Browsing through a million lines of codes with their geeky spectacles on, the web developers who are busy making our lives incredible and easier seldom have time to rejoice like the most of us. And then a certain Miško Hevery and Adam Abrons are born to come up with ideas that make the lives of these web developers around the world easier. This time through ‘AngularJS’.
Make no mistake, these professionals actually love web development which is why they chose their carrier profession as web developers, and yes they do get pretty excited with technology news that help them code faster and better. AngularJS, an open-source web application framework, is one such technology that has caught the attention of these web developers who have been insanely crazy about it ever since its first stable release in 2012.
AngularJS is a complete set of JavaScript tools that you can use to create flexible single-page web and mobile applications. Now you would be thinking that there are many similar web application building tools so what’s so special about AngularJS? Some of you would be even going so far as to challenge claiming “Give me one good reason to use AngluarJS for my next app”. Well my dear reader, for skeptics like you I have five.
1. The best Model-View-Controller Architecture
AngularJS is most famous for its Model-View-Controller (MVC) capabilities. MVC architecture allows AngularJS developers to break there interface into three components
- A Controller or input interface
- Model the working logic code behind the application
- View the final output to be displayed.
There are other frameworks which have attempted such a feat but AngularJS has been unanimously acclaimed for getting closest to MVC development approach. Not only does it allow you greater capabilities to access and customize your module components, it also automatically manages your components and acts as a pipeline to connect your modules.
Greater control allows greater flexibility in your application development.
2. It works hand-in-hand with HTML
If you have concerns regarding AngularJS’s ability to work along-side HTML, well you can discard them. The framework utilizes HTML to the fullest and even extends HTML. AngularJS uses HTML to define the applications’ user interface and also to determine the execution of the application.
The framework extends HTML through use of directives, a feature that allows you to create your own HTML elements. This gives you added capabilities to separate your MVC application from DOM codes by putting all DOM manipulation code into directives themselves.
3. Control is POWER
Use of directives highly increases your control over your application. This is especially true for responsive web design and grid-based designs. A PRO AngularJS developer uses scores of directives. That is because :
- Directives are easy to test
- They can be used to allow parallel working
- They can be used to extend the UI as well
- Directives reduce coding
- And they help in Dependency Injections controls
In other words Directives give you greater control over your application and you don’t have to write a lot of code.
4. Testing like a PRO
Original web application testing methodology involves creating individual test pages and invoking one component in it and then interacting with it to see its working.
AngularJS on the other hand has better Unit Testing capabilities. The whole framework is linked together by Dependency Injections (DI). They are what you AngularJS uses to manage your controller modules and $copes. AngularJS test units can access these DI to directly insert mock data into your controllers (the brain behind your app), and they you can measure output and behavior directly. Therefore you can individually test each and every component.
5. Your whole team can contribute simultaneously
Creating a web app individually is easy but time consuming. On the other hand a team effort quickens the development but is a hell lot of difficult to manage. In fact team development discipline is one of the things that differentiate a web development service and a great web development service. Sure you can co-ordinate team development in JavaScript development but AngularJS takes it to an entirely different level. Thanks to sub-controllers, DI, and directives, developers can independently code and test their components without stepping on each others’ toes and circumvent the process of integrating all modules every time they have to do some testing.
If you are undertaking development of large app projects, I am sure that AngularJS can change the way you develop apps.
Or maybe its all about the Need for Speed
I can actually go all day praising AngularJS for its qualities but that won’t actually be helpful until and unless you use the framework for yourself. You will realize that how the speed of coding increases remarkably. First time users will find coding to be a little difficult because MVP model development requires thinking from a different perspective. But once you get the hang of it, you will create an app a day. That’s what AngularJS is all about, decreasing your coding by hours. And spend the next entire week playing FruitNinja or AngryBirds!
The next blog in the series is “Why use ExpressJS over NodeJS for Server-Side Development?“. It introduces ExpressJS and NodeJS and then digs into a comparitive analysis between the both.
Rachit Agarwal
