Unveiling the Magic Behind Connect: What’s New in Angular

Welcome to the enchanting world of web technology, where we’re about to unravel the secrets that power Connect! In this blog post, we’re embarking on a journey to explore the fascinating universe of Angular, the driving force behind Connect’s success. This article will introduce you to the latest updates in Angular which the enhancements are offering you a smoother, faster, and more delightful online experience.

What is Angular?

First of all, imagine the web as a vast city filled with amazing buildings, and Angular is like the master architect who helps create these incredible digital structures. Angular, developed and maintained by Google and a community of developers, is a special tool that talented builders (developers) use to construct websites and web applications, just like architects use blueprints to design buildings.

Angular makes web pages interactive, allowing you to click buttons, fill out forms, and see dynamic content seamlessly. It’s like the wizardry behind the scenes that makes the web work the way it does.

Angular v10

Now, let’s dive into Connect’s journey, starting with Angular v10. We’ll explore the highlights of what changed and improved throughout the versions, so you can get a taste of the exciting enhancements that shaped Connect.

New Date Range Picker

In this version, Angular Material introduced a new date range picker component. We’ve made good use of this feature in Connect. It allows users to easily pick a start and end date for their time away from the office.

But that’s not all, we also use it in other parts of Connect. For instance, we use it to filter dates and find specific records within a specific time frame.

Angular v11

Moving to Angular v11, one of the standout features is the enhancement in router performance.

Supports Lazy Loading with Named Outlets

Don’t be shocked by the title, it’s simply about making web pages more efficient! In older versions of Angular, when we wanted to display specific content in different spots on a webpage, we could give those spots names. However, these named spots always loaded everything right away, even if you didn’t need it. But starting from this version, Angular 11, we can now make those spots load content only when you actually want to see it, which can help us to speed up the website.

Angular v12

Angular 12 brought some great news for developers with the introduction of Nullish Coalescing to HTML templates, which may not sound thrilling to non-tech folks, but it’s a real reason to celebrate in Connect!

Nullish Coalescing

For a while, the nullish coalescing operator (??) has been making it easier for developers to write neater code in TypeScript classes. Exciting news from the Angular team: In version 12, developers can now use this helpful feature in Angular templates too!

Now, in templates, developers can use the new syntax to simplify complex conditionals. For example:

{{ age !== null && age !== undefined ? age : calculateAge() }}

Becomes:

{{ age ?? calculateAge() }}

In simple terms, for us developers, the code used to require us to check if the ‘age’ variable had values like 11 or 22 before we could do calculations with it. But with this new feature, we don’t have to worry about checking for both “null” and “undefined” anymore. We can use the new (??) operator to make sure ‘age’ has a value, and it works the same way.

Angular v13

IE11 no longer supported! You might think it’s a bad news but actually it’s not.

In fact Connect has stopped the support for IE11 since January 2022 already.

End of IE11 support

Angular 13 has decided to stop supporting Internet Explorer 11, and this is actually a good thing. This change makes our web application load faster and use less data. It also lets Angular 13 use all the cool new features that modern web browsers have, like better animations and fancy styling.

By saying goodbye to the special code needed just for Internet Explorer, Connect has become more straightforward to maintain. We use less time for designing complicated solutions and won’t need to do some extra stuff to make it work in older browsers, which is nice for us developers. As a result, we also have more time available to implement even more amazing features for our app users, they’ll experience our app delivering more impressive capabilities and improved performance. It’s a win-win!

Angular v14

The standout feature in Angular 14 is “security,” and you can spot this in the introduction of typed Angular forms, which add an extra layer of protection to Connect.

Typed Angular Forms

Forms without typing, making debugging more challenging.

However, using a typed form is like having a super-smart assistant who not only ensures you provide the right kind of information in Connect, for instance, when we create / schedule a news post, stream post, fill in survey form, etc.

But also aids developers in speeding up the process of finding and fixing errors. It’s like having a handy tool that not only simplifies things but also acts as a superhero sidekick for us developers, making our job faster and more efficient.

Angular v15

Breaking News: Upgrade for better user interface, easier access, which lead to smoother development Experience!

Migrate to MDC-Based Components

In Angular 15, they’ve made some significant changes by restructuring many components to align with Material Design Components for the Web (MDC). These MDC-based components not only make things look better but also enhance accessibility for everyone. Plus, since they’re now a part of the Material Design standard, also known as guidelines which explain important principles for every designer should follow when they’re designing for iOS or Android, it enables developers to effortlessly stay current with the latest and most accurate styling.

For instance, the slider in our app added a thumb which is a position indicator to present the selected value of its position better and a thicker track of the slider could help enhance the user experience by making it easier to interact with and making it more visually prominent for users to adjust the value.

Other than slider, we have other components as well migrated to MDC-Based Components, such as checkbox and radio buttons expanded their touch target sizes (area to interact with) for users to be more user-friendly and accessible.

Summary

In conclusion, Angular has undergone continuous evolution and improvement, with each new version introducing enhancements tailored to developers’ needs and the demands of modern web development. Key highlights from recent Angular versions include performance improvements, providing cleaner code access for developers, enhancing security, introducing new components, and removing legacy support for Internet Explorer 11.

Developers now have access to a more efficient and developer-friendly framework that leverages modern browser features, making it easier to build fast, responsive, and feature-rich web applications. As Angular continues to evolve, it remains a powerful and versatile tool for creating robust web applications and staying at the forefront of web development trends.