Unveiling Angular’s Evolution: Why it’s worth a second glance?

Angular.JS was born in 2010, almost 13 years back in the technology landscape. That was the time when web development got into the transition phase from traditional HTML-based interactions to something exciting, more dynamic, and engaging. 

When Angular.JS was not there, in that era, websites utilizing only HTML, which provided a mundane experience to the users, such as:

• Websites only were meant to provide static HTML content. 
• With button clicks, simple and plain actions were to be taken.
• If a form was submitted, the data entered was returned to the server. 
• There was a lack of fluid interactions between the user actions and server responses. 
• Non-seamless experience and feel. 
• The overall User experience was mundane and unexciting.

Meanwhile, Adobe flashed entered, it was the closest tool that is capable of creating responsive websites. But the problem is— it had issues with performance and security.

Evolution of JavaScript: Angular framework became matured, and helped developers to work on applications like single page, which is known as SPA’s (Single page applications). 

Angular.js at the forefront: It remarked its presence as an early advocate for creating visually appealing and responsive websites. It left a great mark on transforming the tech landscape of static websites into responsive websites.

Framework Enhancements: The framework keeps on evolving and meeting the dynamic needs of website development.

Addressing Challenges: With advancements, challenges are also leading the way and that has not been simple! From testing complexities to scalability to more, they have covered the path of successfully crafted responsive and beautiful websites.

The Angular Evolution is worth reading it as keeps on improving it over the span of time. Let’s explore its “evolutionary timeline.” 

The Beginning: How the web had been changed?

With the introduction of React in 2013, it came with a fresh perspective of transforming the web into an immersive experience. Although, in a broader sense, React and Angular.Js are quite different from each other. But React promised to set it apart with its cleaner code and high performance.

Angular Framework emerges: How it gives a leap of future?

After six years of Angular.js release, Google introduced Angular 2, which is popularly known as Angular among developers. However, Angular.js gives its continuous support, but Google has been seeing Angular as one of the pivotal frameworks for a promising future.

Angular 2 Vs. Angular.js: Who evolved differently?

Angular 2 or Angular evolved differently— with its bid adieu to traditional HTML and creating DOM objects for a web browser along with the introduction of TypeScript and testing tools like Karma.

Addressing Challenges: How did developers face them?

Angular Evolution not only offered great benefits but also brought some hurdles to the developers —from stark differences to a lack of seamless path upgrade to the announcement of existing knowledge irrelevancy to the need to learn into paradigms.

 

It really interesting to know how these versions enhanced over time and brought spectacular Angular framework benefits to the developers:

 

