Angular 12: Seven Updates You Must Know

The twelfth version of Google’s TypeScript-based web framework, Angular, comes with some significant updates. ‘Google’s Ivy Everywhere Approach,’ which helps streamline the software development process, lies at the center of this update. Apart from moving to Ivy, Angular 12 improves massively upon the styling aspects, message-id format, nullish coalescing, ng API, etc. Additionally, Angular 12 offers different tools and new features, which are easy to deploy in AWS. This post takes a closer look at Angular 12 new features.

Angular 12 new features: Ivy everywhere

Angular 12 is finally deprecating its old legacy compilation and rendering pipeline called the View Engine. The next release will eliminate the rendering pipeline. Libraries previously working with View Engine will then function with Ivy.

With the help of a compatibility compiler and a smooth update path, the entire ecosystem will shift to Ivy. And thus, Ivy everywhere will make Angular 12 much more efficient.

Canonical message-ID format

The message-id format has become much more resilient and robust in Angular 12. Previously, the legacy message-ids were fragile and inconsistent in their translation owing to whitespace and translation invalidation issues.

Angular 12 eliminates errors occurring due to format templates and ICU expressions by migrating away from multiple legacy. Now, developers can migrate any legacy localization IDs to canonical message-ids using the latest algorithms.

Angular 12 new features: Nullish coalescing

Angular 12 New Features: Nullish Coalescing

Angular 12 allows nullish coalescing utilization for its templates. By using nullish coalescing operators (??) developers can write cleaner code. 

At the same time, nullish coalescing allows developers to improve complex conditionals by using the new syntax structure.

For example,

{{age !== null && age !== undefined ? age : calculateAge() }}

{{age ?? calculateAge() }}

Angular 12: Default strict mode

By enabling strict mode by default in CLI, developers can catch bugs faster in Angular 12 than earlier versions. The strict mode also makes application examinations a lot quicker.

Another critical feature of Angular 12 strict mode is the ng update command refactor. With this update, developers can code securely and accurately while creating a new application or workspace.

NG API upgrade

In Angular 12, ng troubleshooting API can give key information about the working of applications during runtime. Furthermore, added functionalities like getDirectiveMetada and esetProfiler will simplify and thoroughly inspect applications to debug APIs.

The getDirectiveMetada will help in recovering data related to different parts and directives. On the other hand, the esetProfile will help trace template durations, updates, and the runtime of lifecycle hooks.

Angular 12 new features: Typescript 4.2

Angular 12 New Features: TypeScript 4.2

There are quite a few updates in Typescript 4.2 for Angular 12. These include improvements in operator, type alias, tuple types, and abstract classes.

Typescript 4.2 will not allow essential variables and other relevant information to appear erroneously by improving the in-operator. Similarly, the improved TypeScript version will return substantial valid aliases and the right types, reducing repetition and errors.

Tuples in Typescript 4.2 can enable discretionary, optional, and rest components, improving readability and tooling. Similarly, Typescript 4.2 in Angular 12 makes it easier to check a class and allows abstract modifiers for constructor signatures.

Styling improvements

Along with the updates mentioned above, Angular received a slew of styling improvements in this version. Firstly,  support for inline Sass is available in the component decorator-style field. Additionally, Angular Material and Angular CDK have internally adopted a new Sass module framework. Finally, angular 12 now also supports Tailwind CSS. 

Other updates in Angular 12 include the addition of minified UMDs, redirected source files, strict null checks, emit event option, HTTP status codes, and Webpack 5 support.

Angular 12 vs Angular 11: What’s new?

Angular 12 was released within a few months after the release of Angular 11. We can indeed say that we have seen major changes, improvements, and changes in the core structure. Angular 12 now has TypeScript 4.2, whereas Angular 11 used TypeScript 4.0. The new version of Angular is supported by Webpack 5.37, which was earlier restricted to Webpack 5.0. While Angular 11 had strict checks with a flag, Angular 12 has strict mode by default. Angular 12 now has IVY everywhere, which means that the depreciation will be eliminated in future releases significantly. Angular 11 had an opt-in service. These are the key changes in Angular 12 that we can see compared to Angular 11.

Summary

Angular has indeed leveled up its game with this version. With improved performance, language service, form validation, and compiler services, Angular 12 provides more control to developers. The new version is more stable than the previous one. It can also serve as the foundation for Zone.js choices, which will be a part of future updates in line with Zoneless Angular and Angular’s Marquee Project. 

Angular is one of the most popular web frameworks. However, even well-versed Angular Developers may find it hard to get the perfect job that matches their expectations owing to stiff competition.

Turing helps Angular developers get long-term, remote jobs with solid career growth and unmatched compensation with US companies. Visit the Jobs page to know more! 

Are you an engineering leader looking to hire excellent, pre-vetted Angular developers? If yes, try Turing! Turing’s Intelligent Talent Cloud helps companies hire Silicon Valley-caliber developers at half the price in just 3-5 days! Check out our Hire Developers page to know more!