The Google team recently unveiled the latest version of the popular frontend framework, Angular. Angular 16 was released on May 3, 2023, marking a significant milestone for the framework. Minko Gechev, an Angular expert, has described the release as the most substantial update since Angular’s initial launch.
In our previous blog, we highlighted the noteworthy changes in Angular 15, but this time, the stakes are even higher with the most recent Angular version. The Angular Team has risen to the occasion, delivering impressive features and updates that cater to developers, business owners, and technology enthusiasts alike.
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What’s New in Angular 16 – New Features and Updates
Six months ago, a significant milestone was reached in Angular’s journey towards simplicity and enhanced developer experience. The standalone APIs transitioned out of the developer preview phase. With its most recent changes and improvements, Angular v16 has joined the Angular revolution and is now even better and more effective for the developer community and tech lovers. With a combined total of more than 2500 thumbs up on GitHub, this Angular version has addressed dozens of quality-of-life improvements across feature requests.
As a reputable company specializing in AngularJS web application development, we have taken note of several intriguing Angular 16 new features that greatly enhance the developer experience. Let’s delve deeper into these exciting updates and explore their benefits.
Rethinking Reactivity
![Rethinking_Reactivity_-_Angular_16_Update[1]](data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB2aWV3Qm94PSIwIDAgMTIxMyA3NjgiIHdpZHRoPSIxMjEzIiBoZWlnaHQ9Ijc2OCIgeG1sbnM9Imh0dHA6Ly93d3cudzMub3JnLzIwMDAvc3ZnIj48L3N2Zz4=)
Enhancing the developer experience is crucial in web application development, and the new Reactivity Model aims to do just that. This feature is designed to boost the performance and overall experience of AngularJS developers for hire. One notable advantage of this update is its full backward compatibility and seamless integration with the existing system. Let’s explore some of the benefits that come with this Angular 16 feature:
Improved runtime performance:
The new Reactivity Model reduces the number of computations during change detection, leading to better performance. As Angular Signals becomes fully implemented, apps built with signals are expected to experience significant improvements in the INP Core Web Vital metric.
Simplified mental model:
With the Reactivity Model, the dependencies of the view and the flow of data through the app become clearer, providing developers with a simpler and more intuitive understanding of how reactivity works.
Fine-grained reactivity:
In future releases, the Reactivity Model will enable the ability to check for changes only in affected components. This fine-grained reactivity allows for more efficient updates, enhancing the performance and responsiveness of the application.
Optional Zone.js Dependency:
By utilizing signals to notify the framework of model changes, the Reactivity Model paves the way for making Zone.js optional in future releases. This flexibility provides developers with more choices in managing the application’s performance and memory usage.
Computed properties without recomputation:
The Reactivity Model introduces computed properties that are calculated only when necessary, eliminating the need for recomputation in every change detection cycle. This optimization minimizes unnecessary computations and improves overall performance.
Improved interoperability with RxJS:
The Reactivity Model outlines a plan to introduce reactive inputs, enhancing the compatibility and integration between Angular and RxJS. This enables developers to leverage the power of RxJS observables seamlessly within their Angular applications.
Signals
The Angular 16 Signals library introduces a new way to handle state changes in Angular applications. With Signals, you can define reactive values and establish dependencies between them. This feature draws inspiration from Solid.js and functions by utilizing the get() and set() methods.
By leveraging Signals, you can create a reactive value graph that automatically updates dependencies whenever changes occur. Furthermore, Signals can be combined with RxJS observables, which are still fully supported in the latest version of Angular, enabling you to create robust and declarative data management solutions.
Example of how to use it with Angular –
@Component({
selector: ‘my-app’,
standalone: true,
template: ` {{ fullName() }} <button (click)=”setName(‘John’)”>Click</button>
`,
})
export class App {
firstName = signal(‘Jane’);
lastName = signal(‘Doe’);
fullName = computed(() => `${this.firstName()} ${this.lastName()}`);
constructor() {
effect(() => console.log(‘Name changed:’, this.fullName())); } setName(newName: string) { this.firstName.set(newName);
}}
Enhanced Server-side Rendering and Hydration
The Angular team has identified server-side rendering as the primary area for improvement in Angular. With the introduction of the whole new app non-destructive hydration, the framework no longer performs a complete re-rendering of the application.
Instead, Angular selectively locates existing DOM nodes and attaches event listeners to them while creating internal data structures. This approach optimizes performance and efficiency in rendering the application.
- Elimination of content flickering: Users will not encounter content flickering on web pages, enhancing the overall user experience.
