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Home/Blog/Programming/Angular for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide

Angular for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide

Rauf Tabassam
Nov 25, 2024
8 min read

Are you ready to dive into the exciting world of web development? Angular, a powerful open-source framework developed by Google, makes it easier to build dynamic single-page applications (SPAs). You can create efficient, scalable web applications with Angular that provide rich user experiences.

Whether you're new to development or adding another framework to your toolkit, this guide covers all the Angular essentials. By the end of this tutorial, you will have a solid understanding of Angular fundamentals and how to start developing with it.

What is Angular?#

Angular is a TypeScript-based open-source web development framework developed and maintained by Google. It is used for building dynamic, single-page web applications (SPAs) and is known for its scalability and extensive ecosystem. Inspired by the MVC framework (Model-View-Controller), Angular divides the application into three layers:

  • Model: Manages the data of the application.

  • View: Displays the data and responds to user interactions.

  • Controller: Connects the model and view, handling logic and user inputs.

Top 5 reasons to choose Angular#

Angular is widely used by developers due to its powerful features, such as:

  • Component-based architecture: Angular’s modular approach makes the code more organized and reusable.

  • Two-way data binding: This feature simplifies the synchronization between the model and the view.

  • Dependency injection: Angular’s dependency injection system makes your applications more efficient and easier to test by enabling components and services to retrieve their dependencies from an external source.

  • Comprehensive routing: Angular’s powerful router allows seamless navigation within single-page applications, making it easy to build dynamic web experiences.

  • Community and ecosystem: Angular has strong community support, rich documentation, and a vast ecosystem of libraries and tools.

What do I need to learn before Angular?#

Before learning Angular, make sure you have a solid understanding of the following:

  • HTML: A strong understanding of HTML is required for building Angular applications. You will use HTML to create the structure and layout of your Angular components, ensuring smooth interaction between templates and data.

  • CSS: CSS allows you to design responsive and visually appealing web pages. It will help you customize your Angular components and improve user experience.

  • JavaScript: Angular heavily depends on modern JavaScript (ES6+), including features like classes, arrow functions, and promises. Familiarity with JavaScript will help you manage dynamic behavior and asynchronous tasks efficiently in Angular apps.

  • TypeScript: Angular is written in TypeScript, a superset of JavaScript. A basic knowledge of TypeScript syntax, including types and interfaces, is important for writing cleaner, more scalable code in Angular applications.

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Beginner
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2 Quizzes

Angular version history#

Since its initial release, Angular has had a rich history of continuous improvement. It started as AngularJS, and after a major overhaul, the framework was renamed simply Angular. With each version, Angular has evolved to become more powerful, flexible, and developer-friendly.

Timeline of Angular versions
Timeline of Angular versions

What are the differences between Angular versions?#

Let’s look at the major versions and their key features:

Version

Release Year

Key Features

Angular 1.x (AngularJS)

2010

  • Two-way data binding

  • Directives

  • Dependency injection

Angular 2

2016

  • TypeScript-based development

  • Component-driven architecture

  • Improved performance and modularity

Angular 4

2017

  • Performance improvements

  • Smaller bundle sizes

Angular 5

2017

  • Improvements to the build process

  • Introduced ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation by default

Angular 6

2018

  • Introduced tree shakingIt eliminates unused code from the final bundle.

  • ng update for easier version upgrades

Angular 7

2018

  • Introduced the Angular CLI schematics

Angular 8

2019

  • Introduced the Ivy renderer

  • Lazy loading of modules

Angular 9

2020

  • Made Ivy the default renderer

Angular 10

2020

  • Introduced stricter type checking

  • Improved performance

Angular 11

2020

  • Introduced new features like global type inference

  • Improved performance

Angular 12

2021

  • Improved developer experience

  • Support for Tailwind CSS

Angular 13

2021

  • Improvements to the build process

  • Standalone components

Angular 14

2022

  • Strict mode by default

  • Improved performance

Angular 15

2022

  • Improvements to the build process

  • Standalone components and router enhancements

Angular 16

2023

  • Signals

  • Improved performance

Angular 17

2023

  • Standalone components

  • Router enhancements

  • Improved TypeScript experience

Angular 18

2024

  • Enhancements to the NgOptimizedImage directive

  • Incorporated contributions from the Angular community

With the latest version (Angular 18, at the time of writing), the framework prioritizes developer efficiency, performance, and scalability, solidifying its place as one of the most powerful tools for building modern web applications.

