What’s New In Angular 8.0

Angular is one of the most popular open-source web app frameworks used by developers around the globe. When Google released Angular in 2016, developers flocked to migrate the framework. Today, a large number of users use Angular.

The rapidly growing community looks forward to the Angular team for periodic updates and Angular 8.0 is the upcoming upgrade with a new renderer- Ivy. Let’s see what’s so special about Ivy and what all you can expect in the latest Angular 8.0 package.

Ivy: Next-gen Renderer for Angular Framework

While most of the team is heads-down on Ivy, we have several updates we are working towards for version 8.0. Keep in mind that these plans are subject to change before the final release.

A sneak-peak into the future of Angular and introduction of Ivy rendering pipeline was offered at Google I/O 2018.

1. Differential Loading of Modern JavaScript

CLI will begin producing both legacy (ES5) and modern (ES2015+) JavaScript bundles as a part of the build process, which will be differentially loaded client-side to improve the loading speed and time to interactive (TTI) for modern browsers. This work is based on and built collaboratively with Manfred Steyer and his project ngx-build-modern.

2. Opt-in Ivy Preview

Get a preview of how your application will work with Ivy, and give us feedback so we can incorporate necessary changes and improvements into the full release.

3. Angular Router Backwards Compatibility

We’re adding a backwards compatibility mode that simplifies the upgrade path for large projects. It will make it easier for teams to move to Angular by allowing lazy loading of parts of AngularJS apps using $route APIs.

4. Improved Web Worker Bundling

Web workers are a great way of writing code that runs off of the main thread, improving the speed and parallelizability of your application. We’re adding bundling support for web workers to our CLI to address this common request from developers.

5.Opt-In Usage Sharing

To better align our efforts to what the community needs, we’re adding opt-in telemetry to our CLI. With your opt-in consent, we’ll begin collecting anonymous information about things like the commands used and the build speed. The more information we have about how developers use Angular, the better we can make it.

6. Dependency Updates

As always, we’re updating our dependencies on tools like TypeScript, RxJS, and Node to keep in sync with the rest of the ecosystem.

7. The Ivy Opt-in Rollout

Along with so many exciting functionalities, Angular 8.0 will come with opt-in preview for developers who are keen on seeing how their apps will interact and work with Ivy. The opt-in preview will enable you to switch between View Engine & Ivy rendering pipelines. Once you choose Ivy, your app will be built using the Ivy compiler. All the third-party and Angular dependencies will continue to work owing to a compatibility compiler. The opt-in preview would help in improving compatibility and roll out a stable version. Here are some of the things you can expect of the Ivy opt-in roll-out:

• Simpler, faster and readable generated code
• Faster rebuild time
• Backward compatibility
• Enhanced template type checking

The opt-in preview is more about migrating to the new compiler and renderer rather than showcasing its capabilities. More features and functionalities will roll-out soon with several Ivy-centric APIs planned for future releases and public APIs.

The new version seems to herald a revolutionary era where development is faster, better and more secure. At Xpertlab, we are always committed to keeping an eye on the latest happenings and we would be keen to bring the best out of the impending Angular 8.0 rollout. Xpertlab offer flexible, cost-effective and custom web development services to cater all your software development requirements. However, if you are looking to build a solid, secure and scalable web solution, you can get in touch with our proficient team of AngularJS developers.