AngularJS

Haircut · 19 Feb 2014 at 13:13

So, who knows this and is it worth learning?
My day job is building Windows applications, mostly using WPF as a front end technology.
As flawed as WPF is, it does a lot of stuff pretty well and whenever I've used Web frameworks I've always found them lacking compared to what WPF provides.

I've done a bit of reading and it looks like Angular goes some way to addressing these issues and it's got me interested.
For those of you who are familiar with it would you recommend using it and can you provide any good resources to help me learn?

Phunky · 19 Feb 2014 at 14:15

Never built anything enterprise level with it, but it is fairly fun to build with. I'm not quite a fan of the "Lets stick everything on as a attribute with custom DOM elements" but it gets the job done.

The only thing I really like about libs like AngularJS and Ember is the data-binding - that is certainly something I could make use of with the right platform architecture. But I'm not sure i'd use either of these just for data-binding.

What are the "Issues" you've had with other libs?

DanF · 19 Feb 2014 at 17:52

just as with anything web based, if seo is an issue then be careful of which parts are server side made and which bits are js made.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13499040/how-do-search-engines-deal-with-angularjs-applications

https://sourcegraph.com/blog/switching-from-angularjs-to-server-side-html

We make a bunch of web facing sites using just jquery and knockoutjs for the front-end, most of the JS just adds to the front end experience that is already made on the server side allowing crawlers to see most of the content.

When doing internal tools type projects I usually just use signalr, jquery and knockoutjs again. Don't even bother with mvc style models being passed around, makes it very fast to develop more complex stuff and makes it nice and fun/interactive.

Haircut · 19 Feb 2014 at 21:29

Phunky said:
Never built anything enterprise level with it, but it is fairly fun to build with. I'm not quite a fan of the "Lets stick everything on as a attribute with custom DOM elements" but it gets the job done.

The only thing I really like about libs like AngularJS and Ember is the data-binding - that is certainly something I could make use of with the right platform architecture. But I'm not sure i'd use either of these just for data-binding.

What are the "Issues" you've had with other libs?

It's mostly the data binding that I'm talking about. I'm used to doing things this way, and from what I can tell (though I'm far from an expert) most web frameworks involve generation of front end code from the server, which after getting used to being able to just bind a value to a viewmodel/controller, seems a bit backwards and a lot of work! I'm sure there are ways around that though - I've just never found the inclination to do enough web stuff to find it! I think Angular just seems more famililar to what I'm used to.

As far as SEO goes, most of what I do now is internal software for corporate clients. Most of the web roles that I'm seeing coming through within my industry are similar sorts of things, so I don't suppose I'd have to worry about that too much. Always good to be aware of any potential issues if I do public facing websites though.

davetherave2 · 19 Feb 2014 at 21:59

I've not used angularjs myself but I know the other developers I work with rave about knockout?

I personally use Telerik's framework (I have been using Telerik's products for years and love the easy to implement.) They have WPF components just as an FYI.

Although I haven't used their WPF components I have used their other web offerings and win form controls.

It might be worth trialling them to see if they fit the bill for you.

robotSocks · 20 Feb 2014 at 21:35

angular is the future of client-side development.

thedazman67 · 23 Feb 2014 at 19:25

I've used this in a few projects https://egghead.io is a good resource for learning angular JS

roccles · 28 Feb 2014 at 22:47

I'm doing a bit of development in my spare time with angular as it looks very promising. From what I have discovered so far it seems pretty good. Scalability and performance in larger apps would be my big concern.

Fallen god · 1 Mar 2014 at 01:59

Started using Angular the last few works for client-side development and OMG i love this ****. The ideas are so simple but work so amazingly.

redeye_uk · 1 Mar 2014 at 20:52

Phunky said:
I'm not quite a fan of the "Lets stick everything on as a attribute with custom DOM elements"

I agree. The golden rule of the client is to keep a clear separation of the structure (HTML), presentation (CSS) and logic (javascript). I think Angular takes this a step too far

DanF said:
just as with anything web based, if seo is an issue then be careful of which parts are server side made and which bits are js made.

This is good advice. I am making a single page app at the moment (Node & Backbone) and I make use of pushstate. My server is capable of rendering any route/page in full (good for SEO) if hit directly, but if a user is already in the app, then backbone handles the routes and updating of the DOM.

It requires more work, but it pays for itself in the long run.

robotCocks said:
angular is the future of client-side development.

Maybe. I personally dont rate it as highly as Ember or Backbone. I think its only the fact it has backing from Google that it has good traction. I liken it to [twitter] bootstrap - great if you want to build a site quickly and have little understanding of how these frameworks work. It does too much for you behind the scenes.