Angular: A Beginner's Guide

If you are learning web development or a professional, you've likely come across the term Angular. But what exactly is Angular, and why is it so important in the world of web development? In this guide, we will explore Angular, its features, advantages, and how it can be used in conjunction with ASP.NET Core.

What is Angular?

Angular is a popular open source framework written in TypeScript (a superset of JavaScript) for building web applications. It's often used for creating dynamic and interactive web pages and single-page applications (SPA). Angular is developed by Google and maintained by Google and a community of developers, making it a reliable and well-supported choice for web development.

Angular vs AngularJS

Before diving deeper into Angular, let's clarify the difference between Angular and AngularJS. AngularJS, often referred to as Angular 1, was the first version of the framework and is discontinued now. However, Angular (without the "JS") represents a complete rewrite of AngularJS and is often referred to as Angular 2+ or just Angular. The key difference is that Angular is built using TypeScript, which is a statically typed superset of JavaScript, while AngularJS uses plain JavaScript.

Angular Versions

Angular, like many software projects, has different versions. It's essential to use the latest version of Angular to take advantage of the newest features, improvements, and security updates.

At the time of writing this article, the latest version of Angular is Angular 16.2, but it's always a good idea to check the official Angular website for the most up-to-date information.

Angular Components

Angular applications are built using component-based architecture. Angular Components are building blocks of an Angular application, and they encapsulate the HTML, CSS, and TypeScript code needed for a specific part of the user interface.

For example, if you're building an e-commerce website, you might have components for the product list, product details, shopping cart, and more. These components can be reused throughout your application, making it easier to manage and maintain.

Angular Forms

Angular provides powerful tools for working with forms. Whether you need a simple login form or a complex multi-step wizard, Angular's form features have got you covered. You can easily create forms, validate user input, and handle form submissions.

Angular Routing

Routing in Angular allows you to navigate between different views or components in your application. You can define routes and associate them with specific Angular components. When user clicks on a link or enters a URL, Angular will load the appropriate component and display it in the view.

Angular Directives

Angular Directives are a fundamental part of Angular. They are instructions in the DOM (Document Object Model) that tell Angular how to manipulate the HTML elements. For example, the *ngIf directive is used to conditionally show or remove an element based on a condition.

Angular Services

Services in Angular are used to encapsulate reusable functionality, such as making HTTP requests to a server, sharing data between Angular components, or performing business logic. Angular Services are a way to keep your code organized and promote code reusability.

Angular Lifecycle Hooks

Angular components have a lifecycle, and you can hook into various lifecycle events to perform actions at different stages of a component's existence. Some common lifecycle hooks include ngOnInit, ngOnChanges, and ngOnDestroy.

Angular Pipes

Pipes in Angular are used to transform data before it is displayed in the view. For example, the date pipe can format a date in a specific way, and the uppercase pipe can convert text to uppercase.

Angular CLI

Angular CLI, a command-line interface for Angular. It provides a set of tools for creating, building and deploying Angular applications. With Angular CLI, we can quickly create new projects, and generate new components, services, etc.

Install Node JS:

• Make sure you have Node.js and npm (Node Package Manager) installed on your computer. You can download Node.js from its official site. It also includes npm.

Install Angular CLI:

• Open your terminal or command prompt.
• Run this command to install Angular CLI globally:

  npm install -g @angular/cli

Create a New Angular App:

• Open the terminal or command prompt and navigate to the directory where you want to create your Angular project and run:

  ng new hello-world-app

• Follow the prompts to configure your project (you can choose the defaults for most options).

Generate Component:

• In terminal, navigate to the project folder you just created:

  cd hello-world-app

• Then, generate a new component using Angular CLI: ng generate component hello

Edit Component:

• Open src/app/hello/hello.component.html in code editor and replace its content with: <h1>Hello, World!</h1>

Display Angular Component:

• Open src/app/app.component.html and add the <app-hello></app-hello> tag at the end of the existing HTML.

Run Angular App:

• Start the development server using this command: ng serve
• Visit http://localhost:4200/ in the web browser, and you should see your "Hello, World!" message displayed at the end of the default Angular HTML page.

Now that you have a basic understanding of Angular, let's explore how you can use Angular with ASP.NET Core, a popular framework for building server-side web applications.

Angular and ASP.NET Core are a powerful combination for building modern web applications. Here are some reasons why they work well together:

• Separation of Concerns: Angular handles the client-side user interface, while ASP.NET Core takes care of the server-side logic. This separation allows for cleaner code and better maintainability.
• API Integration: Angular can easily consume RESTful APIs created with ASP.NET Core, enabling seamless communication between the front-end and backend of your application.
• Single-Page Applications (SPAs): Angular is well-suited for creating SPAs, where the entire application loads in a single HTML page, and navigation happens dynamically without full page reloads. ASP.NET Core can serve as the backend for such applications.

Let's walk through a simple example of creating a task management application using Angular for the front-end and ASP.NET Core for the backend.

Angular Frontend:

• Create Angular components for tasks, task lists, and task creation forms.
• Use Angular forms to collect and validate task data.
• Implement Angular routing for navigating between different views.
• Use Angular's HTTP client to communicate with the ASP.NET Core API.
• Integration:

ASP.NET Core Backend:

• Create a RESTful API for managing tasks, including endpoints for creating, updating, deleting, and fetching tasks.
• Implement data validation and error handling in the backend.
• Secure the API using authentication and authorization mechanisms if necessary.

Integration:

• Configure Angular to make HTTP requests to the ASP.NET Core API endpoints.
• Handle data sent from the backend in the front-end and display it to the user.
• Implement error handling in Angular to gracefully handle API errors.

By combining the strengths of Angular and ASP.NET Core, you can create a robust web application that provides seamless user experience and efficiently manages data on the server side.

After you've developed your Angular app, you'll need to host it on a web server so that users can access it online. While there are various hosting options available, including paid services and cloud platforms, ASPNETCORE.NET is one of the best and always free.

ASPNETCORE.NET is a hosting platform that provides services for hosting ASP.NET Core, Blazor apps, React, Angular, and Vue.js applications.

In this beginner's guide about Angular we've covered the basics of what Angular is, how to get started with it, and its core concepts. We've also explored how Angular can be used alongside ASP.NET Core to build modern web applications.

So, if you're eager to learn more about the world of web development and create interactive and engaging web applications, give Angular a try. With its extensive documentation and vibrant community you'll find plenty of resources to help you on your journey to becoming an Angular expert.