Setting up the Angular development environment#

Before writing our first line of Angular code, let’s set up our development environment:

Step 1: Install Node.js#

Angular relies on Node.js and npm (Node Package Manager). Download and install Node.js from Node.js official websitehttps://nodejs.org/. This will also install npm, which you will need to manage Angular packages.

Step 2: Install the Angular CLI#

Angular CLI (command-line interface) is a tool that simplifies Angular development by providing commands for project generation, building, and testing. To install it, open a terminal and run the following command:

npm install -g @angular/cli

Step 3: Verify the installation#

To check if Angular CLI is installed correctly, run the following command:

ng version

Creating the first Angular app (Hello world!)#

Once the CLI is installed, you can create your first Angular project.

  1. Open your terminal and navigate to the directory where you want to create your project.

  2. Run the following command:

ng new my-first-angular-app

  1. The CLI will ask you some questions about your project setup. You can select according to your project requirements. For now, we’ll go with the defaults:

    • Would you like to add Angular routing? Yes

    • Which style sheet format would you like to use? CSS

    • Do you want to enable server-side rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG/Prerendering)? Yes

  1. Once the project is created, navigate into the project folder:

cd my-first-angular-app

  1. Start the development server:

ng serve

  1. Open your browser and go to http://localhost:4200. You should see the default Angular application running!

Angular project structure#

When you create a new Angular project, the CLI generates a file structure. Here’s an overview of the key files and directories:

my-first-angular-app/
│
├── angular.json
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
└── src/
    ├── main.ts
    ├── index.html
    └── app/
        ├── app.component.css
        ├── app.component.html
        └── app.component.ts
The directory structure of an Angular project

Let’s discuss the directory:

  • angular.json: This is the configuration file for your Angular project.

  • package.json: This file is used to manage project dependencies and scripts.

  • tsconfig.json: This file contains the TypeScript compiler configuration.

  • src: This is the source directory where most of your code will live.

    • main.ts: This is the entry point for your application.

    • index.html: This is the root HTML file of your application.

    • app: This is the main directory for your application’s components. It contains the HTML, CSS and TypeScript files of the app component.

Building blocks of Angular#

There are several building blocks of Angular. Let’s look at them one by one.

Angular components#

Components are the heart of Angular applications. Each component consists of the HTML template, CSS styles, and TypeScript class. Let’s create our first component:

  1. Open the terminal and navigate into the project folder. Run the following command:

ng generate component hello-world

  1. This creates a new folder src/app/hello-world/ with four files:

    • hello-world.component.ts: The component logic

    • hello-world.component.html: The component template

    • hello-world.component.css: The component-specific styles

    • hello-world.component.spec.ts: For unit tests

  1. Open hello-world.component.ts and modify it:

import { Component } from '@angular/core'; // Importing the Component decorator
// The @Component decorator marks this class as an Angular component
@Component({
  selector: 'app-hello-world',  // selector is a custom HTML tag where this component will be used
  templateUrl: './hello-world.component.html',  // templateUrl points to the HTML template file for this component
  styleUrls: ['./hello-world.component.css']    // styleUrls points to the CSS file(s) for this component's styling
})
export class HelloWorldComponent {
  message: string = 'Hello, Angular World!';    // Declaring a property 'message' to hold the text that will display in the component
}
The hello-word.component.ts file

  1. Now, edit hello-world.component.html:

<h1>{{ message }}</h1>

  1. To use this component, open app.component.html and add:

<app-hello-world></app-hello-world>

  1. Refresh your browser, and you should see your new component in action.

Angular modules#

An Angular module, or NgModule, is a container for a cohesive block of code dedicated to an application domain, a workflow, or a closely related set of capabilities. It can contain components, service providers, and other code files whose scope is defined by the containing NgModule.