- Improved Web Core Vitals: The changes in Angular’s server-side rendering contribute to better Web Core Vitals, positively impacting performance metrics.
- Future-proof architecture: The architecture is designed to be future-proof, utilizing primitives to enable fine-grained code loading. This is currently evident in progressive lazy route hydration.
- Simple integration: Integrating Angular’s server-side rendering into existing applications requires just a few lines of code, simplifying the process.
- Gradual adoption of hydration: Developers can gradually adopt hydration for components that perform manual DOM manipulation by using the ngSkipHydration property in templates.
Angular has observed significant improvements in the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) performance, with up to a 45% enhancement achieved through full app hydration. This optimization has a positive impact on the loading speed and overall user experience of Angular applications.
Some applications have already reported improved CWV and enabled hydration in production:
It is simple to start by adding a few lines to your main.ts:
import {
bootstrapApplication,
provideClientHydration,
} from ‘@angular/platform-browser’;
…
bootstrapApplication(RootCmp, {
providers: [provideClientHydration()]
});
More information about how it functions is available in the documentation.
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Better Server-Side Rendering
Angular 16 introduces significant improvements in server-side rendering (SSR), specifically in supporting non-destructive hydration. SSR involves rendering the application on the server and sending the HTML content to the browser, where it is transformed into an interactive web page by attaching JavaScript behavior and event listeners.
SSR offers several benefits, including improved SEO, accessibility, and reduced time-to-interactive (TTI). While SSR has been a feature in frameworks like React or Next.js, implementing it in Angular presented its own challenges.
With Angular 16, SSR is now an out-of-the-box feature that enhances the speed and performance of SSR applications. When hydrating the application, the browser utilizes a non-destructive hydration technique. This means that existing HTML content and attributes are not overwritten or deleted. Any adjustments or optimizations made to the HTML content on the server side are preserved. Furthermore, non-destructive hydration avoids potential conflicts or errors caused by inconsistent HTML content between the client and server.
Reactivity Model and Zone.js
Angular v16 introduces a highly anticipated feature: the revamped reactivity model. This new model empowers developers to enhance runtime performance by making Zone.js optional. Developers now have the flexibility to choose alternative reactivity management methods, such as RxJS or signals.
For those unfamiliar with Zone.js, it is a library that alters browser APIs to detect changes and initiate change detection in Angular applications. Although it simplifies Angular development, it adds some overhead and complexity to the framework. By making Zone.js optional, Angular v16 provides developers with the freedom to optimize their applications based on their specific needs and preferences.
Dependency Injection Debugging APIs
The latest version of Angular (v16) introduces new functionality that allows for detailed scrutiny and troubleshooting of the dependency injection system in Angular apps. Developers get access to data on providers, tokens, injectors, scopes, and instances related to dependencies using these APIs. This enables thorough examination and imitation of different scenarios for dependency testing and debugging purposes.
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Exploring Options for JavaScript Bundle Optimization:
In Angular v16, there is a focus on exploring different options to optimize the JavaScript bundles generated by Angular CLI. These options include leveraging ES modules, tree-shaking, code-splitting, and differential loading techniques. The aim is to reduce the bundle size and improve the loading speed of Angular applications, enhancing overall performance and user experience.
Dev preview of esbuild-based build system
Angular version 16 introduces experimental support for using esbuild in the ng build command. Additionally, ng serve now utilizes Vite as the development server, and both development and production builds are powered by esbuild.
While this feature is still in the experimental stage and requires further performance-related improvements and optimizations, it already offers a significantly faster startup time compared to the webpack implementation, at least two times faster.
To try out Vite + esbuild, you can update your angular.json configuration. Please note that this feature is experimental and may undergo changes and enhancements in future releases.
…
“architect”: {
“build”: { /* Add the esbuild suffix/*
“builder”: “@angular-devkit/build-angular:browser-esbuild”,
…
You must make the necessary changes to enable “@angular-devkit/build-angular:browser” to “@angular-devkit/build-angular:browser-esbuild”
Binding router Information to Component Inputs
With this new capability, the router data, resolved router data, params, and queryParams will be easily accessible in the component as inputs. This eliminates the need to rely on ActivatedRoute and allows us to obtain these values directly through inputs. With the help of this functionality, our program requires a lot less boilerplate code, which makes development easier and increases code readability.
