Although AngularJS is a self proclaimed superheroic JavaScript framework, but you need a deeper insight and evaluation before adding it on your web development program. We know that jQuery is currently in use by various projects and developers also use numerous other JavaScript libraries to use functionalities not provided by jQuery and jQuery plugins which provide infinite scrollers, sliders and UI elements. With so many demands of the web world it is difficult to find a JavaScript framework which covers them all.
Before making a choice you need to pay heed to the monolithic code which overburdens your website and further makes it slow. Moreover, people might think that it is just another framework like Knockout.js and Backbone.js.
In this article we will see how AngularJS is more than what we think of it.
1) Deals with the development problem
One major problem which app developers encounter while writing code for web applications is that the objects on the server side aren’t represented the same on the client-side. It is fine when the applications are not complex but difficulty arises as the level of complexity increases as it can help to map the objects on both the sides. It further also leads to terminology issues, as the actions of the person on the client-side varies from that on the server-side. It doesn’t have the same input methods and sometimes it is into data attributes or concealed inputs.
Thus, managing this complexity becomes very hard. But in AngularJS there are ng-resource which can be used to create services that get up to REST APIs and revert back that object in JSON and further methods can be attached to make it a completely functional object. Working on it feels similar to working on the server side. Moreover, programmers can have get(), save(), update() methods that maps to REST API and that too without putting in much efforts.
These methods are somewhere similar to Data Mapper methods we have on the server side.
2) A framework size for all types of applications
Page loading time is major factor which contributes a lot towards page abandonment. The average user has no patience to wait for websites which take aeons to load. Moreover, loading time of a single page is quite necessary for your website’s loading time in whole. In order to analyze the impact of JavaScript framework on your loading time you consider the size of the framework and the bootstrapping time taken by the framework. Talking about AngularJS, its version 1.2.22 is of 39.5KB, enables the developers to craft adroit apps with high aesthetic value.
3) Allows parallel development
Dependencies management is one of the key strengths of AngularJS, though it hasn’t been completely obliterated but it has been managed a lot. It has a massive in-built grid which makes it quite easy to carry on multiple key operations in a streamline flow. Applications developed in JavaScript are very simple to program and test without the risk of getting crashed which was not same with the normal JavaScript applications.
4) Make Single page applications easily
It is difficult to develop single page applications. However, with AngularJS framework it has become quite convenient to develop high performance single page apps which are also responsive to different screen sizes and thus provide a far better user experience than the web based applications. These apps also tend to reduce the overall network traffic as they are rendered on the client-side, thus reducing the load on the server.
AngularJS is a complete package which offers features from templates and routing to linking for establishing a fully-functional SPA application.
5) Backed with adroit support
The applications built on AngularJS are bound to yield good results as it comprises of a vast trained community of developers which can use their creativity to harness the innovative tool to the fullest. It further offers an open design document forum where developers can contribute their suggestions and can help in straightening the communities experience. All these suggestions and queries are thus answered by the core AngularJS team.
6) Offers swift development via building block categorization
Services, Controllers, Directives, Views and Factories present in AngularJS help you to classify your Applications building block with ease. These categories are further divided in modules which have a specific role in the organization. For instance, as the name suggests, View will be dealing with the user interface, Controllers will control the functionalities depicted in the UI, communications with the back-end and holding the related and common functionalities will be done by Services and lastly we have the Directives which provides the leverage to create reusable components which also extends to HTML defining new behaviors, attributes and elements.
7) Intrinsic Dependency Injection saves time and efforts
There is an intrinsic Dependency Injection in AngularJS which gives a streamline flow to the development and testing phase while web application development. With this feature of Dependency Injection the developers have the leverage to easily ask for dependencies and this saves their time and effort to find them. AngularJS has the ability to find out your needs and will provide you the needful instantly. If you need to access any specific AngularJS service you will get it instantly by AngularJS.
8) Automatic Dirty checks
There is an automatic Dirty Checking feature in AngularJS which allows you to modify only limited property of arbitrary object. This feature does not require you to use getters and setters to access your model data. AngularJS automatically detects the alterations and gives notifications to all the watchers for the same.
9) AngularJS supports app testing
With so much fragmentation in the device world, App testing demands a lot of attention to various problems coming out of real time scenarios. In order to deal with this, AngularJS is powered with mocks specifically crafted for providing in-built services such as $timeout and $http.
Although a written piece of document won’t be sufficient to describe its functionalities. To uncover all, you need to delve into the deep skin by using it.
Is AngularJS another fad framework or is a horse of long race?
Use it and do share your experience!
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of Super Dev Resources.
