On November 6, 2023, the Google team unveiled Angular 17, marking a significant stride in front-end development. Following our coverage of the notable updates in Angular 16, this latest version raises the bar even further. The Angular team has introduced impressive features, aiming to benefit the front-end community before the year draws to a close.
Angular 17 brings an exciting addition with its declarative control flow syntax, providing developers with a more efficient and expressive template structure. Another noteworthy feature is deferrable views, enabling the loading and rendering of views only when necessary. This article will delve into these new features and updates in Angular 17, offering examples for better understanding. These enhancements stem from the Angular team’s dedication to continuous improvement, addressing the challenges and feedback from the Angular community. Each Angular release aims to empower developers, making it advantageous to explore AngularJS development services to maximize the benefits of these new features. The focus here is to explore the latest Angular 17 release, thoroughly examining its updates and features to enhance your Angular applications.
Introduction to Angular 17
The arrival of Angular v17 isn’t just about updates or enhancements; it marks a comprehensive renaissance that introduces a suite of improvements and a renewed identity for Angular. The Angular team’s diligent efforts have focused on overcoming challenges and enhancing performance and the development experience within the modern web. This drive led to the introduction of Angular’s reactivity system, Server-Side Rendering (SSR), and numerous other features in Angular 17.
Moreover, Angular 17 brings Standalone Components and Signals as part of this transformative journey. It represents a significant advancement in the Angular Renaissance, featuring a fresh syntax for control flow, the ability to lazily load page components, and improved support for SSR. Additionally, the CLI’s shift to ESBuild significantly boosts the build process.
Looking ahead, the plans for Angular v17 include deferred views, integrated control flow, SSR refinements, and support for view transitions API. Soon, as you install Angular and transition to v17, you’ll witness these enhancements firsthand.
New Features and Updates in Angular 17
Angular 17, a much-anticipated release within the Angular community, arrives with a multitude of thrilling new features, updates, and enhancements. Let’s explore the latest additions in Angular 17:
- Revamped Control Flow Syntax in Templates
- Automatic Migration to Built-in Control Flow
- Improved Build Performance leveraging ESBuild
- Enhanced Server-Side Rendering (SSR) Support
- Deferred Loading Mechanism
New Syntax for Control Flow in Templates
Angular v17 introduces a new declarative control flow syntax, simplifying the creation and management of intricate conditional code structures. This new syntax, utilizing the @- syntax, aligns with conventions found in programming languages like JavaScript and Python.
To leverage the new declarative control flow syntax in Angular 17, follow these steps:
- Import the @angular/core module as the initial step.
- Prefix control flow directives with @ instead of the traditional Ng prefix. For instance, use @if instead of NgIf.
- Wrap the desired content to be conditionally displayed using the @ directive.
- Provide an expression to the @ directive to evaluate the condition. When the expression returns true, the content enclosed within the @ directive will be displayed
The code below demonstrates the utilization of the @if directive to exhibit a message exclusively when the isLoggedIn variable holds a true value.
For more intricate conditional structures, incorporate the @else and @else if directives. Below, you’ll find an example demonstrating the utilization of @if, @else if, and @else directives to exhibit distinct messages contingent upon the available role’s value.
The new declarative control flow syntax, compared to its predecessors like NgIf, NgFor, and NgSwitch directives, offers enhanced clarity and expressiveness. Notably, it simplifies the development and maintenance of complex conditional logic structures.
With the @ directive, various types of HTML content, including directives, components, and templates, can be enclosed. This directive also governs the visibility of elements on a page. For instance, employing the @if directive allows hiding a button when a specific condition isn’t met.
Furthermore, the @ directive supports nested conditional statements. For instance, one might first verify a user’s login status using the @if directive and subsequently examine if they possess a particular role by nesting a second @if directive within the initial one.
