How to Learn Angular in 2024?

ng new angular-component

ng generate component Home

ng generate service Home

ng serve

ng serve --open

If you are familiar with these commands, or looking forward to working with these commands then you are in right direction towards the path of learning Angular. If you’re a passionate developer then surely you might be aware of the popularity of this JavaScript framework and you might have also tried to learn this framework.

Now, let's go towards developers who are already in the industry and working on some front-end parts of some projects. How do you feel if you are asked to write same piece of code again and again? How do you feel if you are asked to create the same function on multiple pages?

We know that in software development doing repetitive tasks is frustrating and developers always look for some framework or method to save their precious time. Here Angular comes into the picture.

This popular JavaScript framework not just helps the developers to build an impressive application but also helps them in building the frontend page in less time. Angular is an open-source, component based framework, written in Typescript which is the best part of this framework. You can break you complex code into individual pieces, i.e, Components. These components help in organizing the code in a better way. A component Consists of HTML, CSS , TS and a file for unit testing. The bunch of all four consists of a component in Angular. Learning this library is not easy if you don't learn it step by step. There are many concepts in Angular and it can be overwhelming to learn this framework. It is important to know the right things in this framework to become an in-demand Angular Developer. Today in this article we are going to list down the key skills that are needed to become a proficient Angular Developer. 

What is Angular?

Angular is a popular open-source web application framework written in Typescript primarily used for making Single Page Applications(SPAs). As a framework, Angular provides clear advantages while providing a standard structure for developers to work with. It allows developers to create their own components, which can be reused. Learning Angular is valuable for developers looking to build modern, Single Page Applications.

How to Learn Angular in 2024?

Now lets move on the path to learn Angular, one of the most popular JavaScript framework for building dynamic user interfaces. Whether you’re new to programming or already have some experience, learning Angular can open up exciting opportunities in web development. In this step-by-step guide, we’ll walk you through the essential steps to become proficient in Angular in 2024.

1. Basic understanding of HTML, CSS, Javascript/Typescript

Your core concepts should be strong If you jump into this framework. For Experienced developers it is must that you should revise all the concepts. If you are a beginner, then you must first go through the basics of Html, CSS and JS/TS. Usually beginner skip these fundamentals and directly jump into learning Angular Framework and they face difficulties there, because of lack of clear understanding of basics.

Even your interviewer will check atleast the basics of HTML, CSS and Javascript and a bit of Typescript. These are the basic building blocks of Angular Application. You wont be facing any difficulty if you are familiar with these basic concepts.

Angular inherits most of the features of Typescript in it as Angular itself is built using Typescript. Typescript is a superset over Javascript. Learning Typescript is very crucial in developing Angular applications. Both Angular and Typescript are connected, so its better to have a clear understanding of Typescript concepts. Lets discuss some basic Typescript concepts that are needed for Angular.

• Type Annotations and Type Inference
• Interface
• Functions and Arrow Function

2. Fundamentals of NodeJs

Being an Angular Developer, you will run a lot of NPM commands/scripts, so once the basics of HTML, CSS and JS are clear to you, understand the fundamentals of NodeJs.

NPM(Node Package Manager): You should have understanding of NPM( Node Package Manager) as it is required for writing multiple npm script/commands and used to install node modules and package.json file.

3. Learn Angular Fundamentals

After having a clear understanding of Html, CSS and Javascript, one can jump into basics of Angular. Learn the core concepts of Angular . Angular is basically a structured , scalable component based framework used for building Single Page Applications for Client Side. One of the example of SPAs is ; Youtube, it is a Single Page Application.

• Here , an applications is divided into numerous components, each individual component is responsible for different task. These components when combined together form an Application under a parent component named as App Component(Root Component).
• We have encountered that many a times we have to use repeated code again and again. Here, Angular provided you with a featured to access the code from a single file in entire application, and this file is named as Services. Services in angular is basically a typescript class with @injectable decorator. This decorator tells angular that the class is a service and can be injected into components that need that service. They can also inject other services as dependencies.
• Pipes in angular are a way to format and transform data. What do you mean ? Below listed example explains well about pipes in Angular.