Every Angular application has at least one module: the root module, conventionally named AppModule. Let’s look at a basic AppModule:

// Importing required decorators, modules, and components
import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import { HelloWorldComponent } from './hello-world/hello-world.component';
@NgModule({
  // declarations is an array where you declare all the components
  declarations: [
    AppComponent,   // Root component of the application
    HelloWorldComponent   // Custom component for displaying a "Hello, World!" message
  ],
  // imports specifies the external Angular modules required for this module to function
  imports: [
    BrowserModule   // Enables the app to run in the browser
  ],
  // providers is where you specify any services needed across this module (empty here)
  providers: [],
  // bootstrap defines the root component that Angular should load when the app starts
  bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})
// Exporting the AppModule class, which defines this as the root module of the Angular application
export class AppModule { }
The src/app/app.module.ts file

As your application grows, you might want to organize it into feature modules. These are modules dedicated to specific functionality in your application. Here’s how you might create a feature module:

  1. Generate a new module using Angular CLI:

ng generate module Users

  1. This creates a new file users.module.ts:

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { CommonModule } from '@angular/common';
@NgModule({
  declarations: [],
  imports: [
    CommonModule  // Provides basic Angular directives and functionalities required by this module
  ]
})
export class UsersModule { }
The users.module.ts file

  1. You can then add components related to users in this module:

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { CommonModule } from '@angular/common';
import { UserListComponent } from './user-list/user-list.component';
import { UserProfileComponent } from './user-profile/user-profile.component';
@NgModule({
  declarations: [UserListComponent, UserProfileComponent],
  imports: [
    CommonModule  
  ],
  // exports specifies the components that should be accessible to other modules
  exports: [UserListComponent, UserProfileComponent]
})
export class UsersModule { }
Adding components to the users.module.ts file

  1. Finally, import this feature module into your AppModule:

import { UsersModule } from './users/users.module';
@NgModule({
  // ...
  imports: [
    BrowserModule,
    UsersModule   // Imports the UsersModule to make its components available throughout the app
  ],
  // ...
})
export class AppModule { }
The src/app/app.module.ts file

The modules help organize and encapsulate the code into manageable, reusable units. They also enable advanced features like lazy loading, significantly improving your app’s performance as it scales.

Data binding in Angular#

Data binding is one of Angular’s most powerful features. It allows the automatic synchronization of data between the model and the view. Angular offers several ways to bind data:

  1. Interpolation: We’ve already seen the binding data from the component to the view.

<h1>{{ message }}</h1>

  1. Property binding: We can use binding DOM properties to component fields.

<img [src]="imagePath">

  1. Event binding: Handling user events like clicks.

<button (click)="onClick()">Click Me!</button>

  1. Two-way binding: Binding data both ways using ngModel.

<input [(ngModel)]="name">

Directives in Angular#

Angular directives allow you to extend HTML with new behaviors. Let’s look at some common built-in directives:

  1. ngIf: This directive conditionally renders an element based on a boolean expression.

<p *ngIf="showMessage">This message is conditionally rendered.</p>
An example of the ngIf directive

  1. ngFor: This directive is used for rendering lists of elements.

<ul>
  <li *ngFor="let item of items">{{ item }}</li>
</ul>
An example of the ngFor directive

  1. ngClass: This directive allows you to dynamically add or remove CSS classes.

<div [ngClass]="{'active': isActive, 'disabled': isDisabled}">
  Dynamic classes
</div>
An example of the ngClass directive

Angular services and dependency injection#

Services in Angular are used to share data and functionality across components. Angular uses dependency injection (DI) to inject services into components. Let’s create a simple data service:

  1. Run the following command to generate a new service using Angular CLI:

ng generate service data

  1. Edit the data.service.ts file:

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
@Injectable({
  providedIn: 'root' // providedIn: root means this service is available application-wide as a singleton
})
export class DataService {
  // Declaring a private property 'data' to hold an array of strings
  private data: string[] = ['Item 1', 'Item 2', 'Item 3'];
  // Method to retrieve the current data array
  getData(): string[] {
    return this.data;
  }
  // Method to add a new item to the data array
  addData(item: string): void {
    this.data.push(item);
  }
}
The data.service.ts file

  1. Inject and use this service in a component:

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { DataService } from '../data.service';
@Component({
  selector: 'app-data-display',
  // Defining the inline template for this component
  template: `
    <ul>
      <li *ngFor="let item of items">{{ item }}</li>
    </ul>
    <button (click)="addItem()">Add Item</button>
  `
})
export class DataDisplayComponent {
  // Declaring items property to hold the list of items from the DataService
  items: string[];
  // Injecting the DataService into the component through the constructor
  constructor(private dataService: DataService) {
    // Initializing items with data fetched from the DataService
    this.items = this.dataService.getData();
  }
  addItem(): void {
    this.dataService.addData('New Item');     // Adding a new item through DataService
    this.items = this.dataService.getData();  // Updating items to reflect the latest data
  }
}
Using the DataService in the component