Automatic Migration to Build-in Control Flow
To automate the migration of your code to the updated control flow syntax, there’s a blueprint available in the @angular/core package:
Build Performance with ESBuild
Traditionally, Angular CLI relies on webpack to create bundles. However, newer and faster tools are challenging webpack’s dominance.
Angular 17 introduces the default Application Builder using a stable version of Angular CLI for new projects. To install Angular CLI on your Windows system, follow the comprehensive installation guide provided after reading it thoroughly.
Transitioning existing projects to ESBuild is straightforward. To do so, you’ll need to modify your angular.json file by adding the following code:
Actually, you’ll need to append “-esbuild” at the end. Generally, both ‘ng serve’ and ‘ng build’ should operate as usual but significantly faster. The former specifically builds npm packages when needed, leveraging the vite dev server to expedite operations. Moreover, the CLI team has integrated various additional performance improvements.
Enhanced Support for Server Side Rendering (SSR)
Angular 17 introduces improved server-side rendering (SSR) support. When initiating a new project using ‘ng new’, there’s now an option ‘–ssr’ available. If this option isn’t specified, the CLI prompts whether it should configure SSR:
To enable SSR later, include the ‘@angular/ssr’ package using the following code:
“ng add @angular/ssr”
The ‘@angular’ scope signifies that the Angular team is the provider of this package.
Apart from server-side rendering, invoking ‘ng serve’ initiates a development server that supplies the necessary bundles for browser functionality. Managing bundles for both server and client environments, ‘ng build –ssr’ builds a fundamental Node.js server, employing the mentioned schematics.
For those opting out of a Node.js server, ‘ng build –prerender’ can be used to prerender individual application routes during the build process.
Deferred Loading
Angular’s “Defer” feature introduces a new template syntax empowering developers to dictate when particular elements or components should load. This advanced functionality surpasses traditional lazy loading methods, which typically load components upon path alterations.
“Defer” enables the delay of component loading based on user interactions—such as clicks or hovers—or when specific conditions in the application logic are met.
Key highlights of “Defer” include:
Conditional Loading: “Defer” allows you to establish conditions dictating when dependencies should load, thereby reducing initial load times and resource consumption. Components can delay loading until their use is required.
Standalone Dependencies: To be deferred, a dependency must stand alone within the context of “@defer.” If a dependency isn’t standalone or is referenced outside the @defer block, it will load immediately.
Integration with Loading Blocks: The “Defer” functionality seamlessly integrates with loading blocks. These blocks enable you to designate the placeholder or spinner that will display while the delayed dependencies load.
Other Features of Angular 17
Angular 17 brings forth additional enhancements and new features including:
Extended support for custom element bindings and element providers has been introduced in Angular 17.
Improved backing for internationalization and accessibility is integrated into the latest version.
The router now embraces the View Transitions API for smoother transitions.
Animations are now loadable in a lazy manner.
The command ng g interceptor now generates functional interceptors.
In templates, a diagnostic prompt now alerts users if they’ve overlooked a getter call while reading signals (e.g., {{ products }} instead of {{ products() }}).
A change to a data-bound Signal in Angular now specifically flags only the components directly linked to this Signal as dirty, rather than marking all parent components. When paired with OnPush, this approach significantly boosts performance and marks a step towards a more precise change detection mechanism.
Angular CLI generates standalone pipes, components, and directives as separate entities. By default, ng new also includes independent component bootstrapping. To deactivate this behavior, the –standalone false switch can be used.
The Ivy compiler, introduced in Angular 12, represents the next version of the Angular compiler. Angular 17 showcases numerous enhancements to the Ivy compiler, enhancing its speed and efficiency.
How to Install Angular 17?
To set up Angular 17, you’ll utilize npm (Node Package Manager) which includes various Angular tools. Follow these steps:
- Open the CLI (Command Line Interface).
- Execute the command below:
- npm install –global @angular/cli@next
With this command, installing the latest version of Angular CLI on your system becomes straightforward.