AngularJS is indeed not the same as Angular, and I learned this the hard way. Having no experience with Angular at all, I set out to learn it because it is the framework our project uses. I was blown away by the AngularUI built-in components in their material library, drooling at all the things I was going to do with Angular version 19. My reverie was abruptly ended when I downloaded our project requirements and saw Angular version 1.8.3. It was indeed not Angular, but the discontinued, archaic AngularJS.
Learning AngularJS
This is a fast-paced class, and I didn’t have time to dwell on my big mistake. I needed to start learning AngularJs right away. I found the resources, however, very limited. Especially because I needed to learn a new technology to an intermediate/advanced level to keep up with the current codebase.
To help others who might have to learn AngularJS, here are some of the resources I found helpful:
- Net Ninja
- The Net Ninja on YouTube has a great playlist with his course in AngularJS. He goes over each main concept with live examples, and all example code is also included in his Git repo. I loved how simply he explained each topic.
- W3Schools
- W3Schools has a whole course on AngularJS. As a very visual learner, I didn’t use it as a course but as a reference. For example, a lot of my work this week had to do with creating tables. Using the reference on AngularJS tables was so helpful. They showed different ways to use the ng-repeat and filter options.
Thoughts on AngularJS
While initially, I was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t the cool and modern version of Angular that I thought we were going to be using, I have come to really enjoy it. In fact, it may be my favorite JavaScript framework.
One thing that I really like is how intuitive the syntax. Want Angular to do something conditionally? Angular if (ng-if). Want Angular to repeat something? Angular repeat (ng-repeat). By reverting to caveman speech patterns, you can effectively intuit the correct directive for AngularJS.
I also found the controllers very intuitive. I liked how a whole grouping and views were under one app, but that app may have many different controllers. I have found this is a really great way to minimize HTML code but maximize the functionality.
The one thing I still struggle a bit with is AngularJS routing. Luckily, the routing is already completed for the project. For future projects, however, I will need to put more work into this concept.
Conclusion
Overall, I not only did I learn a new framework, I also gained a valuable experience learning a new framework with fewer resources in a short amount of time. I believe that every time you learn a new tool or language, you get better at adapting and acquiring new skills. I look forward to improving my skills with AngularJS during this quarter and adding it to my developer toolbox.
