Angular Performance
Optimization
Everything you need to know
Abdelfattah Ragab
Introduction
Welcome to the book Angular Performance
Optimization.
In this book, I will show you all the ways you can
optimize the performance of your Angular application.
You may already be familiar with concepts like change
detection and lazy loading, but there are plenty of other
strategies and techniques you can use to significantly
improve your app's performance. This book explains
these advanced optimization methods and provides you
with practical insights and actionable tips.
Whether you are a beginner or an experienced
developer, this book is designed to give you the
knowledge and tools you need to effectively optimize
your Angular applications.
Let us get started.
Why Optimize Angular
Applications?
Optimizing Angular applications is crucial for enhancing
performance, improving user experience, and ensuring
efficient resource management. Key strategies include
change detection, lazy loading, and other performance
techniques.
How can I measure the
Angular Application
Performance?
Measuring the performance of Angular applications is
essential for identifying bottlenecks and ensuring a
smooth user experience. There are several tools and
techniques available to help you assess and optimize
performance.
Key Performance Metrics
1. Time to Interactive (TTI): This metric measures
how long it takes for the application to become
fully interactive, meaning users can interact with
it without delays.
2. Total Page Load Time: This measures the
overall time taken for the entire page to load,
including all resources and dependencies.
Tools for Performance Measurement
1. Google Chrome DevTools:
● The Performance tab allows you to
record and analyze the performance of
your Angular application. You can start
profiling while interacting with your app to
identify slow areas, particularly during
change detection cycles
● Lighthouse: This tool provides
automated audits for performance,
accessibility, and SEO. It generates a
detailed report with actionable insights to
help optimize your application.
2. Angular DevTools:
Angular DevTools extends the capabilities of
Chrome DevTools with specific debugging and
profiling tools tailored specifically for Angular
developers
3. WebPageTest:
This tool allows you to test your application's
speed from various locations and browsers. It
provides insights into loading speed and can
help detect performance issues specific to
Angular applications.
4. Protractor:
While primarily a testing tool for Angular
applications, Protractor can simulate user
interactions and help assess performance during
end-to-end tests.
Best Practices for
Performance Measurement
Profile Regularly: Regular profiling during development
can help catch performance issues early. Use the
Chrome DevTools to record interactions and analyze the
performance data.
Focus on User Interactions: When profiling, interact
with the parts of the application that are known to be
slow. This targeted approach can yield more relevant
insights.
Benchmarking: Establish baseline performance metrics
to compare against as you make changes to the
application. This helps in understanding the impact of
optimizations.
Use Angular Server-Side
Rendering (SSR)
Server-Side Rendering (SSR) with Angular Universal is
a powerful technique that can significantly improve the
performance of your Angular applications. By rendering
pages on the server, you can improve initial load times,
improve SEO, and provide a better user experience.
Benefits of SSR:
● Faster Initial Load: Since the server sends
pre-rendered HTML, users can see content
faster.
● Improved SEO: Search engines can crawl and
index your content better if it is rendered on the
server, which leads to better visibility in search
results.
● Enhanced User Experience: Users can interact
with the application faster because they do not
have to wait for the JavaScript to load and
execute before they see the content.
Utilize TrackBy with ngFor
When rendering lists with ngFor, Angular can use the
trackBy function to recognise which elements have been
changed, added or removed. This prevents the entire list
from being re-rendered if only a few elements change,
which improves performance.
Angular 18 introduces the @for syntax, which provides
a more intuitive method for traversing elements. This
syntax is similar to traditional JavaScript loops.
The @for now forces developers to use a tracking
function.
typescript
trackById(index: number, item: any):
number {
return item.id; // Return the unique
id of the item
}
template
<ul>
@for (let item of items; track
trackById) {
<li>{{ item.name }}</li>
}
</ul>
Change Detection
Optimization
Angular uses a change detection mechanism to update
the view when the model changes. Angular uses the
Default change detection strategy, which checks all
components in the component tree. Angular looks for
changes to data-bound values in a change detection
process that runs after every DOM event: every
keystroke, mouse move, timer tick, and server response.
To optimize this:
Use OnPush Change Detection: This strategy tells
Angular to check for changes only when input properties
change or when an event occurs, reducing unnecessary
checks.
With the OnPush strategy, Angular only checks the
component when:
● An @Input() property changes.
● An event occurs within the component.
● An observable linked to the component emits a
new value.
This means that if a component's inputs remain the
same, Angular skips checking that component, reducing
the overall number of checks performed during change
detection.
Use Observables and Async
Pipe
Take advantage of Angular's reactive programming
model by using observables. The asynchronous pipe
automatically subscribes to observables and takes care
of unsubscribing, reducing memory leaks and improving
performance.
To use the async pipe, simply bind your observable to
the template. Here is an example:
import { Component, OnInit } from
'@angular/core';
import { Observable } from 'rxjs';
import { DataService } from
'./data.service';
@Component({
selector: 'app-data',
template: `
<div *ngIf="data$ | async as data;
else loading">
<ul>
<li *ngFor="let item of data">{{
item.name }}</li>
</ul>
</div>
<ng-template
#loading>Loading...</ng-template>
`
})
export class DataComponent implements
OnInit {
data$: Observable<any[]>;
constructor(private dataService:
DataService) {}
ngOnInit() {
this.data$ =
this.dataService.getData(); // Returns
an observable
}
}
Use Observables and RxJS
Operators to Optimize Data
Handling
Optimizing data processing in Angular applications
using observables and RxJS operators can significantly
improve performance by reducing the number of
emissions and managing asynchronous data more
efficiently.
