Step-by-Step Tutorial for Developing Your First AngularJS App

Are you unsure about how to create a simple AngularJS project? If yes, you’ve come to the right place. 

It is a trendy and trustworthy web application framework. As a result, currently, AngularJS is used to power over 350,000 websites worldwide. 

You can create robust and engaging applications using AngularJS to help you stand out in your field. AngularJS is renowned for being challenging to learn. But after reading this article about “Developing Your First AngularJS App”, you will see how simple it is to learn angularJS. 

Now We are going to look at how to start a simple AngularJS project from scratch.

What is AngularJS?

Developing Your First AngularJS App_1
Credit: Source

AngularJS is an open-source JavaScript model-view-controller MVC framework. It extends the dynamic functionality of HTML. You can create Single Page Applications with AngularJS.

AngularJS is purely based on HTML and JavaScript. So, to learn AngularJS, there is no need to refer to additional languages or syntaxes.

We can say static HTML is turning into dynamic HTML in AngularJS. By introducing built-in attributes and components, it expands the functionality of HTML. It also allows users to add custom attributes by utilizing simple JavaScript.

Why AngularJS became the developer’s first choice?

While developing a project, the developer will focus on client satisfaction. Invariably the client will demand a visually appealing experience in any project. 

AngularJS enables developers to create such experiences for their clients. You can find a reputable Angular development company in the market with a good portfolio and Also a lot of expertise in creating AngularJS apps.

Additionally, developers can construct apps quickly and manage them effectively using the model-view-controller (MVC) architecture.

The community encircling AngularJS is thriving. It encourages extremely fruitful web development. Through that, you can ask questions freely and clear up any confusion.

Google developed this initial platform, and nearly all software developers use it. Since its launch in 2009, it has emerged as one of the most popular and successful frameworks. 

AngularJS developers can improve the front end of a web page by using data binding, controllers, and a variety of other sophisticated features. Allowing clients to modify different website components increases the utility of HTML in Angular. 

As we put many of the concepts in this tutorial, you’ll learn more about them.

Prerequisites to AngularJS Projects 

Before working on AngularJS projects, you need to be familiar with the following basic concepts.

HTML

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the core web development segment in charge of any page structure. Before working on any AngularJS project, you should know HTML syntax, components, and implementations. 

With AngularJS, you may use HTML as the template syntax and expand HTML’s syntax to represent the components of your project briefly.

By developing new HTML components, AngularJS attempts to decrease the difference between HTML content and what an app requires. AngularJS utilizes the directive framework to apply the additional syntax of the web.

CSS

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is the key language to adding graphics to a web page. It improves the appearance and accessibility of the webpage, making it just as crucial as HTML. 

HTML is required for our AngularJS project’s initial stage, Cascading Style Sheets will be added later. For this reason, before working on AngularJS projects, you should be aware of it. 

The functioning model can be manually created using Cascading Style Sheets to produce a more visually appealing UI interface.  

JavaScript

JavaScript is an (OOP) object-oriented programming language. This multi-paradigm language is reactive, event-driven, and a fundamental component. JavaScript combines many of the recent UI components to build online applications.

Developing Your First AngularJS App_2
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JavaScript is a foundation for AngularJS. Understanding JavaScript’s guiding principles are essential for the effective use of AngularJS. 

Your understanding of JS syntax, code, and implementations will also make many technical elements of AngularJS easier for you.

Before you start working on the AngularJS project, ensure you are well-versed in the basics of JS. The benefits of using AngularJS will also rely on your proficiency with JavaScript. JavaScript Namespace and inheritance are extensively used in AngularJS.

The inheritance concept is found in JavaScript, which is often used by all other front-end technologies. The addition of attributes to the prototype is made simple by this functionality. Therefore, JavaScript is an essential prerequisite for AngularJS.

In addition to these requirements, you should be familiar with the basic concepts of AngularJS.

AngularJS important concepts

Before you create your own AngularJS application, you must understand in detail about few main concepts of Angularjs js

Directives

In AngularJS, a directive is a command that adds new functionality to HTML.

