With their powers combined, Drupal and Angular 2's duet is meant to write history! The history of web development! It's aimed at marking a new era for all developers out there: the era of building rich apps, both for web and for mobile platforms, with much less effort. Drupal working as a backend data source and Angular 2 complementing it as an ideally intuitive, fast front-end framework!
They're both leading technologies, they're both open source web technologies, both innovative. It sure looks like such a promising duet! And yet, you can't stop wondering: why Angular 2 in particular? And what makes Angular 2 so much better than the previous AngularJS version?
Ever since its release in september 2016, Angular 2 wasn't just an upgrade of the famous framework's first version. It was intended to be re-written, from the ground up, from a completely revolutionary perspective, and not just an “evolutionary” one.
It has been designed with the goal of “easing developers' lives”. This would a plain simple definition for Angular 2's “mission”.
To offer Drupal developers a lightweight, highly intuitive framework's that they could build their apps in.
A framework where developers could build dynamic web apps with much less coding, with much less effort!
Now let's speak facts, shall we? Let's outline all these Angular 2 improvements which have turned it into headless Drupal's perfect partner for a duo determining the way the web of the future gets developed:
1. It's Built on Typescript
And this means a huge step forward when it comes to carrying out large-scale projects. Those type of projects carrying a heavy load of data. Those type of apps implying more than 10 views, so to say.
Nevertheless, this does not mean that it doesn't support other languages except TypeScript. You could easily use ES5, ES6 or Dart for developing your app! No programming language-constraints here!
Now, getting back to Typescript: can you already anticipate what “fully supporting Typescript” means? What would the “toolbox” put at your disposal when building apps in Angular 2 include?
- navigation
- autocompletion
- code refactoring
And more!
2. It's Mobile-Oriented, From Ground Up
And this is just another strong proof that Angular 2 has taken big leaps ahead from AngularJS's first version!
If Angular 1 was built with (only) responsiveness in mind, lacking the much needed mobile support, its “successor's” whole architecture is mobile-oriented.
Empowered with libraries such as Native Script, developers now get to build truly native mobile apps much faster.
Other key improvements that derive from its mobile-oriented architecture worth mentioning:
- an improved memory efficiency
- better loading time
- better support for gestures and touch events
3. Addicted to Speed? Enjoy Angular 2's Performance Enhancements!
Of course that this is a rhetorical question! Any Drupal developer in Toronto's constantly challenged to build larger and larger apps, with increasingly complex UI. Therefore, developing them without having to compromise top speed (obviously), is a a never-ending test.
And here is where Angular 2 comes in!
Its improved performance derives greatly from the fact that Bootstrap's now platform specific. A great performance booster for mobile browser apps!
In addition to this, there other key factors, too, “responsible” for Angular 2's enhanced performance: change detection, compiler, render have been built from scratch and completely redesigned (therefore, a more in-depth process than just a simple upgrade of Angular 1's functionality).
4. Other Improvements Streamlining Web App Development
As already stated in this post: Angular 2's as an enterprise-dedicated framework. So, when dealing with large-scale web app projects, that otherwise would take years to build, Angular 2 comes as a major development process-booster.
To support this statement, allow me to list some of its other vital improvements aimed at making developers' lives easier. At streamlining complex web app development processes:
- dependency injection
- component-based architecture
- data binding
- semantic versioning
- a fully revamped architecture
- observer pattern
- routing
- improved concepts for UI components
In conclusion: not only that developers are granted unlimited freedom now to build apps in whatever environment they prefer, but (crucial for large-scale, enterprise projects) the framework eliminates the need of putting together a whole team with multiple coding skillsets. With Angular 2, developers get to use the same open source framework for building different types of apps.
5. It Does Include Some Drawbacks and Limitations, Too
Since I wanted to give you a comprehensive review of Angular 2, this should include some of its limitations, as well (each web technology comes with its own weaknesses after all):
- it still lacks certain UI components and integrated tooling, thus challenging developers to rely on CLI until, hopefully, third-parties step in to provide Angular 2 all the necessary tooling
- it is not backward compatible, meaning that even though its developers did eliminate some of Angular 1's APIs, Angular 2 users still need to rewrite certain parts of it in order to upgrade
6. A Quick Recap + Where Is Angular 2 Heading To?
What I'm trying to say to you, through this review of Angular 2, Drupal's reliable front-end framework partner in a so very promising duet, is that you're witnessing a new era. An era where, as a Drupal developer in Toronto, you're no longer “chained” to browser app development. Angular 2 empowers you (along with headless Drupal, which “has its back”, so to say) to build apps in other ecosystems, as well!
Moreover! You should start “bidding farewell” to the discouraging way of building web apps, where you have to pile up a whole collection of different frameworks and libraries.
As for its future, so to say, it looks even brighter than its present! It's anticipated that Angular 2 will become enterprises' the main choice whenever they're looking for a powerful, consistent web technology for developing their large-scale, complex apps!
How about you? Have you been using Angular 2 for building your own apps? What do you think about this “duo”: Drupal taking role of a back-end framework and Angular 2 playing its part in the front-end?