What’s New in AngularJS 8.0 Features, Performance and Challenges

adminMay 13, 2019

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What’s New in AngularJS 8.0 Features, Performance and Challenges

When it is a matter of developing dynamic web apps there is nothing quite like AngularJS. It uses HTML as the template and obviates the need for extended code. Given that browser-based now rule the roost it is no surprise that AngularJS is so popular and AngularJS web development companies are so sought after. AngularJS 8.0 is just around the corner and promises some new features, performance increases and ease of development but it also has its challenges.

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What is new in AngularJS 8.0

Work has been in progress on AngularJS 8.0 for well over a year and its release is overdue. Those involved in AngularJS application development are eagerly awaiting the release since it promises to bring some exciting new features.

Angular Ivy:

One of the issues plaguing AngularJS is that it is heavy on code and resources. Angular view engine Ivy promises to change it. Rebuild times are expected to be fast and payload size is expected to decrease so browsers can parse the app fast and users enjoy the facility of fast loading applications. Ivy also brings along better template type checking. In addition code is said to become easier to understand. Compatibility with other angular applications is expected to improve. Ivy brings in all round performance improvements. There are other advantages too:

No need for metadata.json
Reduced app size – up to 90% reduction
Faster load time
Pre-compiled code
Fast rebuilds
Better backward compatibility

Differential Loading of Modern JavaScript:

This is another great features that bundles Javascript (ES5) and modern JavaScript (ES2015+) into two separate bundles. What this translates to is convenience for browsers to download smaller app bundles and speed performance improvements. Then there will be backward compatibility mode that enables AngularJS development services to upgrade legacy apps to modern Angular with least hassles. AngularJS 8 is expected to increase business for these service providers who are likely to be kept busy upgrading tons of existing legacy enterprise apps.

Find more: What You Need To Study To Grow Your Career In UX Web Design As Interaction Designer

Opt in usage:

AngularJS 8.0 is expected to add opt-in telemetry and help enterprises collect anonymous data if so permitted.

Support for web workers:

Web workers that farm out CPU intensive work to separate hardware threads are now going to be bundled with Angular CLI. Those in AngularJS application development will welcome this feature since bundling eliminates the need to keep web workers in a separate file.

TypeScript support:

AngularJS 8 will bring with it update to RxJS and TypeScript. New apps based on Angular CLI automatically make use of the latest TypeScript version. This is a boon for AngularJS developers who use HTML template to create components and connect to TypeScript code for the imperative parts.

The biggest change is the introduction of IVY which is expected to be a game changer in reducing size of code and speed of loading. It depends on the AngularJS web development company to capitalize on the features of Ivy and AngularJS 8.0 to deliver superior applications and to upgrade legacy applications.

Challenges of AngularJS 8.0:

AngularJS 8.0 has been a long time in the coming and even then Ivy is said to be in preview mode. This is supposed to help developers try out Ivy and compare it to View Engine. If developers in AngularJS development services opt in they can build with the View Engine and switch to Ivy in which case the application will be built with Ivy runtime instructions and Ivy compiler. Dependencies are expected to work flawlessly but still 3^rd party ones may show issues.
Another challenge of AngularJS application development is that Ivy may not be suitable for all use scenarios. Language service will not function during the Ivy preview.
Anything new means teams engaged in AngularJS application development will have to learn all about Ivy and other changes, consider how these affect their past projects and how to use the changes to good advantage in forthcoming projects. Should they jump right into AngularJS 8.0 and risk the ire of their clients for malfunctions or wait for a bug-fixed AngularJS 9 or 10? The changes also mean they can offer upgrade services to enterprises with older applications and monetize AngularJS development services. However, those apps may be working well and may not work quite as well after an upgrade.
If migrating older apps to the new AngularJS 8 shows up bugs or incompatibilities then fixing them could involve time and effort.
Internationalization and angular universal support are not quite fully compatible.
Angular Material may not get on well with Ivy in AngularJS 8.0.

All said and done, it is up to the developers like Smart Sight Innovations engaged in AngularJS A pplication D evelopment to become thoroughly familiar with the new features and leverage them to deliver outstanding apps to their clients, overcoming any challenges in the way and bring prepared for future releases of AngularJS.