitz We had 3 highlights here: - Method getServerSideProps(), is a function indicating that a page is using Server-Side Rendering. - We had a delay before render, and NO loading indicator. The data is fetched before the page is rendered, so that's why we can see a little delay. - Data is fetched on every request, that's why every time we reload the page, is showing a different dad joke. SSG (Static Site Generator) If we take a look at the code below, we will see that it is pretty similar to the SSR code, but the difference here is the getStaticProps method. This method will only fetch when the app is building. ` The highlights here are: - getStaticProps is a method indicating that the page is using Static Site Generation. - Data will be fetched only when you run yarn build. The API will be hit only when the app is building. - Data will NOT change because there is no further fetch. You can see how it works: Stackblitz ISR (Incremental Static Regeneration) This strategy works pretty simmilar like SSG, but here we need to add a revalidate prop to our main getStaticProps function. ` There are a few keys to highlight here: - When you set the revalidate prop to certain amount of time (in our example we set it to 20), reloading doesn't trigger changes. The page will remain in a cooldown state. - Is the page rebuilt every 20 seconds then? No. When the cooldown state is off, if no one visits the page, it will not rebuild even after the 20s pass. But the first person who enters the page when the cooldown state is off will trigger a rebuild. However, that person will not see those changes. But the changes will be applied to the next full reload. You can see how it works: Stackblitz Conclusion Understand how these abbreviations work, and how we can use it in a Next.js app will help us develop more robust solutions, and use Next.js' full potential. I know these terms can sound overwhelming and difficult to understand, but with a little bit of practicing, we can see in action in a few steps. In future blog posts, we will see the best approach to identify and choose between them....

May 9, 2022

4 mins

NextJSJavaScriptReact

Learning Paths for Next.JS Developers with Ankita Kulkarni

In this video, Rob Ocel and co-hosts Tracy Lee, Adam Rackis, and Danny Thompson talk with tech educator Ankita Kulkarni about her journey from engineering leader to full-time educator. Ankita shares insights on teaching Next.js, bridging practical knowledge gaps, and helping developers tackle real-world challenges. They discuss Next.js as a React-based framework, its benefits, and the challenges it presents for beginners. Chapters - Introduction to the Podcast and Guests 00:01 - Meet Ankita Kulkarni, Tech Educator 00:26 - Ankita's Transition to Full-Time Education 01:41 - Teaching Practical Knowledge in Next.js 03:19 - Effective Methods for Teaching Next.js 05:27 - Challenges of Being a Full-Time Educator 07:48 - Balancing Broad and Specific Examples 09:54 - Embracing Mistakes as a Teaching Tool 12:13 - Pair Programming and Mentorship 14:00 - Discussion on Next.js and Framework Adoption 16:48 - Advantages and Challenges of Next.js 18:12 - Choosing the Right Framework for Your Needs 20:35 - Impact of Next.js in React Documentation 22:26 - Learning Paths for New Developers 23:24 - The Rise of Full-Stack Web Development 25:09 - Benefits of Frameworks Abstracting Complexity 26:27 - OpenNext and Deployment Flexibility 28:06 - Ankita's Excitement for New Next.js Features 30:35 - The Future of Next.js Without Vercel 32:16 - Final Thoughts and Where to Find Everyone Online 34:21 Follow Ankita Kulkarni on Social Media Twitter: https://x.com/kulkarniankita9 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kulkarniankita Sponsored by This Dot: thisdot.co...

Nov 12, 2024

2 mins

NextJSJavaScript

Let's innovate together!

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State of Angular | March 2022 Recap

State of Angular | March 2022

What's new in Angular?

Angular Components are often hard for newcomers to understand. Standalone Components should help mitigate this. How will this new Component type ease the learning curve?

The team has successfully decreased the volume of tickets, issues on the backlog, and open PR's. How was the process for the team? What lessons has the team learned?

Now, communities are looking for solutions to reduce the use of Javascript or Server Side rendering tools like Next.js or Remix. How is the Angular Team responding to these trends?

Conclusion

Daian Scuarissi

You might also like

Angular Signals for Simpler State Management and DOM Performance

Exploring Angular Forms: A New Alternative with Signals

Understanding Next.js Data Fetching for Beginners

Learning Paths for Next.JS Developers with Ankita Kulkarni

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

Understanding Next.js Data Fetching for Beginners

Learning Paths for Next.JS Developers with Ankita Kulkarni

State of Angular | March 2022

What's new in Angular?

Angular Components are often hard for newcomers to understand. Standalone Components should help mitigate this. How will this new Component type ease the learning curve?

SCAM Pattern, and how it is related to Standalone Components.

The team has successfully decreased the volume of tickets, issues on the backlog, and open PR's. How was the process for the team? What lessons has the team learned?

Now, communities are looking for solutions to reduce the use of Javascript or Server Side rendering tools like Next.js or Remix. How is the Angular Team responding to these trends?

Conclusion

Daian Scuarissi

Angular Signals for Simpler State Management and DOM Performance

Exploring Angular Forms: A New Alternative with Signals

Understanding Next.js Data Fetching for Beginners

Learning Paths for Next.JS Developers with Ankita Kulkarni

Let's innovate together!

Angular Signals for Simpler State Management and DOM Performance

Exploring Angular Forms: A New Alternative with Signals

Understanding Next.js Data Fetching for Beginners

Learning Paths for Next.JS Developers with Ankita Kulkarni