// Current approach, which would still work@Component({
…
})
class SomeComponent {
route = inject(ActivatedRoute);
data = this.route.snapshot.data[‘dataKey’];
params = this.route.snapshot.params[‘paramKey’]
}
//New approach
@Component({
…
})
class SomeComponent {
@Input() dataKey: string;
@Input() paramKey: string;
//or
@Input() set dataKey(value: string){
//react to the value
};
@Input() set paramKey(value: string){
//react to the vaue
};
}
takeUntilDestroyed and DestroyRef
Angular is gradually facilitating a more functional coding style. One step in this direction is the inclusion of the destroyRef and takeUntilDestroyed RxJS operators. These operators serve as replacements for the ngOnDestroy lifecycle hook. Previously, if we wanted to use ngOnDestroy in functions, it was not possible as it relied on classes. However, with the introduction of destroyRef and takeUntilDestroyed, we now have the flexibility to incorporate similar functionality within functions, aligning with a functional programming approach.
@Component({})class SomeComponent {
destroyRef = inject(DestroyRef);
store = inject(Store);
user
constructor() {
const sub = this.store.select(getUser()).subscribe((user) => {
this.user = user
});
destoryRef.onDestroy(() => {
sub.unsubscribe()
})
//OR
const sub = this.store.select(getUser()).pipe(takeUntilDestroyed())
.subscribe((user) => {
this.user = user
});
}
}
The usage of the takeUntilDestroyed operator is restricted to the constructor context. If we intend to use it outside of the constructor, we need to provide the destroyRef as an argument. This operator differs from regular RxJS subscriptions as it handles the cleanup of signal effects internally, eliminating the need for manual cleanup.
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Other Features of Angular16
During the developer preview stage of Angular 16, early tests on the esbuild-based build system have demonstrated a remarkable 72% improvement in cold production builds.
As part of Angular 16, developers will have the convenience of easily converting signals to observables using the rxjs-interop module from @angular/core, available in the developer preview.
The Jest testing framework is now receiving experimental support, offering developers an alternative testing option.
In Angular 16, developers have the ability to specify a nonce attribute for component styles, which can be inlined by Angular.
For Angular templates, self-closing tags can now be used to create closing tags for components, enhancing the development experience.
To further enhance the developer experience, Angular 16 introduces the option to bind route parameters directly to the corresponding component’s inputs for the router.
Notably, Angular 16 includes support for TypeScript 5.0, which is particularly significant for ECMAScript decorators that extend JavaScript classes.
How to Install Angular 16?
To utilize the various Angular tools, simply install Angular 16 through npm, the Node Package Manager.
Execute the following command in the command-line interface (CLI) to download the latest version of Angular CLI on your system:
npm install –global @angular/cli@next
By running this command, you can easily download the latest version of Angular CLI and leverage its powerful features and tools for your Angular projects.
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Winding it up!
Angular 16 new features are a great release that brings a multitude of exciting features and improvements for developers and business owners alike. With its enhanced runtime performance, revamped reactivity model, and support for non-destructive hydration, Angular 16 offers a more efficient and seamless development experience.
Developers can benefit from the simplified mental models for reactivity, the flexibility to choose reactivity management methods, and improved debugging capabilities. The inclusion of experimental features like the esbuild-based build system and Jest testing framework opens up new possibilities for optimizing builds and testing Angular applications.
For business owners, Angular 16 brings tangible advantages such as improved Web Core Vitals, better SEO, and accessibility through server-side rendering. The option to tie route parameters to component inputs and the support for TypeScript 5.0 further enhance productivity and code quality.
Considering these advancements, developers and business owners should opt for Angular 16 to leverage its cutting-edge features and ensure their projects are future-proof. By embracing Angular 16, they can unlock a world of opportunities, deliver exceptional user experiences, and stay ahead in the rapidly evolving web application development landscape.
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FAQs
Yes, Angular 16 is a stable version that was released on May 3, 2023.
Angular 16 introduces the DestroyRef provider, which allows for registering to destroy callbacks for various lifecycle scopes such as components, directives, pipes, embedded views, and instances of EnvironmentInjector.
The most stable version of Angular currently available is Angular 16, released on May 3, 2023.
Angular 6 supports version 6 of RxJS. To ensure backward compatibility, Angular 6 also provides the rxjs-compat package to ensure existing applications continue working.
Keeping Angular up to date is crucial because it allows you to benefit from bug fixes, performance improvements, and new features introduced in each version. It ensures your application stays current and maintains compatibility with the latest technologies.
AngularJS extends beyond being a mere JavaScript framework and encompasses a library specifically designed for building robust single-page applications and complex web applications. Angular 16, the most recent addition to the Angular framework family, was launched in May 2023.
Angular is updated every six months, with regular releases throughout the year.
The most efficient compilation method in Angular is the ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation. It converts Angular HTML and TypeScript code into optimized JavaScript code during the build phase, resulting in faster loading and improved performance.
