Angular 14: Important Features and Updates
Angular 14 is the latest version of the open-source JavaScript framework Angular, and it’s packed with new features and improvements to make your development workflow easier and more efficient. Below are some of the most important updates in Angular 14, as well as links to guides to help you get up to speed quickly on this latest version of the framework from Google.
What’s New in Angular 14
The new features of Angular 14 include a improvements to scrolling, drag-and-drop support, animations, and more. Additionally, Angular 14 enables developers to take advantage of an enhanced Ivy renderer. Scrolling has been improved in Angular 14 so that users can now scroll directly to an element. The drag-and-drop support allows for elements to be moved around on a page. Plus, the new animations features improve performance while also providing a smoother user experience.
There are many other updates as well, including enhancements to ElementRef service and changes to HttpClient.
One of the most notable updates is the increased flexibility for internationalization when working with date-time formats. In this update, Google added a new DateTimeFormat class with four methods called getAsAbsoluteUTC(), getAsUTCHours(), getAsDateTimeString(), and getAsDateTime().
The release notes contain more information about all these updates.
Standalone Components will Make the Angular Development Process Easier
In Angular 14, developers will be able to create standalone components without a project. This will make it easier to develop Angular applications, as developers will no longer need to generate a new project for each component they create. Developers will also be able to use Material Design within their standalone components by simply adding the following line of code:
Theming with Material Design is also possible in Angular Standalone Components. By simply adding this line of code,
we can achieve that look and feel:
Typed Angular Forms
The biggest new feature in Angular 14 is typed forms. This allows you to specify the type of each form control, which makes it easier to catch errors early. This is a great improvement for developers who are working on large forms. You can also change fields based on user input with onBlur event handlers or by just adding an onInput event handler to any field.
You can now set default values for your inputs too so they’re automatically filled out when the user submits their form. Typed Forms has been implemented as part of the core framework, but it’s available as a migration module that includes documentation and guides.
To get started with Typed Forms, use one of these commands to generate your project’s base code:
ng generate module my-app –module=angular/forms or ng generate service my-service –module=angular/forms
Extended Developer Diagnostics
If you’re a developer, you’ll be happy to know that Angular 14 includes extended developer diagnostics. This means that you’ll be able to get more information about your app’s behavior, helping you to debug and troubleshoot more effectively.
Additionally, the new strict mode can catch errors earlier in development, saving you time and effort in the long run. Strict mode is activated by using the compiler flag –enableStrictChecking on ngc or tsconfig.json on Node.js projects. It’s worth noting that enabling this flag will make it easier for tools like lint-tslint and prettier to work with your code, so it may end up being worth your while!
Streamlined Best Practices
One of the best things about Angular is that it’s constantly evolving. The team behind Angular is always working to improve the framework, making it more efficient and user-friendly. The latest release in this series, version 14.0.0, improves on the core features with new and streamlined best practices for developers who work with angular on a daily basis.
Here are some highlights from this update * **ngUpdate** – no longer needed to compile templates or style sheets before publishing your app * **ngFor** – now supports filtering based on boolean expressions * **ngIf/Else/ElseIf** – allows you to have multiple options within one block instead of having to create an entire nested block * **ngSwitch** – makes testing against different values much easier
Streamlined Page Title Accessibility
Angular 14 brings updates to make your page titles more accessible. Now, when you set a title using the `setTitle` method, Angular will automatically add the `aria-label` attribute to the element. This ensures that screen readers can properly announce your page titles. You can also manually include an `aria-label` on any element by adding it to the attributes object on an HTML tag or by setting it in a template expression.
You’ll also notice that we have dropped support for IE9, IE10, iOS 8 and Android 4 devices in this release. These browsers are quite old now and not receiving patches from their vendors anymore so they are no longer viable platforms for web development.
“Banana in a Box” Error
The Banana in a Box error is a new error that has been introduced in Angular 14. This error is thrown when there is a circular dependency between modules. In order to fix this, you need to break the cycle by making one of the dependencies optional. If you are unable to make any of the dependencies optional, you will have to change how your modules are structured so that they don’t depend on each other. To summarize, the Banana in a Box error happens when two modules have a circular dependency.
To solve this problem, either break the cycle or re-structure your modules so that they do not depend on each other. Remember, the banana in a box error is thrown when there is a circular dependency between modules. You can also read more about what it means to be in an endless loop with no way out.
Tree-shakable Error Messages
One of the biggest changes in Angular 14 is the introduction of tree-shakable error messages. This means that instead of being bundled with your code, error messages will be dynamically loaded at runtime. This will make your Angular apps smaller and more efficient. Another change is that Angular 14 will now provide Error codes for CommonJS modules. This will help improve debugging by providing more information about what went wrong. Finally, Angular 14 will also support TypeScript 3.9, which includes improvements to speed and type checking . There are other changes as well, including new features like as progressive web app capabilities and a new CLI task called ng test to measure performance. You can read all about them on the Angular blog!
Catch Nullish Coalescing on Non-nullable Values
We are excited to announce that Angular 14 is now available! This release contains several features and updates, including a new way to catch nullish values. Previously, the operator ‘??’ would be used for this task. Now there is a new operator ‘?&’, which can be used in place of the previous one. In order to use it, you need to make sure that you’re using TypeScript 3.2 or higher.
Major Improvements with Angular Elements v1
The release of Angular Elements v1 brings some major improvements with it as well. You’ll notice that your component’s template will be compiled at build time instead of run time, meaning any errors will surface during compilation rather than in production!
The Final Words
The Angular team has been working hard on the new version, and it shows. The new features are impressive, and the overall performance is much improved. If you’re looking for the best Angular development company in the UK, look no further than Manchester-based C3 Engineering! We provide dedicated engineering teams to work with your project managers to make sure your deadlines are met.