Step by Step Guide on How to Learn Angular in 2021
By: Vsevolod Ulyanovich
Tags: Web Development, Angular, Web Framework, Guides And Tutorials, Frontend Development

Step by Step Guide on How to Learn Angular in 2021 Vsevolod Ulyanovich Follow Jun 21 · 4 min read

Angular became one of the three most used web frameworks among developers globally in 2020. When we started talking about this tool on our social media, it resonated strongly with our community members. So, we decided to expand on that and provide you with more information on this state-of-the-art framework.

If you would like to make Angular a widely used tool in your kit for 2021, this is the guide for you. We gave special attention to the theoretical concepts, without which you cannot move further, and shared some useful resources to delve into the issue.

Explore Angular and become a part of the community of millions of developers across the globe!

Definition and Key Ideas

Angular is a framework and development platform for making web and mobile apps using HTML, JavaScript, or compiling TypeScript or NativeScript to JavaScript. It is an excellent tool for creating the following solutions:

single-page applications;

enterprise web applications;

mobile apps of any kind;

Progressive Web Applications;

server-side rendered applications;

user interfaces with animations;

and many other things

To start working with the framework, you should understand basic JavaScript ES6, HTML, and CSS. Since the main idea of the framework is to build client applications, particularly single-page apps, its architecture is specific to that and 95% of the code runs on the client side.

Working with Angular, you enjoy the following advantages:

functionality for time, effort, and cost saving;

codebase maintainability and scalability;

simple design workflow;

a supportive community with ready-made components;

an organized and clean code

The architecture of an Angular app includes 8 basic types of blocks:

modules;

components;

templates;

metadata;

data binding;

directives;

services;

dependency injection

Let’s consider the constituent Angular parts in more detail.

Modules

An Angular module is a coherent block of code related to a specific app domain. With its help, you can split up an app into smaller parts and work with each separately. Besides, you can create, export, and import libraries of components.

Modules are the core feature of the framework, so if you start making an Angular app, it must have at least one of them. This module is called a root module and takes over the bootstrap. Other modules are responsible for certain features and have their properties described after a @NgModule prefix.

Components

Components are responsible for creating the connection with the screen sections called views. They are defined using the @Component decorator. Any Angular app has a root component in the root module that holds the general hierarchy and supports domain logic.

Templates

A template defines a component view and combines HTML with Angular forms. Since views are usually arranged hierarchically, the templates define a host view of the associated components and the view hierarchy.

Metadata

We mentioned several @ prefixes that we attach to Angular classes to describe their properties. We can also add more metadata after them to make it clear how to deal with the elements.

Data Binding

To connect template parts with component parts, Angular offers a mechanism called data binding. It allows reducing the code lines, which saves time and effort.

Directives

To transform document object model pages, Angular needs instructions provided by directives. Structural directives change the templates’ structure while attribute directives update the elements’ attributes.

Services

Services are used to enrich an Angular solution with new features or values. We recommend you to add a highly specialized purpose to a service because it may affect the general performance.

Dependency Injection

New Angular components need to be provided accurately with the required dependencies. To provide that, Angular offers the method of dependency injection. Instead of taking data from a server, DI delegates this task to the services.

Releases

The framework has a long story. Its first version named AngularJS was released in 2010 and will be supported till June 2021. However, it became clear over time that AngularJS didn’t meet the standards of web app development and it was completely reworked with no backward compatibility in 2016. Nonetheless, it was called Angular 2. Then the following versions were provided:

Angular 4 — March 2017;

Angular 5 — November 2017;

Angular 6 — May 2018;

Angular 7 — October 2018;

Angular 8 — May 2019;

Angular 9 — February 2020;

Angular 10 — June 2020;

Angular 11 — November 2020;

Angular 12 — May 2021

V4, v5, v6, v7, and v8 are no longer supported. As for the newest v12, it is positioned as a faster, smaller, and easier to use one. Also, v12 means the transition of the whole Angular ecosystem to a complete rewrite of the rendering engine called Ivy.

Resources for Further Learning

If you are determined to go deeper into the subject, we recommend you begin by exploring Angular docs and style guides. Since the community is really supportive, you can find plenty of additional materials for further learning:

If you consider taking the courses, check the following:

Bottomline

Here we tried to cover the basic aspects of Angular development in 2021. The Fively specialists build amazing client apps using the framework and you too can create something special. We hope our guide becomes a good starting point and wish you good luck in the journey.

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If you have questions, then write them in the comments. We will try to answer all of them.

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