So far, this blog series has provided an introduction to AngularJS and why it's a good investment as well as detailing why developers like it. So, now let’s talk about why one may want to use it for new projects.
Fifteen years ago, it would have taken a brave developer to bet on JavaScript emerging as the de facto front-end language of the web. These days though, there's not a development team in town that doesn't lean on it heavily at several points in the stack.
As adoption increases and the language matures, the need for structure in handling JavaScript across a project has become clear. All too many early projects ended up devolving into unmaintainable messes of spaghetti code. The need for frameworks, as pioneered by other languages such as Ruby and Python, swiftly became obvious to all concerned.
Several strong JavaScript frameworks soon emerged and in the last couple of years the number of new entries to the market has truly exploded. Business owners and IT leads are understandably reluctant to bet the farm on whatever is the latest shiny new toy making waves on GitHub, however.
They're looking for something stable, battle tested in the field, with an active community and a clear product road map. This approach narrows down the candidates considerably. Partly due to its high profile backing from Google, AngularJS is the JavaScript framework at the top of many people's lists. Let's take a quick look at some of the reasons you might consider looking at AngularJS for your next project.
A Large Developer Talent Pool
Angular is established enough by this stage that an in-depth understanding of its best practices is virtually de rigueur for any high-level JavaScript programmer. Basing your project on Angular will help you attract some of the best front-end developers in the business to your team. How to locate Angular specialists was discussed in the second installation in this series if you’d like some guidance.
Easier Onboarding for New Developers
Angular's modular component structure and commonly shared set of assumptions means that your project comes with an easily understandable, clearly defined scaffolding straight out of the gate. New team members will have no trouble instantly grasping this intuitively and starting to productively contribute. The days of month-long hand-holding sessions just to get up to speed will be in your past.
Improved Code Reusability
No developer worth their salt relishes re-inventing the wheel across projects. Using AngularJS encourages your team not to waste time repeating themselves. Instead, they'll naturally lean towards developing tight, reusable components that are easier to troubleshoot and can be re-used down the line to increase velocity on future projects.
Mature Testing Environment
Taking the time to set up adequate testing is all too often kicked to the curb on JavaScript heavy projects. The resulting chaos that ensues when changes are required has burned more than a few teams in the past. Angular comes with solid and well thought out testing best practices so that you can be sure of getting your project off on the right foot from the start.
That's just four of the obvious benefits AngularJS can potentially bring to your project. You'll discover plenty more as you take it for a spin Let's finish with a quick word on a classic real-life use case where Angular might be a good fit.
It's not necessarily perfect for every project, but if you're tasked with building a single-page application that relies on delivering value through a heavily responsive interface, Angular JS is going to save you an awful lot of heartache. Begin by letting some of your team experiment with it for prototyping on larger projects and you'll be able to safely see if it might work for you.
Hopefully you’re learning just how valuable this language is becoming. Join us next week to learn about the benefits of AngularJS single page applications.