App Migration from AngularJS to Angular: What You Should Know Before Moving
AngularJS to Angular migration is becoming an important issue due to the nearing end of support of AngularJS in 2021. Businesses are getting concerned because of the approaching lack of upgrades and stirring into the direction of migrating to Angular. Although Google’s decision to discontinue support of AngularJS is not the only reason for companies to shift to the new framework. What are the main reasons for the migration? Does your company need to get on board? Which benefits will the migration bring? We’ll explain in this blog post.
But first things first, what are AngularJS and Angular? AngularJS is a JavaScript framework created in 2009 and launched in 2012 by Google. It has been developed by a Google employee in the pursuit of shortening the process of development as well as simplifying testing. Thanks to the newly developed framework, a long, complex code of 17,000 lines has been rewritten into 1,500 lines in only three weeks. This impressive result has inspired the Google executives, and the new framework called AngularJS has been made available.
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But what happened to AngularJS, and why are we talking about migration from AngularJS to Angular? The demands continued to grow bigger, and the core developers improved everything that could improve and hit the wall. A new framework had to be created in order to fill the shoes of new requirements for application development. Now, the biggest issue is how to execute the migration in the fastest and most efficient way.
Why Your Business Should Consider AngularJS to Angular Migration
What are the main differences between AngularJS and Angular? Why is the migration relevant, and how will it affect your team and the application itself?
- Ease of use
AngularJS is far less reusable than its new version. Angular provides reusability of the elements due to its component-based architecture while facilitating high testability and easy maintenance. Although AngularJS is flexible, Angular is better structured, which goes back to its component-based architecture. It makes it more manageable and allows you to create large-scale applications.
- Technology updates
As mentioned before, by the year 2021, Google will have stopped technical support and upgrades for AngularJS, which raises a huge concern for the businesses. This means that AngularJS migration to Angular is inevitable; however, the sooner your business makes this shift, the easier and more cost-efficient it is going to be.
Technological updates are vital for your application as they ensure maximum stability for project progress. Angular team has decided to launch upgrades every six months, which guarantees the latest versions and the ultimate support.
- Speed
Firstly, Angular solves the problem of developing larger apps. It provides faster compilation, improves debugging, and facilitates flexibility. Secondly, Angular uses a more consistent language — TypeScript, that reduces runtime errors and provides code optimization, altogether leading to higher development velocity. Finally, while AngularJS relies on third-party tools, Angular uses Command Line Interface (CLI) that decreases application development duration.
Business Benefits of Migration from AngularJS to Angular
Let’s dig deeper into the main advantages of this shift for the business functionalities.
Mobile-oriented approach
Developed back in 2009, AngularJS does not support mobile devices. On the other hand, Angular allows you to create lightweight apps for mobile devices and browsers. Due to its component-based structure, Angular allows the so-called lazy scripting that uses particular modules only when needed as well as a better organization that provides faster page loading and higher performance.
Easy to maintain
Angular has an architecture that is based on components or services, in other words — modules. These modules enable an organization of application functionalities by separating them into reusable pieces of data. Each piece is responsible for one feature and stays independent with its system and APIs. All of the above ensures easier maintenance where developers can swap one component with another without rewriting the entire code.
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Avoid code errors
Unlike AngularJS, which is based on JavaScript, Angular uses TypeScript that has a type-checking feature. This means that developers can avoid compile-time errors since the mistakes become easily detectable. Moreover, TypeScript code can be edited directly in the browser, making debugging easier and detecting errors at an early stage of development.
Reduced costs
We have mentioned above that Angular reduces the overall development cycle as well as simplifies maintenance and debugging. Overall, it leads to cost savings along with smaller paychecks for developers since they will spend less time working on coding, testing legacy codebases, and so on.
In addition to this, your business will cut bills on third-party tools like WebStorm or Brackets since Angular comes with an official Command Line Interface (CLI). Angular offers CLI that is optimized for its purpose; however, external tools like IDEs and UI kits are also available.
High performance
High performance derives from the module-based architecture of the Angular framework as opposed to AngularJS performance issues. By compartmentalizing chunks of data, developers can work on different pieces of code independently without facing the risk of creating an unsustainable code. Due to the organization that Angular brings, labor within the teams can be divided, thus accelerating the process of development.
On top of that, Angular offers best practices on boosting performance, both network and runtime. For example, you can remove comments and whitespace as well as get rid of dead code with Uglify, provide bundling together with tree-shaking with Rollup, and use ngx-quicklink as a preloading strategy to download lazy-loaded modules. For more tips, see the Angular performance checklist on the GitHub page.
