Angular or Angular JS : Understanding the detailed differences
Avakash Dekavadiya
Web development is a great place to start your adventure with programming. When we talk about the best frontend framework, angular is the buzzword. Angular is an open source front end framework. Most of the newbies usually get confused in between Angular and AngularJS, as most of them think that both are the same and it’s just a matter of a word. Although it is not true. AngularJS is an open-source, JavaScript-based, front-end web application framework for dynamic web app development, whereas Angular is the blanket term used to refer to Angular 2, Angular 4 and all other versions that come after AngularJS. Both Angular 2 and 4 are open-source, TypeScript-based front-end web application platforms. Angular 7 is the latest version of Angular. First of all, let’s dive into the comparison between AngularJS and Angular.
- Architecture: In Angular JS there is a Model-view-controller (MVC) design which has a central component. It represents the application, manages its logic and rules. Controllers accept the input and convert them into commands and then sends the commands to model and the view. In Angular controller and scope were replaced by components and directive. Components are directive with a template. These are the structural directives that alter the layout of the DOM by removing and replacing its elements, and attributive directives that change the behavior or appearance of a DOM element.
- Language: Angular JS is a JavaScript language whereas Angular is TypeScript.
- Expression Syntax: For the binding, any property or event you need to remember appropriate ng directive in Angular JS whereas Angular focuses on “( )” for event binding and “[ ]” for property binding.
- Mobile support: Angular JS doesn’t have mobile support whereas Angular have mobile support.
- Routing : In Angular JS, the syntax is $routeprovider.when() whereas, in Angular, the syntax is @RouteConfig{(…)}
- Performance & Speed: Angular JS has moderate performance and speed whereas Angular has high performance and speed.
- Development Speed: Angular JS provides moderate development speed whereas Angular provides high development speed.
What’s new in Angular?
Angular 4/5/6/7 is just an upgrade version of Angular 2. So there is no major change in the code to migrate from Angular 2 to Angular 4/5/6/7. Angular 4 comes with some additional enhancements and improvements than Angular 2. Here are some of the few enhancements:
- Animation Package: Animations play a big part in Angular. There is an in-built angular core code in version 2, but in version 4, the animation function gets an independent package in order to discard all the useless code from the bundle which has been shipped to the users.
- Router: Angular 4 introduces a new interface to represent URL parameters which are known as ParaMap. They offer a choice to the developer to get a single value or all the values of a URL query parameter since it can have multiple values. Though the change is not too hard for Angular developers as they can use ParaMap or queryParaMap instead of using Params and queryParams in Angular 2.
- Speed and Performance: The important change in Angular 4 is the increase in speed and performance of the applications developed by it. This is primarily due to the improvement of the view engine for them ahead of time compilation function.
- Pipes: New pipes have made template driven development easy.
- HTTP Request Simplified: Adding search parameters to an “HTTP request” has been simplified.
- Apps Testing Simplified: Angular 4, overriding a template in a test has also been simplified.
- Introduced new service for Meta Tags: A new service has been introduced to easily get or update “Meta Tags”
- Forms Validators Attributes: One new validator joins the existing “required”, “minLength”, “maxLength” and “pattern”. An email helps to validate that the input is a valid email.
- Compare Select Options: A new “compareWith” directive has been added and used to help you compare options from a select field.
- Enhancement in Router: A new interface “paramMap” and “queryParamMap” has been added and introduced to represent the parameters of a URL.
- Added Optional Parameter: This “CanDeactivate” interface now has an extra (optional) parameter which contains the next state.
Angular is a pure component based. Change detection has also been improved. Angular 2/4/5/6/7 has AOT Ahead of time compilation which improves the rendering speed. AngularJS is based on javascript only whereas Angular and the following version is typescript based so even if javascript is disabled in the client’s browser the application’s default page can be rendered. Angular has simpler APIs, lazy loading, easier debugging, also provides a way to execute more than two systems together. Let’s have a look at some of the comparisons for different Angular versions.
Angular 4 vs. Angular 2
- Smaller & Faster Apps
- View Engine Size Reduce
- Animation Package
- NgIf and ngFor Improvement
- NgIf with Else
- Use of AS keyword
- Pipes
- HTTP Request Simplified
- Apps Testing Simplified
- Introduce Meta Tags
- Added some Forms Validators Attributes
- Added Compare Select Options
- Enhancement in Router
- Added Optional Parameter
- Improvement Internationalization
Angular 5 vs. Angular 4
- Make AOT the default
- Watch mode
- Type checking in templates
- More flexible metadata
- Remove *.ngfactory.ts files
- Better error messages
- Smooth upgrades
- Tree-Shakeable components
- Hybrid Upgrade Application
Later on, there are two new releases – Angular 6 and Angular 7 which have developer perspective improvements.
Whether you’re a developer looking to remain competitive in the ever-evolving world of web development, or a company looking for the right technology to base their application on, Angular is a solid JavaScript development platform that embraces the components oriented future of the web.
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