If you’re in the IT world, it’s unlikely that you haven’t heard of or used Angular. In fact, if you are a professional programmer, chances are that you have been asked or hired to create a new Angular project at some point. But what’s Angular? It’s a JavaScript framework for front-end development, created by Google back in 2009. The goal was to make front-end development user-friendly for developers.
Angular is among the top 3 most used frameworks worldwide, along with React and Vue.js. That’s why knowing how to create a new Angular project is crucial these days, when businesses are battling with each other for more digital presence. Over the last few years, this has accelerated with the arrival of the pandemic. It forced businesses to go digital, including those who refused to do so, until December 2019.
Steps to create an Angular project
First, it’s necessary to understand that an Angular project consists of a set of files composed by an app, and an e2e library or test.
Throughout the years, Angular has been evolving and adding features. If you have already used it in the past, you’ll see that each release is similar to the previous one, but it’s much faster. That’s why it is better to use the newest version to create new angular project, even if it’s the first time you do it.
Before learning how to create a new Angular project step by step, what you need to do first is:
- Install Node.js, which is an open-source, cross-platform runtime code. With Node, you can create network applications.
- Download and install Git. This design version control software is the latest and most widely used worldwide. It’s open-source and actively maintained, so it is very reliable.
- Set up the Angular CLI in order to generate code for both apps and libraries, among other key software development tasks.
- To be familiar with HTML, JavaScript, CSS, TypeScript (not mandatory, but desirable).
Once you have everything previously mentioned, you must follow the steps below to start creating a new Angular project.
Create a new work environment
- First, make sure that there’s no previous workspace created in another folder. If so, move the file to the main folder.
- Run the CLI command ‘ng new’ and assign a name to it.
- Next, run the ‘ng new’ command to display all the available functions and pick those you want as part of the project. Press Enter.
The Angular CLI sets up the essential Angular npm packages, and also builds the workspace and startup project files listed below:
- A separate workspace with a root folder named ‘angular-example-example’ with the project’s name.
- A starting skeleton app project by the same name, placed in the ‘src/app’ subfolder.
- An e2e test project.
- A ready-to-use Welcome application.
Serve the application
- Go to the workspace directory.
- Search for your file name (i.e., ‘angular-example-example).
- Input the command ‘ng serve –open’ so that the app launches and runs in your browser.
Application shell
This page is exactly that: an app shell controlled by an Angular component called ‘AppComponent’.
That component is in charge of displaying any data on your screen, as well as triggering it based on an input.
Edit the application
Use your favorite editor to navigate to the ‘src/app’ directory. There, you will be able to make changes to the initial application.
Change the app’s name
To do so, you need to open the component class file and change the value of the title to the one you prefer.
Remember to open the template file and delete the default template generated by the Angular CLI.
Replace that with <h1>{{title}}</h1>.
Add styles
UX/UI best practices dictate that there should be consistency across a web or an app. This also applies to the look and feel, which is why the CLI generates a style.css.
From there you will be able to style the whole application.
5 reasons to use Angular for your project
Angular has been iterated over the years based on the feedback received by its users. As a result, developers are comfortable with the software when using it for designing a project.
As a result, developers are comfortable with the software when using it for development. Here are some of those reasons:
- Code consistency
Angular consists of a component-based framework. This results in reusable components, which simplifies the design and development process by not having to design from scratch each time.
- Excellent support
Angular has both general community support and backing from Google.
Google offers toolkits to easily develop and build user-friendly applications, while the community provides knowledge and expertise.
- Beginner-friendly
Angular is suitable for people with any level of development experience.
The only requirement is knowledge of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.
- Two-way data binding
This software uses two-way data linking, which allows the presentation layer to be cleaner and simpler. This contributes to creating a more comfortable UI.
- Declarative UI
Angular uses HTML to describe the UI. That’s because it’s a widely used language, highly intuitive and declarative.
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