What Should You Ask Yourself Before You Decide to Migrate from AngularJS to Angular
Above, we have listed a multitude of advantages that Angular will bring to your business. Along with being a great solution to a bunch of existing problems of AngularJS, the most prominent benefit is, of course, the technical support and constant upgrades. AngularJS is a dying framework, so if you would like to continue to innovate and deliver new features for your users, you should migrate from AngularJS to Angular as quickly as possible. Depending on the scope and experience of your development team, you can choose from several options.
Why consider migration now
So, why now? Which issues have you recently faced that need to be addressed? For example, the development of new features is becoming more and more tedious. Or perhaps, your code has become unpredictable and inconsistent. Try to pinpoint the exact problems and how the solution will benefit your users.
Who is going to do the migration
How big is your company, and how complex are your applications? Will you require guidance from consultants and, more importantly, can you afford them? Are you going to outsource this task, or is your team going to conduct the transition? If your team is capable of doing it, how many developers will work on the migration?
Which approaches you can choose
There are three paths that you can take in the pursuit of app migration from AngularJS to Angular.
- Rewrite
This approach is self-explanatory — your team rewrites the entire code. Especially for outdated applications, also known as legacy apps, rewriting might be an adequate solution. Starting from scratch, you can re-design and rethink your application and implement new features on the go.
Want to know more about legacy software rewriting process? Find your answers here: Should You Rehost, Rebuild, or Rewrite a Legacy Application With Latest Software?
The downside is obvious — rewriting the entire application doesn’t happen overnight, which means that your team will have to work on both applications simultaneously. Your developers will recreate the application using Angular and simultaneously support and upgrade the existing one for current users.
- Hybrid with ngUpgrade
ngUpgrade — a library offered by Angular — allows you to keep running both frameworks simultaneously. This technology facilitates a slow and smooth transition that can last years or be relatively quick, depending on your goals and priorities. Your development team chooses one route at a time and starts upgrading from the bottom up. ngUpgrade allows Angular and AngularJS to coexist and work together without disrupting the application.
- Angular Elements
Angular Elements is a new package in Angular that allows you to transform Angular components into custom elements natively understood by browsers. Angular Elements eliminate the necessity of ngUpgrade; however, they are useful only for very big and complex applications.
How to decide which approach is better for your business
You should integrate several factors into the decision-making process: the size of your development team, its capacity, and experience, as well as your current version of AngularJS. A small team with no resources for consultants should not consider Angular Elements as an option. If you have one of the latest AngularJS versions, ngUpgrade might be a good choice for your software; otherwise, go for the rewriting approach.
A big company with a lot of time and resources and a massively complex application should consider implementing Angular Elements; however, ngUpgrade might also be a choice for you.
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Our Experience
To answer the last question more precisely, you need to refer to professionals who will analyze your software, business, and goals and draw a detailed plan to execute the AngularJS to Angular migration plan. ModLogix is a software development company that specializes in modernization and innovation. Our goal is to revive your legacy applications and make them better than ever.
Our case study
The goal
To migrate from AngularJS to Angular 9 in two phases: first, Angular migration of the client’s website (8,5 months), and secondly, Angular migration of one of the client’s skins (3 months).
Here are the steps we took to execute the right strategy:
- Establish the scope of the project;
- Set the priorities for the migration of business functionalities;
- Assess the risks and develop mitigation strategies to avoid unwanted consequences due to a tight deadline;
- Determine detailed tech stack, architecture, development guidelines as well as performance standards;
- Set up Continuous Integration/ Continuous Delivery (СI/CD);
- Provide continuous feedback and keep our client up-to-date at every stage;
- Execute the implementation within the deadline;
- Conduct an in-depth retrospective analysis.
Our team has been fully responsible for every step of the project from the initiation to the closure. Explore our AngularJS upgrading approach in detail.
Our achievements:
- We developed a Single Page Application that enhanced user experience by reducing the number of page reloads and providing an asynchronous approach;
- Our CI/CD optimization enabled us to release new applications more frequently and without downtime;
- We simplified maintenance and saved resources by providing a fivefold reduction of the code length.
Technologies we used:
Angular 9, Kendo UI, RxJS, Angular-Gridster2, Angulartics, Angular CLI, VS Code, TSLints.
Why these technologies?
We took into account the following: the size of the community, the support provided, quality of documentation, the number of examples and tutorials, overall rating, possible issues, flexibility, and expenses.
How to Migrate from AngularJS to Angular 9 Case Study
VIEW CASE STUDY
Conclusion
AngularJS is an outdated framework. Together with a number of benefits that Angular will bring, there is no choice but to take the step into migrating from AngularJS to Angular. There is no question of whether to migrate, rather than when and how. If you want your application to run better and faster and your features to be easy to implement, this shift is necessary.
Contact ModLogix to receive an ultimate AngularJS to Angular migration guide and take the first step into the future of software development
