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AngularJS vs Electron: What are the differences?
Introduction
AngularJS and Electron are both popular frameworks used in web development, but they have some key differences. In this markdown, we will highlight six specific differences between AngularJS and Electron.
Architecture: AngularJS is a JavaScript MVC framework used for building dynamic web applications. It follows the client-side architecture, where the application runs entirely on the client's browser. On the other hand, Electron is a framework that allows developers to build cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies. It combines Chromium rendering engine with Node.js, providing a hybrid architecture that runs both server-side and client-side code.
Platform: AngularJS is primarily used for developing web applications that run in browsers. It provides a set of tools and features optimized for this purpose. On the contrary, Electron is focused on building desktop applications that can run on multiple operating systems such as Windows, macOS, and Linux. It provides native-like desktop experiences by leveraging Chromium and Node.js.
User Interface: AngularJS offers a rich set of UI components and directives that facilitate building intuitive user interfaces for web applications. It provides features like two-way data binding, dependency injection, and templates to simplify development. Meanwhile, Electron does not come with built-in UI components but allows developers to use any web technology to create UIs. This flexibility allows Electron applications to have highly customizable and unique user interfaces.
Integration with Backend Services: AngularJS provides built-in support for making HTTP requests to backend services using services like
$http
or$resource
. It also has features like interceptors and response caching that simplify integration with APIs. Electron, being a hybrid framework, enables developers to utilize Node.js to interact with backend services. It gives direct access to the file system, operating system APIs, and network requests, allowing seamless integration with server-side processes.Packaging and Distribution: AngularJS applications are typically deployed on web servers and accessed through web browsers. The deployment process involves hosting the application files on a server accessible to the users. In contrast, Electron applications are packaged as standalone executables for each targeted platform (e.g., .exe for Windows or .app for macOS). This enables easy distribution and installation of Electron applications without the need for a web server.
Development Workflow: AngularJS applications are typically developed using a web browser and an integrated development environment (IDE) or a code editor. Changes made in the code and saved in the IDE are automatically reflected in the browser. Electron, on the other hand, offers a more native-like development workflow. Developers can use familiar web development tools along with the ability to test and debug the application using built-in developer tools similar to those available in web browsers.
In summary, AngularJS is a client-side JavaScript MVC framework primarily used for web development, while Electron is a framework for building cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies, combining both client-side and server-side code. AngularJS provides a rich set of UI components and tools optimized for web applications, while Electron allows for more customized UIs. The integration with backend services and the packaging/distribution processes also differ between the two frameworks.
What is the best MVC stack to build mobile-friendly, light-weight, and fast single-page application with Spring Boot as back-end (Java)? Is Bootstrap still required to front-end layer these days?
The idea is to host on-premise initially with the potential to move to the cloud. Which combo would have minimal developer ramp-up time and low long-term maintenance costs (BAU support)?
React might be a good option if you're considering a mobile app for the future, because of react native. Although, Vue.js has the easiest learning curve and offers a better developer ramp-up time. Vue.js is great to build SPAs, very clean and organized and you won't have a lot of long-term maintenance problems (like AngularJS, for example). Bootstrap can still be used, but with flexbox there's no need anymore.
I recommend React because of less memory occupant compare to Angular, but this will depend on your organisation flexibility. When you use React you need to import different libraries as per your need. On the other side angular is a complete framework.
Performance-wise I vote for react js as it loads up quickly and lighter on the mobile. You can make good PWA with SSR as well.
If you are new to all three react will be a good choice considering, react-native will be useful if you want to build cross platform mobile application today or tomorrow. If you are talking about bootstrap styling framework than it's a choice you can style ur components by ur self or use bootstrap 4.0 framework. The complete stack mentioned above is platform agnostic u can run it anywhere you want be it cloud or on-premise.
It was easier to find people who've worked on React than Vue. Angular did not have this problem, but seemed way too bloated compared to React. Angular also brings in restrictions working within their MVC framework. React on the other hand only handles the view/rendering part and rest of the control is left to the developers. React has a very active community, support and has lots of ready-to-use plugins/libraries available.
It is a very versatile library that provides great development speed. Although, with a bad organization, maintaining projects can be a disaster. With a good architecture, this does not happen.
Angular is obviously powerful and robust. I do not rule it out for any future application, in fact with the arrival of micro frontends and cross-functional teams I think it could be useful. However, if I have to build a stack from scratch again, I'm left with react.
