Over the last few years, AngularJS has emerged as the go-to stack for developing single-page web applications (SPAs). Being an extremely advanced JavaScript framework, it not only enhances your HTML to the maximum extent possible but also simplifies everything from designing the UI to testing the application.
According to Libscore, a popular JavaScript analytics service, Angular is being used by over 9,000 websites, including some of the world’s most reputable companies like Intel, Sprint, NBC, Walgreens and ABC News.
This demonstrates how popular Angular is among developers. Read on for fifteen rock-solid reasons why developers prefer to learn and use AngularJS.
AngularJS Programming Cookbook
In this ebook, we provide a compilation of AngularJS based examples that will help you kick-start your own web projects. We cover a wide range of topics, from Single Page Apps and Routing, to Data Binding and JSON Fetching. With our straightforward tutorials, you will be able to get your own projects up and running in minimum time. Download the cookbook by joining the Web Code Geeks Newsletter.
Developed and Maintained by Google:
Since AngularJS is built and maintained by Google, you as a developer can be sure that you’re working with a reliable code base that will scale efficiently with your projects. Unlike most of the JavaScript application frameworks, which are developed by a community of independent hobbyists, Angular is the brainchild of highly talented Google engineers Adam Abrons and Miško Hevery. That’s one of the main reasons developers prefer to use Angular over other JavaScript frameworks like Ember.js and Knockout.js.
MVC Architecture:
AngularJS makes use of the original MVC (Model-View-Controller) software architectural pattern, but not in the traditional sense. Generally, developers are required to both split an application into various MVC components and then write all the essential code to connect them together. This is not the case with Angular, which only asks you to split the app and handles everything else by itself. In other words, Angular is quite close to MVVM (Model-View-Viewmodel) design pattern.
Directives Define Behavior:
Directives in Angular allow developers to write custom, standalone and reusable HTML components, which they can use to hide complex DOM structure, handle all DOM manipulations and define how a specific view component should behave. As they contain all your DOM manipulation code, you can separate them out of your MVC app to modify only the view with new data. The resulting behavior of the view will be defined by the directives. Beast of all, you can choose from a wide range of pre-built directives.
Two-way Data Binding Reduces a Ton of Boilerplate:
Two-way data binding, which automatically updates the view as soon as any change occurs in the model and vice-versa, is certainly one the most unique and powerful features in AngularJS. A typical MVC framework requires developers to manually store data in the model and place it into the view, which generates a considerable amount of boilerplate code. Angular’s two-way data binding, on the contrary, declaratively binds models to HTML elements which saves developers from writing any unnecessary code.
Filters Provide Flexibility:
Similar to Directives, Filters are standalone functions that are responsible for refining the data before it reaches the view. They are separate from your app and involve in activities like reversing a text string, implementing pagination and formatting decimal places on a number. You can use them in services, controllers, directives and view templates. Filters are so resourceful and flexible that they can even sort a HTML table without any JavaScript.
Handles Dependencies Excellently:
Angular takes full advantage of Dependency Injection (DI) to deal with how an application should be wired. That means, you’re no longer required to use the un-maintainable main() method in order to execute your code. Just ask for the dependency and Angular will provide it to you instantly. The dependency injection in AngularJS reduces a lot of burden on server backend, which makes you app lighter and faster to a great extent.
Data Models are POJO:
Unlike other frameworks, Data Models in Angular are POJO (plain old JavaScript objects) which means you’ll never be required to use any extra extraneous getter and setter functions to integrate Angular with existing data sources. This keeps your code free from boilerplate and makes it easy to test, maintain and reuse. Named as “scopes”, Angular models are quite different from traditional data models and rely on controllers to feed required data.
Expresses UI Declaratively:
To define application’s user interface, Angular utilizes HTML which is a declarative programming language. Unlike an interface written in JavaScript, HTML produces a less convoluted and more intuitive user interfaces that are less likely to break. Besides, HTML lets you declare which controllers should be used for each UI element so that you could concentrate more on look and behavior of your app’s user interface. Simply define what you want and Angular will handle all the dependencies.
Allows Parallel Development:
In case of large projects, which require multiple key operations, Angular allows developers to write and test code individually in parallel. The separation of Directives from the app code makes it possible for developers to work on the same code base at the same time. Even, developers can reuse each other’s code without any integration issues. This speeds up the app development workflow to a large extent, making a developer’s life a lot easier.
Context-Aware PubSub System:
While most of the PubSub implementations on the web are not contextual, The PubSub system in Angular is context aware. A PubSub system is a great tool that decouples communication between parent and child nodes. Angular makes the PubSub system more intuitive through broadcast() and emit() functions. Where broadcast() sends a message to all children controllers, on the other hand, emit() sends a message to all ancestors. Alternatively, you can also use data-binding to communicate with controllers.
Built to be Testable:
Since JavaScript is a dynamic language, the Angular team has made it mandatory for any JavaScript code to go through a strong set of several tests. For end-to-end testing, Angular uses a tool called “Protractor” – a pre-built end-to-end test runner. You can also perform Unit Testing to individually test the smallest testable components of your application. Moreover, Angular offers AngularJS Batarang extension to let developers debug their applications inside Chrome browser.
Lets You Write Less Code:
All of the points mentioned above describe only one thing – you’ll need to write less code. Be it view or directive or two-way data-binding or any other feature, they all save developers from writing their own MVC pipeline. Where a typical web app has nearly 80% of code reserved for different DOM-related responsibilities, Angular on the other hand automatically cleans up all the unnecessary app code.
Easy to Use:
Getting started with AngularJS is as easy as one, two and three. To have an Angular application up, you just require adding a few attributes to your HTML document. You can even work with Angular on your local system, absolutely without any web server. To get started, all you need to have a web browser and a text editor. Moreover, Angular team offers a step-by-step tutorial to help you get up and running your web app in a matter of minutes.
Powered by a Robust Community:
Angular is backed up by a thriving and active community of developers, which means you’ll get all your Angular queries answered for sure. Not only the community consistently contributes to the Angular project but also develops compatible libraries to make it even more powerful. That’s the reason; applications built with Angular produce better results. Moreover, there’s a plenty of great places – like LearnAngular – where you can learn Angular in a short span of time.
The Future is Bright:
As you may probably know already, the Angular team recently launched a whole new version of Angular, called Angular 2.0. According to officials, version 2.0 is a complete re-write with massive changes like internationalization, tight integration with ECMAScript 6 (ES6), comprehensive routing, hierarchical dependency injection, mobile-specific routing and more. This proves that Angular team is consistently working hard to make it world’s most powerful and robust JavaScript framework.
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15 Reasons Why Developers Need to Learn #AngularJS https://t.co/IXhRpig3Mk pic.twitter.com/QQYHr2zO6M
— Java Code Geeks (@javacodegeeks) November 3, 2015
You forgot to said then many other framework exist: like ext-js, smart-client, vaadin, aurelia…
There are very few UI component for Angular JS.
AngularJS 2 will go out and it’s not compatible with the first release, so started a new project with the first release it,s so so.
Thing powered by Google miss often of polish: dart, gwt, android…
You sound like a noob. Read more about the angular problems before this kind of stupid count downs “why you should learn Angular”… how about why you shouldn’t? Stupid copy/paste bloging noobs…
And you are asking about newsletter subscribe in comments? What the hell is wrong with you, so desperate, you suck man!