Directives are markers on DOM elements that instruct AngularJS to alter the DOM element and its child element or to attach a specific behavior to the DOM element.

In other words, it expands HTML. In AngularJS, most directives begin with ng-, where ng stands for Angular. Numerous built-in directives are available with AngularJS. Furthermore, you can design custom directives for your application.

Here are some of the AngularJS directives.

ng-app

ng-app is used to initialize the Angular.JS app. This directive informs Angular that the HTML page is an angular.js application when it is present in the HTML page. 

Given that AngularJS allows for the creation of many apps, this directive is crucial since it informs the program of each app’s beginning and endpoints.

ng-init

This is utilized to initialize application data. The ng-init directive allows you to create local data whenever your application needs it.

ng-controller

The ng-controller directive is used to declare a controller in an HTML element. This directive specifies which controller will be responsible for the user’s view. The controller’s role is to maintain or add behavior to the HTML and child elements data.

ng-repeat

This is one of the most popular directives that Angular developers prefer. This is applied to replicate an HTML element. As it loops through the collections, it defines the template scope.

ng-model

AngularJS uses the ng-model directive for two-way data binding. It links elements with a specified attribute on the $scope object. The value of a property will therefore equal the value of an element and vice versa.

Controllers

Developing Your First AngularJS App_Controller
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An AngularJS controller is a JavaScript function that uses the $scope object to maintain the application’s data and behavior. In a controller function, you can add attributes and methods to the $scope object, add or update the data and connect behaviors to HTML elements.

Expression

Expressions are variables that are defined within double braces {{ }}. To connect the outcome data to HTML, AngularJS evaluates the given expression.

An AngularJS expression can contain operators and variables like a JavaScript expression. For instance, the outcome of the phrase {{3/3}} will be 1 and will be connected to HTML.

Scope

A built-in object in AngularJS called $scope includes application data and methods. You can add attributes to a $scope object within a controller function and assign them a value or function.

A controller and view are connected via $scope (HTML). It moves data from the controller to the view and vice-versa.

Filters

Using AngularJS Filters, we may format data for UI appearance without altering its original format.

Filters can be applied to directives or expressions using the pipe | symbol.

{{expression | filterName:parameter }}

To format data of various kinds, Angular comes with several filters.

Routing

Single Page Applications can be made with the help of AngularJS’s routing method. You can use it to create unique URLs for the many types of content in your web apps. 

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Routing with AngularJS also makes it possible to display different contents based on the route that is selected. The URL includes it after the hash symbol (#).

Developing Your First AngularJS project

Our project will be as simple as AngularJS allows. There will be just one file called index.html.

You can make this file anywhere on your computer and then open it in a web browser to test it out.

Index.Html

Let’s first create a very simple HTML structure for our page so we can get focused. This is the code.

<!doctype html>
<html>
  <head>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div>
      <label>Name:</label>
      <input type="text" placeholder="Enter a name here">
      <hr>
      <h1>Hello! Your Name</h1>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>
Developing Your First AngularJS App_4

Although it doesn’t do anything interesting, this does help us understand how our page is structured. The next step is to use AngularJS to provide some functionality.

We can now begin integrating AngularJS into our HTML. The AngularJS framework must first be integrated into our app.

Using the hosted version is the simplest method to do this. Place these script tags between your head tags like follows.

<head>
  <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.6.2/angular.min.js">
</script>
</head>

Following the installation of AngularJS in our project, we must begin adding Directives to instruct Angular what to perform.

Applying Directives

Simply add ng-app in the <html>tag.

<html ng-app>

As previously said, this directive instructs AngularJS to be active on this portion of our HTML. It’s the entire HTML document in our case.

Binding Data

We can see the strength of the AngularJS framework right here.

The name we write into the “Hello! Your Name” field should be shown as we type it. We would need to set up many functions and listeners while using jQuery. Fortunately, this is the precise situation where AngularJS makes things very easy.

