Basic Understanding of Angular as a Frontend Framework
Angular is a development platform, built on TypeScript, that lets you create web applications with confidence. It is one of the popular front-end frameworks whose source language is TypeScript . It is mainly a modified version of AngularJS and developed by Google . It is a component-based framework and offers two-way data-binding.
What are components?
Components are the building blocks that compose an application. A component includes a TypeScript class with a @Component() decorator, an HTML template, and styles. The @Component() decorator specifies the following Angular-specific information:
- A CSS selector that defines how the component is used in a template. HTML elements in your template that match this selector become instances of the component.
- An HTML template that instructs Angular how to render the component
- An optional set of CSS styles that define the appearance of the template’s HTML elements
For example, here is a simple component that displays “Hello World” and some text:
import { Component } from '@angular/core';
@Component({
selector: 'hello-world',
template: `
<h2>Hello World</h2>
<p>This is my first component!</p>
`
})
export class HelloWorldComponent {
// The code in this class drives the component's behavior.
}
To use this component, you write the following in a template:
<hello-world></hello-world>
When Angular renders this component, the resulting DOM looks like this:
<hello-world>
<h2>Hello World</h2>
<p>This is my first component!</p>
</hello-world>
Angular’s component model offers strong encapsulation and an intuitive application structure. Components also make your application painless to unit test and can improve the general readability of your code.
What are templates?
Every component has an HTML template that declares how that component renders. You define this template either inline or by file path. Angular adds syntax elements that extend HTML so you can insert dynamic values from your component. Angular automatically updates the rendered DOM when your component’s state changes.
For example, here is a template that displays some data from a user object:
<h1></h1>
<p></p>
<button (click)="toggleActive()">Toggle Active</button>
<span *ngIf="user.active">Active</span>
<span *ngIf="!user.active">Inactive</span>
The curly braces denote interpolation expressions that display property values from the user object. The parentheses ( ) denote event bindings that listen for click events and call methods on the component class. The asterisks * denote structural directives that conditionally add or remove elements from the DOM.
Why use Angular?
Angular is a comprehensive solution as a front-end framework. It has many features and benefits, such as:
- Works at any scale: Angular lets you start small and supports you as your team and apps grow.
- Loved by millions: Join the millions of developers building with Angular in a thriving and friendly community.
- Build for everyone: Rely on Angular’s internationalization tools, security, and accessibility to build for everyone around the world.
- A collection of well-integrated libraries: Angular includes libraries that cover a wide variety of features, including routing, forms management, client-server communication, testing, animations, service workers, and more.
- A suite of developer tools: Angular provides tools to help you develop, build, test, debug, and update your code efficiently.
If you need to develop web apps with confidence and scalability, Angular might be the right choice for you!