Is Angular.js Dead?

At the beginning of 2018, Angular representatives announced in their official blog that they were planning the last significant release of AngularJS, version 1.7. In July 2018, it entered a three year period of Long Term Support.

Now we are in the middle of 2020, which means that there’s less than a year left before they stop the support. According to the announcement, it is going to happen on June 30, 2021.

In case you are wondering what exactly is going to happen then or what measures you should take if your product is on AngularJS – welcome.

AngularJS history

The story of Angular started in 2008-2009. A developer from Google and his friend worked on the side-project that had to simplify the development of web applications. That was intended for web designers who knew nothing or too little about web development. The project was called AngularJS.

In 2010 it went open source. The community began to build amazing applications with it, and even some of the biggest brands started to incorporate AngularJS into their core toolset for web and mobile application development.

A few years later, web development had improved significantly, so AngularJS had to be rewritten just to keep up with those changes. So they rebuilt the framework up from the ground, and Angular 2.0 was born. From that moment, all the Angular versions do not include that JS ending.

Angular is the name for the Angular of today and tomorrow. AngularJS is the name for all 1.x versions of Angular.

What concerns AngularJS, as we mentioned above, it was versioned up to 1.7, and then entered the period of Long Term Support.

AngularJS long term support

AngularJS developers continue to fix some critical issues that relate to one of the following criteria:

• A security flaw is detected in the 1.7.x branch of the framework;
• One of the major browsers releases a version that will cause current production applications using AngularJS 1.7.x to stop working;
• The jQuery library releases a version that will cause current production applications using AngularJS 1.7.x to stop working.

And there is some more good news: all AngularJS versions will continue to work independently, which means if your product is on AngularJS, it will not just disappear. However, if you do not do anything and just stick with what you’ve got, it can cause many problems.

What happens if a product stays on AngularJS

The end of security support may have many consequences. For example, it is highly likely that your store will be hacked, causing financial losses, lawsuits, and even the loss of business. The end of support also means that if a major browser releases the version that is not compatible with AngularJS, your app will probably just stop working.

To avoid such issues, we highly recommend migration. However, there are cases when it can be not as necessary:

• If you no longer actively develop your app;
• If you are planning to cease it in the nearest time;
• If there is some feature in AngularJS, which is critical for your product.

If you are not planning to stop and want to develop and upgrade your app, there are two options – switch to some other JS framework (Vue.js, React, etc.) or upgrade to Angular.

Upgrade to Angular

We highly recommend this option if:

• you do not have much time on rewriting the entire app from scratch;
• you want to upgrade gradually;
• you want to take advantage of Angular features (such as CLI, TypeScript, ngRX, etc.).

If you chose to upgrade to Angular, there is good news: the process is already well-defined. There are even some tools and resources that will significantly help with the upgrade – take some time to consult the official documentation.

Angular advantages

Before accepting or rejecting this option, you might want to learn a bit about Angular key advantages.

• Angular gives you all the needed functionality right out of the box, which means that you don’t have to use third-party services to build basic app functionality. This ensures better code quality and a higher level of security.

• Angular is based on TypeScript, which helps to keep the code clean and readable. Therefore, it’s easier to detect and fix bugs. It is also easier to maintain a large codebase which is excellent for enterprise projects.

• Angular is a full-fledged responsive web framework. It offers a way to create a service, module, or a component. This helps to avoid the questions on how something was built, so it’s easier for new developers to pick up.

If you are not a techie, this may mean nothing to you. The most important thing you should know is that all these features save significant time and make it easier to scale the project.

AngularJS Migration

Now, let’s get down to another option – migration to React, Vue, or other JS frameworks.

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In what cases you can consider this alternative:

• you want to try something completely new;
• you think some other particular framework is better and will make your product more efficient;
• you have the time and budget to rewrite your product from scratch;
• your team is proficient with another framework.

If you resonate with any of these points, you probably need to take a shot. If you want to learn more about different JavaScript frameworks and their specifics, we have the article that will help you.

Conclusion

As you can see from the info, if your app is on AngularJS, you can’t leave it as it is, especially if you are planning to continue the development and stable operation of your product. Sooner or later, it needs to be migrated.

By the way, our team has extensive expertise in project migration. So if you need any assistance, feel free to contact us, we’ll be happy to help!

Have a nice, safe migration.