Now more than ever mission-critical applications must perform superheroic feats. Popular web and mobile platforms need to be supported from a single codebase. The user experience should surpass that of a desktop application. Development should follow a repeatable, testable pattern for efficiency and accuracy. While JavaScript has cemented itself as the language of choice for single-page web applications, the actual SDLC can be problematic. Angular is a revolution in web development. Through the approach of a modular framework, and by extending HTML itself, Angular solves many common challenges faced by front-end UI developers. Angular provides a consistent, well defined, structured approach to building modern applications.
An MVC Framework
While Angular isn’t prescriptive, developers are strongly encouraged to adopt the Model View Controller pattern when building applications. Features of an application are developed using reusable components, each dealing with a specific concern. This familiar pattern lends itself to highly maintainable applications and makes it easier to change and upgrade code when needed. Moreover, Angular implicitly handles the linkages between these components. They are bound together by Angular itself. Developers are freed from architectural issues and can focus on feature development.
Backed by Google
Angular is an open source project officially supported by Google. In addition to contributions from a vibrant open source community, a dedicated team of talented engineers at Google provide oversight, a roadmap, and frequent updates to the framework. The resulting credibility generated by this association has driven a groundswell of interest in Angular from developers to CTOs.
Focused on Productivity
Out of the box, Angular provides the tools and services to begin building software today. Angular can be sprinkled into an existing application where appropriate, or form the foundation of new development efforts. Ready-made features such as modules, components, and dependency injection allow teams to hit the ground running with easily accessible concepts and constructs. Forms-based applications are exceptionally well served by Angular, which provides powerful tools to accelerate development. Common tasks like form validation, styling, data binding, and state maintenance are abstracted into discrete features of the framework, allowing developers to focus what they are building instead of how to build it.
A Clear Separation of Concerns
An enterprise class application has many moving parts. By breaking software down into smaller units of encapsulated functionality the overall complexity of the project is reduced. Angular excels here by promoting code reuse via individual custom services, directives, and components. The result is a much cleaner, more maintainable implementation than what might have been achieved without such a framework in place.
A Large Pool of Developers
JavaScript is an in-demand language attracting the attention of business and government entities. This demand has fueled a surge in developers retraining for JavaScript roles. While the market is indeed tight, it remains robust with no end in sight for continued growth. The team behind Angular has produced a clear onboarding plan for new developers, in addition to numerous external online resources for picking up the framework. This means that new engineers can get productive within your projects rapidly without needing to decode a proprietary development methodology.
Build a Strong Safety Net
Test driven development reduces the cost of change. Poorly tested applications become more expensive to develop over time. As systems become more complex, the likelihood of introducing a breaking change increases. One of Angular’s best features is the deep integration of unit testing within the framework. While many frameworks rely on external tooling to execute testing, it is available natively within Angular (integration testing with Protractor and unit testing with Karma).
Go Beyond the Web
The two most viable options for mobile development today are progressive web apps (PWAs) and native. Both can be targeted with Angular. Traditionally, native app development meant maintaining multiple codebases for the most popular mobile platforms: Swift for iOS and Java for Android. NativeScript is a third option for building truly native apps for Android and iOS devices using only Angular and JavaScript. With Angular, your teams can leverage existing assets to target the devices your users prefer without introducing new elements in your stack.
Permissive Licensing
Angular is offered freely for commercial and private usage under the popular MIT license.
Angular is a significant advancement in how modern applications are developed. Organizations can realize strong gains in IT productivity by adopting the framework into their architectures. More information can be found at angular.io.
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