The Angular development dominance on the web development scene is imminent. More and more JS-based frameworks appear for both front-end and back-end development. Angular (Yes, we know it’s Typescript-driven) is amongst the leading ones.
Angular front end development requires a deep knowledge of JavaScript and TypeScript, along with the framework ecosystem. It also takes the extensive experience to write truly flexible, scalable and maintainable code. Our experts at Gravum want to share 3 tips on Angular development with you. Let’s dig in.
1. Angular Development: Use Shared Module And Avoid Repetition
When it comes to creating a scalable app with Angular, you split your functionality into feature Modules. This way, you don’t end up with hundreds of code lines for importing/exporting in a single file. Moreover, some modules simply won’t need your impressive Angular service you’ve been passionately developing.
Now, the thing is, your app still uses a broad range of basic features in almost every part of your project. These include but are not limited to the following:
- Buttons component;
- Forms module;
- Custom pipes;
- Services for internal processes;
- Data request handlers.
2. Use Angular CLI: Scaffold Your Solutions in Seconds
Creating default modules and dependencies is often a waste of time. Instead of getting down to business, you manually create these AppModule, AppComponent, RoutingModule, and many other files. It takes a bunch of time you could use to focus on your own Angular service, pipe, or component. Fortunately, the Angular team addressed the issue.
Modern Angular framework versions come with Angular CLI – the console client for scaffolding your projects. Angular CLI is an excellent tool for both building your app from scratch and modifying the existing one. This console client handles the proper dependency injection, looks for potential issues, and alerts you about them.
You cannot deny that things can get messy when trying to inject an Angular service and not miss any import or export statement. Let Angular CLI handle this, spend your time and efforts on what really matters.
3. Fight Memory Leaks: Take Your Observables Under Control During Angular Developmet
OK, you’ve implemented a great app idea with Angular framework . You’ve swiftly connected the data source and launched the app. But something went wrong, and as more your application is active in browser, the worse performance figures it shows. It is called a memory leak.
Memory leaks are a dangerous thing to deal with. As the app grows, memory leaks do more harm to its performance. At some point, your project won’t be able to run. This happens when your observables keep listening for data even when the component they are associated with is destroyed. This means that handling your observables from the beginning is the only right thing to do.
Proper Way to Treat Observables: How To Prevent Memory Leaks
Here are approaches to address this issue :
- Unsubscribe. This is the simplest way to solve the problem. Once you’ve done with an observable, put “unsubsctibe()” and you are good to go;
- TakeUntil. TakeUntil is a handy RxJS operator that keeps the subscription active for as long as the second observable (given as an argument) is alive;
- Async pipe. Async pipe handles the unsubscribing routine and is the most performant way to deal with observables.
Every one of those methods has its features. For instance, unsubscribe() is literally a one-word-solution. However, you have to store the observable references to unsubscribe from them all on the component destroy lifecycle hook.
As for take Until, it addresses the observables reference list issue, as you can bind all of them to a single observable and unsubscribe from it at the end. When it comes to Async Pipe, we face subscription reuse concerns. You have to use several Async Pipes for the same observable.
On balance, controlling your observables is integral to preventing memory leaks and keeping a high performance of your app. No matter which approach you lean towards, make sure you take your system memory under control.
Angular Development: The Bottom Line
The true Angular professional is not the one that mastered the ecosystem. It is the one who strives to improve his or her Angular development and is passionate about it. Whether you look for the best practices or only seeking initial Angular knowledge, make sure to implement these 3 tips in your software development.
If you are looking for expert-level Angular development services, reach out to our developers at Gravum. Our professionals are responsible, flexible and performant. Opt for Gravum angular service, make a crucial step to your software development success.