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Angular 2 vs Angular CLI: What are the differences?
Introduction
Angular 2 and Angular CLI are both widely used frameworks for developing web applications. While Angular 2 is a complete platform for building single-page applications, Angular CLI is a command-line interface tool that simplifies the process of creating and managing Angular projects. Although they are closely related, there are several key differences between Angular 2 and Angular CLI that developers should be aware of.
1. Template Structure:
In Angular 2, the template structure follows a component-based approach, where each component has its own HTML, CSS, and TypeScript files. This allows for better organization and separation of concerns. On the other hand, Angular CLI provides a project structure that includes separate folders for components, services, and other modules, making it easier to manage larger projects.
2. Code Generation:
Angular 2 requires developers to manually create the skeleton code for components, services, and other modules. This can be time-consuming and error-prone, especially for larger projects. Angular CLI, on the other hand, provides a set of powerful commands that automatically generate the necessary files and code for different project components, saving developers a significant amount of time and effort.
3. Build and Compilation:
Angular 2 uses a custom build process that involves transpiling TypeScript code to JavaScript, bundling all the dependencies, and generating the final output files. While this provides a high level of customization, it can be complex and requires additional tools and configuration. In contrast, Angular CLI abstracts away the build process and automates it, making it easier for developers to build, compile, and optimize their applications.
4. Testing and Debugging:
Angular 2 provides a testing framework, known as @angular/testing
, which allows developers to write unit tests and perform end-to-end testing. However, setting up and configuring the testing environment can be challenging and time-consuming. Angular CLI simplifies this process by providing a built-in testing framework, making it easier for developers to write and execute tests, as well as debug their applications.
5. Project Configuration:
Angular 2 requires developers to manually configure various aspects of the project, such as routing, TypeScript compilation options, CSS preprocessors, and more. This can be overwhelming, especially for beginners. Angular CLI, on the other hand, provides a centralized configuration file (angular.json
) that allows developers to easily configure different aspects of their project, reducing complexity and making it easier to maintain and update the project configuration.
6. Deployment and Optimization:
Deploying and optimizing an Angular 2 application can be a complex process, involving tasks such as minification, code splitting, tree shaking, and caching. Angular CLI simplifies this process by providing built-in optimization features, such as production builds that automatically minify and optimize the code, making the application smaller and faster to load. Additionally, Angular CLI includes features like lazy loading, which further enhances the performance of the application.
In Summary, Angular 2 and Angular CLI have several key differences. Angular 2 focuses on providing a platform for building single-page applications, while Angular CLI simplifies the development process by automating tasks like project setup, code generation, testing, and deployment. Angular CLI provides a centralized configuration file, built-in optimization features, and a modular project structure, making it easier for developers to manage and maintain their applications.
I was first sceptical about using Angular over AngularJS. That's because AngularJS was so easy to integrate in existing websites. But building apps from scratch with Angular is so much easier. Of course, you have to build and boilerplate them first, but after that - you save a ton of time. Also it's very cozy to write code in TypeScript.
It is a complete waste of time and life to learn a different framework to solve the same problem (Both AngularJS and Angular build A+ UI's, but both require a lot of time to learn). It's dumb to spend 200 hours learning AngularJS, then 200 hours learning Angular when you could spend 200 hours learning AngularJS and 200 hours learning how to solve a different problem (like AI/ML, Data Science, AR/VR, Digital Marketing, etc.)
When deciding on a front end framework to build my bitcoin faucet project, I knew I needed something battle hardened, dependedable, but also feature filled and ready to go out of the box.
While I've written some smaller apps with ng2+, I've never gone full tilt with it so I knew there were still some things to learn, and most importantly: how to do them properly, such as proper component architecture and breaking old habbits from ng1.
I didn't opt for React in this case, simply due to the need to stack more and more things on top of it to do what I'd need it to do. I wanted a framework that was going to take over routing and execution of complex UI controls, and keep items outside of a component's scope updated and react to events. This framework needed a comprehensive event emission system, data acquisition and handling, bi-directional data binding, state, and a series of things that you'd need to install separately for React to match up to what's already in the box with Angular.
I opted to stick to Angular instead of Vue for the fact that Angular also already has it's entire build system ready to go and comprehensivly built to deliver the tiniest version of it's deliverable. I was hosting this thing in a google cloud instance, so I needed to make sure the app stayed as small as possible, and could automatically trim out the cruft. This is where Angular's built in Tree Shaking took precedence for me.
Vue is more than capable of handling everything I'd need, and it was something I took serious considerion of. For instance, Vue poweres Cointiply, another bitcoin faucet application that's highly reactive and high componentized just like I wanted.
But I'd still need to learn Vue, I'd still need to configure it's build system, and I still wanted to use SCSS and TypeScript.
So Angular it was. ng8 is a great platform for building very complex user interfaces, and has many of the problems you'd inevitably face integrating a user interface to an application already figured out, and complete with a best practice recommendation.
React and Vue, given enough time and energy, are super capable platforms. No one can deny that. Angular's "A-Z Batteries Included" approach to the whole development process is what made it especially enticing this time.
Pros of Angular
- It's a powerful framework109
- Straight-forward architecture53
- TypeScript48
- Great UI and Business Logic separation45
- Powerful, maintainable, fast40
- Amazing CLI39
- Great mvc33
- Powerfull Dependency Injection29
- Easy to build19
- All in one Framework16
- Opinionated, batteries-included approach15
- Schematics11
- Solid Standard Setup.10
- Structured8
- Performance7
- Complex5
- Only for single page applications4
- Builders3
- RxJS2
- Ng upgrade2
- React1
Pros of Angular CLI
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Cons of Angular
- Overcomplicated9
- Large overhead in file size and initialization time9
- Ugly code2
- CLI not open to other test and linting tools2