Angular Versions	Description
Angular.js 1	Open-source JavaScript based web application framework. Code written in JavaScript. Address SPA’s issues with the help of Google and its community. Promotes easier development & testing for MVC & MVVM architecture. With Version 1.7.x in long term support (LTS) mode.
Angular 2	A revamped version of the Angular framework Rewritten in TypeScript from scratch. Reconstructed to provide seamless integration of mobile devices. Various language support like ES5, ES6, Dart & TypeScript. Retain Angular.js features like streamlined & “native JS” of dependency injection. Easier framework than React or Ember who have Angular.js 1.X proficiency.
Angular 3	Skipped because of the Version discrepancy. Issue with Angular/router, as it was already perceived in 3.X. Instead, version 4.0.0 was released.
Angular 4	Backward compatible with Angular 2.x.x.  Component size reduction is about 60%.  Bug fix alerts improvisation.  For newer browsers, compatibility is increased.  A new testing environment is included, reducing testing time by half.  It supported JIT (Just-in-Time).  It is compatible with TypeScript 2.1 and 2.2.  Used Renderer 2 rather than Renderer.   In Angular 4, for email verification, there is no need to create patterns.
Angular 5	A significant Angular Evolution, apart from mobile app platform, it focused on desktop web apps. Formation of a tree structure with child & parent elements.  Incorporate various features such as a decelerative template, dependency injection & end-to-end tooling.  Utilization of build optimizer for production builds.  Other features include DOM, compiler enhancements, Angular Universal state transfer API support, etc.
Angular 6	It consists of two new CLI commands- ng update & ng add.  It crafts web apps for HTML, TypeScript & JavaScript.  Offers in-built functionality for HTTP, animation & materials.  It includes intuitive features such as a toolbar, navigation, auto-complete, etc.  Its additional updates are CDK for Angular elements, Tree Shakable Providers, Workspaces for CLI, etc.
Angular 7	It is a JavaScript framework specifically curated to build SPAs.  It gets regularly updated by Google's team.  It offers new features such as virtual Scrolling, Drag & drop, and CLI prompts.  Offers excellent flexibility Angular.js development services for the web.
Angular 8	A Client-side TypeScript-based framework.  Develop dynamic web applications.  It offers a magnitude of features such as differential loading, web worker support, build APIs in CLI, API for workspaces, dynamic route configurations, etc.  Benefits include faster rebuild time, backward compatibility, improved payload size, enhanced template type checking, ease of debugging at runtime, etc.
Angular 9	Support TypeScript 3.6 & 3.7. New Angular Materials components were introduced, such as the YouTube player component & Google Maps component.  It offers benefits such as bundle size reduction, improved debugging, faster test completion, improved type checking, quick test completion, default AOTs (Angular ahead-of-time), etc.  Without significant API changes, it focuses on developing smaller apps for seamless UX.
Angular 10	It was introduced four months after the release of Angular 9.  Key features are optional stricter settings, CommonJS imports, TSLib updated to v2.0, etc.  Enhancement in handling dependencies packed with CommonJS.  It offers automatic warning messages for CommonJS bundles.  Encourage the utilization of the ECMAScript module (ESM).
Angular 11	It offers critical features such as enhanced router efficiency, stricter types, automated font inlining, etc.  Providing default automatic inlining offers faster runtime.  It fixes prevalent bugs like RouterLink, i18n, etc.  Additional features like experimental Webpack 5 support, updated HMR support, logging & reporting enhancements, etc.  Discontinuation of Internet Explorer 9/IE10 and Internet Explorer mobile support.
Angular 12	Enhances platform potential.  Key features such as offering info to HTTP interceptors, Tailwind CSS support, Default strict mode, Phased out Internet Explorer 11 support, etc.  Profound improvements in compilers, language service, performance, form validation, styling and more.  A key enhancement is the view engine deprecation & Ivy ecosystem addition. Provide bug fixes for the kernel, language, browser and router—compiler improvements for interpolation & view restoration.
Angular 13	68% increase in build speed.  New API for seamless dynamic component creation.  No requirement of ComponentFactoryResolver.  Improved Codebases with dropped IE11 support.  It has good support for CSS variables and web animations.  Default build cache for new v13 projects
Angular 14	Standalone components.  No ng module is required.  Simplified code.  Streamlined page title.  Angular CLI enhancements.  Typed angular forms.  Banana in-a-box error.  Improvised tools for diagnostics & debugging.
Angular 15	Stable standalone APIs- build apps without relying on ng modules.  Revamp of API system for improved development.  Easier debugging.  More stable image directives.  Stabilized MDC-based components.  It enhances ESbuild support.
Angular 16	Improved control over state changes in apps.  Enhanced app hydration capabilities.  Faster Builds with ESbuild.  Improved documentation & schematics for standalone components. JavaScript bundles customization options.  Tailwind CSS & Native Trusted Types.  Import Router data feature.
Angular 17	It gets a visual makeover- a new logo & central documentation.  Revamped documentation includes detailed guides, tutorials, API references, etc.  Declarative control flow mechanism.  Stable server-side rendering (SSR). Lazily load components based on user interactions.  ESbuild & Vite integration.

Angular Framework is a robust and feature-rich that helps create an appealing user experience- whether it comes to corporate or personal settings. It is a kind of mature framework with quality editions like Angular material. 

There is no doubt that it is not a perfect framework. With the evolution from Angular Vs. AngularJS, developers faced significant challenges, and transitions were not that easy- the unexpected deprecation packages like flex-layout created unease in the developer community. 
Does it mean that using it is not worth it? There have been a lot of improvements, and it keeps on going with the introduction of new Angular versions, such as Angular 17 at present. 

Even in the future, it seems to be a promising framework that provide a magnitude of benefits to the developers with the evolution of new versions.
 

Despite its past challenges, Angular is one of the frameworks that shows tremendous improvements on a fast track.

However, React may be ahead of Angular but its exciting new advancements will help it to catch it soon. 
Its major strength is in its comprehensive tooling along with its incredible built-in features like dependency injection and routing. 

Also, this is better known for its complexities and heavier structure than other lighter frameworks available. But at the same time, it's an inclusive approach as it has many of the elements readily available for the developers without making them choose a lot of options. 

So, if anyone overlooked the Angular framework before, it’s time to explore it again, unlock its recent improvements, and gear up for more future enhancements.
 

The Angular framework has shown significant enhancements and improvement over the years with its regular version updates. 

It works great for building dynamic and interactive single page applications (SPAs), server-side rendered apps, etc. Are you looking to create a dynamic and interactive app to boost your business to the next level? Avail our Angular.js development services and see your business growing.