<p>{{ 'hello world' | uppercase }}</p>

Output:

HELLO WORLD

• Sometimes, we want to send and receive data from Html to Ts file and vice versa in our angular application , it is possible using Data Binding. Data Binding is a two way process, i.e, send and receive data. This means when you change something in your view, the model updates automatically and vice versa. The ngModel directive makes this two way binding possible.

4. Angular Directives

Learn the concept of Directives in Angular. How does it work? Directives are basically an instruction to DOM. These are defined as classes that can add new behaviour or modify existing behaviour of a class. You will learn more about directives as directives are of three types: Component Directive, Attribute Directive and Structural Directive .Below is a example of Directives:

//app.component.html

<div *ngFor="let city of cities">
    <p [ngStyle]="{ 'color': city.state === 'Delhi' ? 'red' : 'green' }">
        {{ city.name }} - {{ city.state }}
    </p>
</div>

//app.component.ts

import { CommonModule } from '@angular/common';
import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { RouterOutlet } from '@angular/router';

@Component({
    selector: 'app-root',
    standalone: true,
    imports: [RouterOutlet, CommonModule],
    templateUrl: './app.component.html',
    styleUrl: './app.component.css'
})
export class AppComponent {
    cities = [
        { name: 'New Delhi', state: 'Delhi' },
        { name: 'Mumbai', state: 'Maharashtra' },
    ];
}

Output

5. Angular Modules

A module in angular is a way of bundling different building blocks like, Components, Services, Directives, pipes, etc. together. A module gets scanned by angular to be aware about what features are used in project. Just by looking at modules, user can get clear understanding of a project. Root Module is the entry point of an Angular application. To make a class a module class, we need to decorate it with ngModule Decorator.

6. Angular LifeCycle Hooks

So, you are done with basic understanding of Angular, now its time to learn Angular LifeCycle Hooks. A component in angular goes through different phases terms as lifecycle.

• ngOnChanges: This hooks is called right at the start , when an input binding value changes.
• ngOnInit: It is called only once after 'ngOnChanges', as it is raised after component is created and input properties are updated.
• ngDOCheck: It is invoked during every Change Detection Cycle.
• ngAfterContentInit: It is called after Component's projected content has been fully initialized.
• ngAfterContentChecked:It works exactly same as ngAfterContentChecked but a slight difference is it works after every Change Detection Cycle.
• ngAfterViewInit: It is called when components view and its child view is fully initailized.
• ngAfterViewChecked: It works exactly same as ngAfterViewInit but a sligt difference is it works after every CHange Detection Cycle.
• ngOnDestroy: It is called when you completely destroy a component.

The above mentioned are the lifecycle hooks of angular you will learn all these lifecycle hooks as these are the main bridge on which an angular application function.

7. Angular Routing

In Client Side Applications, made with Single Page Applications, routing allows users to navigate between different pages/views without reloading the page. You will learn more about routing as SPAs does not reload themselves on changing the path in URL. But how is it done? Angular provides you app.modules.ts (app.routes.ts in Angular 18) which are used to define specific routes for specific components. and <router-outlet> which helps in displaying data to a specific route. Routing in angular is not just this much, you will learn how to restrict routers from unauthorized access., how to delay a response to a particular route, etc..

8. Dependency Injection

Every Software developer tries to write as much less code required, in order to be proficient. Similarily, here you will learn about a technique called Dependency Injection. What is Dependency Injection? Dependency Injection is a technique using which a class receives its dependencies from another class

9.Angular Forms

We have usually used forms in Html from our childhood, that forms are used for getting some input and when user clicks on Submit the form gets Submitted, but in angular forms you will learn something new, as there are two types of Forms in angular: Template Driven Forms and Reactive Forms. Both the forms have their own use case and functionality. In Angular, Forms are binded using ngSubmit.

Conclusion

By following these steps and making small projects on your own you will be on the route to master yourself as a Angular Developer. Remember shortcuts never lead to success so in order to be good in yourself you have to be a good coder and by following these steps and learning advance topics, using be able to master Angular in 2024 and in future as well.