The information from our text input area has to be linked to the text in the “Hello! Your Name” field. This will result in one updating automatically as soon as the other is modified.

First, we must add the ng-model=”yourName” attribute to the input> tag. 

This instructs AngularJS that the data we enter, “yourName,” is what we want to bind to.

<input type="text" ng-model="yourName" placeholder="Enter a name here">

We must then instruct Angular on what to bind it to. In the h1 tags, change “Your Name” to {{yourName}} as shown.

<h1>Hello! {{yourName}}! </h1>

In AngularJS, the {{ }} are used to specify where to bind something. Now, whenever yourName change, Angular will update this text automatically instead of just displaying the hard-coded text. Fantastic!

The output

All done! You’ve just finished building your first AngularJS application with directives, 2-way data binding, and a straightforward MVP architecture. Whatever you enter in the name area ought to appear automatically below. It should resemble this once you’ve put everything together.

Developing Your First AngularJS App_5

And the final code:

<!doctype html>
<html ng-app>
  <head>
    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.6.2/angular.min.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div>
      <label>Name:</label>
      <input type="text" ng-model="yourName" placeholder="Enter a name here">
      <hr>
      <h1>Hello! {{yourName}}!</h1>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

You are now capable of creating a straightforward AngularJS application. Now all you have to do is slightly increase the complexity. 

You may find a few more straightforward apps like this on AngularJS.org. There are also many video lessons to learn how to create them. Otherwise, begin exploring with developing your own unique web apps!

Main Advantages of AngularJS

Web developers use AngularJS over other frameworks because it prioritizes code quality and testability. 

We are going to discuss in detail about 12 Main advantages of AngularJS

Interactive single-page application 

The main reason for developing a Single Page Application is to enable quicker website switching. The website will appear and function like a native app. 

A website will communicate with a web browser by dynamically updating an existing web page with new web server data rather than using the browser’s standard approach of loading new pages. This is known as a Single Page Application (SPA).

Single Page Applications can be developed using AngularJS. When a developer uses AngularJS to create a Single Page Application, the result is a page that loads quickly and functions on all platforms. Also, it offers a great user experience and is much simpler to maintain.

Easy to apply MVC framework

Angular JS uses model view controller architecture, as many other applications use it. The main advantage of using Angular JS is that MVC accomplishes by separating the web application into many components. 

Each of these will automatically take out the remaining work. Without being explicitly stated, Angular JS manages the MVC components, acting as a pipeline to join them into independent components. 

By doing this, the developer can concentrate on developing high-quality applications without worrying about integration.

Two-Way Binding Feature

With the help of AngularJS, the view and the model instantly synchronizes. Any changes to the data in the model are reflected in the view. The model updates the response to changes in the view data.

The application will significantly simplify its presentation layer using this two-way data binding. This makes it possible to design the UI using a simpler, less intrusive method of DOM display.

Interactive UI

Since HTML is an easy language, and Angular JS uses it to create the web application user interface, the entire application is straightforward. Defining the interface’s elements is simpler when done with HTML than with JavaScript.

In contrast to knowing that JavaScript was used to construct the interface, HTML is immediately recognizable due to its format, tags, and other features. HTML can also be used to comprehend how an application’s control flow works.

Easy-to-comprehend Directives 

Angular JS can be used in conjunction with the directive concept to add more functionality to HTML without complicating it. 

HTML can have an infinite number of additional components to enhance the application’s functionality without making it cumbersome, challenging to maintain, or complicated.

The directives made possible by Angular JS assist developers in creating unique HTML tags. Their prefix ‘ng’ can be used to identify them. 

You can use these recently created customized tags as customized widgets. They can also be used to change the DOM’s characteristics in addition to this. There are also some default directives.

Easy to Learn

Anyone familiar with HTML, JavaScript, and Cascading Style Sheets can pick up AngularJS quickly. For developers, learning AngularJS expands their career options in the web development sector. Online tutorials for AngularJS are widely available for free. 

