Marks and Angles, Pt 1: Why Angular Matters

Posted by Victoria Meng on March 24, 2019

Basic benefits of Angular framework

Anyone who’s seen me hunched over a computer this past week will know that I’m knee-deep in learning Angular, the NodeJS framework that I really wish the roll20 gaming website had been built in.

So, I’m going to write a series of blog posts to help me and others pick up Angular. Today, I begin with a high-level summary of what Angular is and why it’s a popular, efficient framework.

Angular Is…

  • A TypeScript-based front-end app framework - (Typescript is a superset of Javascript that compiles to vanilla Javascript, and a superset is a programming language that contains all features of the subset language but is enhanced with additional features)

  • Open source, but maintained mainly by Google and a massive community of other developers

Angular has three key aspects

  1. Supports apps in a browser

  2. Supports server-side rendering

  3. Supports apps on mobile devices

Benefits of Angular

  • Server side rendering

  • Clean code architecture - code is encapsulated into logical chunks that allow for easy scaling and debugging

  • Convenient cross-browser implementation

  • Creates **Single Page Applications ** (SPAs) that don’t need to refresh to be updated

What is server-side rendering and what benefits does it have?

Server-side rendering is when a Javascript application renders a “first view” of the app on a server and sends it to the client, instead of vice versa.

Benefits of server-side rendering:

  • Dynamic views - browser can be updated and data to be transmitted without page refreshing, allowing creation of Single Page Applications

  • Better separation of responsbilities - Avoids mixing front-end and back-end code