Routing in Angular#

Angular’s routing allows you to create and navigate single-page applications with multiple views (pages). Let’s set up some basic routing:

  1. We already set up routing when we created our project. Open app-routing.module.ts.

  2. Add some routes:

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { RouterModule, Routes } from '@angular/router';
import { HelloWorldComponent } from './hello-world/hello-world.component';
import { DataDisplayComponent } from './data-display/data-display.component';
// Defining the available routes for the application
const routes: Routes = [
  { path: '', redirectTo: '/hello', pathMatch: 'full' },
  { path: 'hello', component: HelloWorldComponent },
  { path: 'data', component: DataDisplayComponent }
];
@NgModule({
  // Importing the RouterModule and configuring it with the defined routes
  imports: [RouterModule.forRoot(routes)],
  // Exporting RouterModule so it can be used in the AppModule and make the router accessible to other components
  exports: [RouterModule]
})
export class AppRoutingModule { }
Adding routes to the routing.module.ts file

  1. In app.component.html, add navigation and a router outletThe directive acts as a placeholder in your app's template. Based on the current route, Angular dynamically loads the component associated with that route into the router-outlet.:

<nav>
  <a routerLink="/hello">Hello World</a> |
  <a routerLink="/data">Data Display</a>
</nav>
<!-- <router-outlet> is a placeholder that Angular uses to dynamically insert routed views here -->
<router-outlet></router-outlet>
Adding navigation to the app.component.html file

Forms in Angular#

Angular provides two types of forms: template-driven forms and Reactive forms. Template-driven forms are simple and rely on Angular’s directives like ngModel, while reactive forms are more structured and maintain the state in the component.

Here’s an example of a template-driven form:

<form #myForm="ngForm" (ngSubmit)="onSubmit(myForm)">
  <input name="name" ngModel required>
  <button type="submit">Submit</button>
</form>
An example of a template-driven form

Conclusion and next steps#

You’ve taken your first steps into the world of Angular development. We’ve covered the basics of components, modules, data binding, directives, services, routing, and forms. But remember, this is just the beginning. Angular has so much more to offer, including:

  • Forms and validation

  • HTTP client for backend communication

  • Pipes for data transformation

  • Animations for visual aesthetics

  • Advanced component communication

  • State management with NgRx

  • Testing with Jasmine and Karma

As you continue your journey, remember that doing is the best way to learn. Start building your projects, experiment with different features, and explore the official Angular documentation.

If you’re already familiar with the basics of web development and want to deepen your skills, consider taking the following Angular course.

Cover
Learning Angular

In this course, you will learn Angular, which is currently among the top JavaScript frameworks. More developers are now seeking the best way to get started with this flexible and secure framework. You will learn how to achieve cross-platform high performance with the latest web techniques. You will begin with the basics of an Angular application, including its project structure. Then, you will learn about the basics of TypeScript and its importance in type checking. Next, you will cover how to create components and use pipes and directives in Angular. You’ll progress to cover event handling, navigation, and routing. You will end this course by learning how to create unit tests and debug an Angular application to prepare it for production. After completing this course, you will gain essential skills to develop apps by harnessing the power of the Angular command-line interface (CLI), write unit tests, style your apps by following the Material Design guidelines, and finally, deploy them to a hosting provider.

70hrs
Intermediate
137 Playgrounds
14 Quizzes

Once familiar with the basics, focus on real-world projects to gain hands-on experience creating dynamic, scalable single-page applications. Educative offers many hands-on Angular projects—here are two to get you started:

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I start learning Angular?

To start learning Angular, follow a structured and step-by-step approach:

  1. Set up your development environment: Install Node.js, npm, and the Angular CLI to start with Angular development.

  2. Learn TypeScript basics: Understand TypeScript, as Angular is built on it. Focus on key concepts like classes, interfaces, and decorators.

  3. Explore Angular core features: Familiarize yourself with Angular’s building blocks:

    • Components: Define and control the UI.
    • Modules: Organize your application into logical sections.
    • Services: Share data and functionality across components.

  4. Work on projects: To reinforce your understanding, apply what you learn by building small projects, such as a to-do app or a weather dashboard.

  5. Leverage online resources: Utilize tutorials, official Angular documentation, and structured learning paths, like Getting Started with Angular, on platforms such as Educative.

This systematic approach will help you build a solid foundation in Angular development and prepare you to tackle more advanced topics.

Is Angular easy for beginners?

Is learning AngularJS necessary for Angular?

  

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