These online courses may teach you how to create and test your web application with AngularJS. Web application development takes less time once you are familiar with AngularJS.

Service providers 

In Angular JS, controllers control the scope of the code. In other words, data can place before the server or business logic code that would be used to implement it. 

Since Angular links particular services to controllers, they handle most of the work. In this manner, the particular service of a single controller wouldn’t be mixed with other components of the application or the MVC. 

To make the required functionality accessible, an API is developed. The server can be used to synchronize the offline data, and various methods can be used to push or pull data to and from the server.

Easy Coding

When using Angular JS, it’s possible to avoid writing messy code. Writing code for the model view controller (MVC) pipeline is no longer necessary, significantly reducing overhead. The data model can be established without using additional features or embedding more features. 

Data binding ensures that new data is not manually added to the view portion. With the aid of the DOM and directives, it must be integrated into the view. This makes the entire process easy and simple.

Directives are distinct from other types of code and it is not a part of the application’s code base. This means a directive will run without connecting it with other code sections. Angular JS will handle this task for you. 

Instead of worrying about how to integrate the code with other program components, the time saved can be effectively applied to enhancing the functionality and features of the Angular JS application. As a result, while attempting to create sophisticated web-based apps, there is more flexibility and the capacity to modify the code.

Easy to use DOM

The DOM is typically extended by the view component of the MVC framework to display the data. At this point, the DOM is played with to add additional functionality. 

With the help of the directives in Angular JS, it is possible to link application data to custom or pre-defined attributes of HTML DOM components. 

This means that Angular JS understands views as HTML pages with placeholders. They are later filled with appropriate values when dynamic data is introduced. This method is practical since it makes integrating the view with the website’s layout easier. This will make the code simpler and cleaner.

Dependency Injection (DI) 

Dependency Injection (DI) is used to bind the Angular JS application together. This is due to the built-in DI system in Angular JS. The main idea behind DI is to talk about the components and their dependencies. 

Dependency Injection helps developers in the creation of components, managing their dependencies, and providing them with the components they need. It makes sure that managing controllers within their specific scopes are simple. This is due to the controllers relying on DI to pass data to them.

Unit testing abilities  

The testing needs are taken into consideration when developing Angular JS. This is because testing is crucial and might prove to be an essential step in locating flaws and problems. It also aids in gaining a new perspective on the entire application. 

End-to-end testing is done on the Angular JS application for this shift in viewpoint. Unit testing in Angular JS is possible both with and without the Karma framework. Typically, unit testing for Angular JS controllers and directives is done separately.

Additionally, the Angular JS application may be tested by creating individual test pages that would help make a specific component of the application, adding interactivity to it, and then determining whether it functions well.

Filters in the data 

As its name suggests, it is a method for filtering data before it is displayed in the application’s view area. It facilitates the application of filters, such as adding decimal place formatting, filtering an array based on a certain parameter, or providing the concept of pagination for web pages.

Filters might be created to ensure the functions are dependable and distinct from the application. It also stipulates that the functions do not apply to the entire application’s code, simply to data transformations regarding the data.

Conclusion

After reading the tutorial, if knowing AngularJS still seems a little daunting to you, don’t worry. Several developers in the area can create your app.

Since AngularJS is so well-liked, it’s frequently possible to hire angular developers at an affordable price. Hiring developers may be less expensive if you require a working web application than learning how to do it yourself.

You may also like to read: Benefits Of Cloud Database


About The Author

Harikrishna
Harikrishna Kundariya

Harikrishna Kundariya is a marketer, developer, IoT, ChatBot & Blockchain savvy, designer, co-founder, and Director of eSparkBiz Technologies. His 10+ experience enables him to provide digital solutions to new start-ups based on IoT and ChatBot.


Rajib
Rajib

Rajib Is The Founder Of RiansTech. A Seasonal Blogger And A Full-Time Product Designer For Over Two Decades. A Technology Freak And Loves To Write About It. RiansTech Is A Online Home For Him Where He Documents His Experiences And Learnings So That Others Can Get Benefited From It.

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