I used React not just because it is more popular than Angular. But the declarative and composition it gives out of the box is fascinating and React.js is just a very small UI library and you can build anything on top of it.
Composing components is the strongest asset of React for me as it can breakdown your application into smaller pieces which makes it easy to reuse and scale.
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.
Our whole Vue.js frontend stack (incl. SSR) consists of the following tools:
- Nuxt.js consisting of Vue CLI, Vue Router, vuex, Webpack and Sass (Bundler for HTML5, CSS 3), Babel (Transpiler for JavaScript),
- Vue Styleguidist as our style guide and pool of developed Vue.js components
- Vuetify as Material Component Framework (for fast app development)
- TypeScript as programming language
- Apollo / GraphQL (incl. GraphiQL) for data access layer (https://apollo.vuejs.org/)
- ESLint, TSLint and Prettier for coding style and code analyzes
- Jest as testing framework
- Google Fonts and Font Awesome for typography and icon toolkit
- NativeScript-Vue for mobile development
The main reason we have chosen Vue.js over React and AngularJS is related to the following artifacts:
- Empowered HTML. Vue.js has many similar approaches with Angular. This helps to optimize HTML blocks handling with the use of different components.
- Detailed documentation. Vue.js has very good documentation which can fasten learning curve for developers.
- Adaptability. It provides a rapid switching period from other frameworks. It has similarities with Angular and React in terms of design and architecture.
- Awesome integration. Vue.js can be used for both building single-page applications and more difficult web interfaces of apps. Smaller interactive parts can be easily integrated into the existing infrastructure with no negative effect on the entire system.
- Large scaling. Vue.js can help to develop pretty large reusable templates.
- Tiny size. Vue.js weights around 20KB keeping its speed and flexibility. It allows reaching much better performance in comparison to other frameworks.
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.)
React has by far and away been our most important library choice throughout the history of Sellpy. It is a library that offers great flexibility supported by a really strong core. The React team is doing incredible work bringing quality features to the core project and tons of quality third party libraries fill in the gaps.
When first used Angular, the documentation was horrible and also the construct of Angular super academic and hard to learn (back in 2014). When evaluating React it was way easier getting stated even though its html in js (jsx) approach was very different. After some time we really started to like the co-location and component based model. If you architect well, you will have a component completely in one file including js/html/css.
We solely focus on one technology for frontend development. The reason for that is, that offering customers excellent services we need to be up to date on all developments of the framework but also its community and vast amount of packages. Reading blogs, newsletters, podcasts and so on. You will realistically only be able to be really good at one, so thats for us: React!
Pros of AngularJS
- Quick to develop889
- Great mvc589
- Powerful573
- Restful520
- Backed by google505
- Two-way data binding349
- Javascript343
- Open source329
- Dependency injection307
- Readable197
- Fast75
- Directives65
- Great community63
- Free57
- Extend html vocabulary38
- Components29
- Easy to test26
- Easy to learn25
- Easy to templates24
- Great documentation23
- Easy to start21
- Awesome19
- Light weight18
- Angular 2.015
- Efficient14
- Javascript mvw framework14
- Great extensions14
- Easy to prototype with11
- High performance9
- Coffeescript9
- Two-way binding8
- Lots of community modules8
- Mvc8
- Easy to e2e7
- Clean and keeps code readable7
- One of the best frameworks6
- Easy for small applications6
- Works great with jquery5
- Fast development5
- I do not touch DOM4
- The two-way Data Binding is awesome4
- Hierarchical Data Structure3
- Be a developer, not a plumber.3
- Declarative programming3
- Typescript3
- Dart3
- Community3
- Fkin awesome2
- Opinionated in the right areas2
- Supports api , easy development2
- Common Place2
- Very very useful and fast framework for development2
- Linear learning curve2
- Great2
- Amazing community support2
- Readable code2
- Programming fun again2
- The powerful of binding, routing and controlling routes2
- Scopes2
- Consistency with backend architecture if using Nest2
- Fk react, all my homies hate react1
Pros of Electron
- Easy to make rich cross platform desktop applications69
- Open source53
- Great looking apps such as Slack and Visual Studio Code14
- Because it's cross platform8
- Use Node.js in the Main Process4
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Cons of AngularJS
- Complex12
- Event Listener Overload3
- Dependency injection3
- Hard to learn2
- Learning Curve2
Cons of Electron
- Uses a lot of memory19
- User experience never as good as a native app8
- No proper documentation4
- Does not native4
- Each app needs to install a new chromium + nodejs1
- Wrong reference for dom inspection1