gdayx 2013 - advanced angularjs - nicolas embleton

Angular.JSAdvanced Angular.JS - GDayX VN 2013

About me

Nicolas Embleton, French in Ho Chi Minh City

• 2005 - Software Engineer and System Architect, working on legacy tech stacks (C++, OpenGL, Java, ...) then quickly Web (PHP)

• 2009 - Founded a Mobile Development Company of 30 individuals

• 2011 - Started Datafield Startup, Co-founder, CTO

• 2013 - Started the Javascript Ho Chi Minh City meetup, Getting active in Startup Vietnamese scene to support and mentor young talents

Agenda

• Quick Intro

• Bootstrapping

• Why Angular?

• Main features, and why it's awesome

• Best practices

• Testing, tooling

• And SEO?

• Final words

Intro (quick)

From Wikipedia:

AngularJS is built around the belief that declarative programming should be used for building UIs and

wiring software components, while imperative programming is excellent for expressing business

logic. The framework adapts and extends traditional HTML to better serve dynamic content through two-way data-

binding that allows for the automatic synchronization of models and views. As a result, AngularJS deemphasizes DOM

manipulation and improves testability.

Angular JS quick review

• Templating

• Model View Controller (MVC)

• Extends HTML (very flexible)

• 2-ways Data-binding

• Very reusable (if you follow best practices)

• Improves testability (because it is reusable)

• Provides routing, history, jqLite, ...

Bootstrapping

• Using angular-seeds

o git clone https://github.com/angular/angular-seed.git

o node scripts/web-server.js

o open http://localhost:8000/app/index.html

• Using yeoman (excellent workflow tool)

o (sudo) npm install -g yo

o (sudo) npm install -g generator-angular

o yo angular

o bower install angular-ui

o grunt server

Now, the meat, the main features

• Templating

• Routing

• 2-ways data-binding

• Directives, services

• Dependency Injection

• Inter-components Communication

Templating• Models

o 2-way binding

o Easy property mapping

• Built-in directives

o ngView

� Where the routing happens

o ngRepeat

� Iterator

o ngIf

o ngSwitch

Templating - Conditional with ngIf

<div ng-repeat="message in data.messages" ng-class="message.type">

<hr>

<div ng-if="showFrom(message)">

<div>From: {{message.from.name}}</div>

</div>

<div ng-if="showCreatedBy(message)">

<div>Created by: {{message.createdBy.name}}</div>

</div>

<div ng-if="showTo(message)">

<div>To: {{message.to.name}}</div>

</div>

</div>

Templating - Nested repeat

<div ng-repeat="group in groups"><!-- 1st ng-repeat level -->

<h2>{{ group.label }}</h2>

<ul>

<li ng-repeat="friend in group.friends">

<!-- 2nd ng-repeat level -->

{{ friend.name }}

</li>

</ul><!-- END: Inner ngRepeat. -->

</div><!-- END: Outer ngRepeat. -->

Templating - Example 2 - Switch

<div ng-switch on="selection" >

<div ng-switch-when="settings">Settings Div</div>

<span ng-switch-when="home">Home Span</span>

<span ng-switch-default>default</span>

</div>

Example 2.2 - Switch with 2-way bind

<div ng-controller="Ctrl">

<select ng-model="selection" ng-options="item for item in items">

</select>

<tt>selection={{selection}}</tt>

<hr/>

<div class="animate-switch-container"

ng-switch on="selection">

<div ng-switch-when="settings">Settings Div</div>

<div ng-switch-when="home">Home Span</div>

<div ng-switch-default>default</div>

</div>

</div>

Templating - Simple ngRepeat

<li ng-repeat="item in items">

Item: {{ item }}

</li>

Templating - Complex ngRepeat

<header ng-repeat-start="item in items">

Header {{ item }}

</header>

<div class="body">

Body {{ item }}

</div>

<footer ng-repeat-end>

Footer {{ item }}

</footer>

Compiling

// compile the new DOM and link it to the current scope.

// NOTE: we only compile .childNodes so that

// we don't get into infinite loop compiling ourselves

$compile(element.contents())(scope);

Templating - Routing

• Happens in ngView

• Routing is a very powerful feature

• Allows to update "pieces" of the page

• Can stream files from disk to make it truly isolated

2-ways data-binding

• Becoming more standard, thanks to frameworks like Ember.js or Angular.js

• Linking 2 fields for synchronization purpose

• Linking data to model

• Automatically updating the template as data is changed

o Arrays / Collections

o Inputs

o etc…

• Example

2-ways data-binding, example

<input type="text" ng-model="title" style="width: 90%"/>

<div ng-app="myapp">

<div ng-controller="mycontroller">

Title: {{ title }} <!-- 2-way data binding -->

<hr>

<div class="zippy" zippy-title="title"></div>

</div>

</div>

Directives

• Angular.js killer feature

• Great deal of re-usability

• Just look for directives at ngmodules.org

Restricting Directives

• "E": Element, <my-directive>

• "A": Attribute, <div my-directive>

• "C": Class, <div class="my-directive">

• "M": Comment: <!-- directive: my-directive exp -->

• Combine (e.g. "EA") for more flexibility

Communicating between directives

• Many design patterns

• The "backbonier"

o the emitter and the receiver

• A more connected example

o the directive combinations and controller sharing

Communicating between directives

app.directive('directiveA', function($rootScope){ // $rootScope = App Scope

return function(scope, element, attrs) { // scope = Current scope (ctrl)

$rootScope.$on('someEvent', function(){

// From here we can react anytime there's an event "someEvent" triggered

});

};

});

Communicating between directives

app.directive('gdayx', function() { // Creating the directive

return {

restrict: 'E', // Restricted to "element"

controller: function($scope) { // Creating the controller of the directive

$scope.what = ""; // Local data

this.is = function(what) { // External accessor

$scope.what = what;

}

},

link: function($scope, $element){

$element.bind("click", function() { // Binding on click

alert("GDayX is "+$scope.what); // Getting content from the Controller.

});

}

}

});

Communicating between directives

// This directive will "send" data to the first directive

app.directive('is', function() { // Creating the directive

return {

require: "gdayx", // Requiring the "gdayx" controller

restrict: 'A', // Restricting to "attribute"

link: function(scope, element, attrs, gdayxCtrl) {

// gdayxCtrl from the "require: 'gdayx'"

gdayxCtrl.is(attrs.is); // Passing value to the "gdayx" controller

}

}

});

AngularJS - Why is it awesome?

• Mature, production-ready

• Feature-rich

• The design and what it allows

• Strong support from giants like Google

• A lot of solid companies are embracing it

o Ebay Commerce Network

o DoubleClick (Google) - Marketing Manager & Planner

o YouTube APP on PS3

Best Practices

• Organize the code well (Captain Obvious!)

• Organize modules by feature

angular.module('users', ['utilities']);angular.module('groups', ['utilities']);angular.module('mainApp', ['users', 'groups']);

• Use the reusability as much as possible

• Use the testability as much as possible

o TDD

o BDD?

Testing, tooling

• Yeoman

o Super workflow tool and generator/scaffolder

• Batarang

o Chrome Debugger Extension, (A must have), link

• Grunt

o Task runner

• Bower

o Package Manager for JS Libraries

• Protractor, Karma

o Test Runner

• Jasmine, Mocha

o Test Frameworks

And SEO?

• Google "Snapshot" famous technic

o _escaped_fragment_

o Turns this:

� http://prerender.io/getting-started#html5-pushstate

o Into this:

� http://prerender.io/getting-started?_escaped_fragment_=html5-pushstate

• prerender.io/ - Open Source project

• brombone.com/ - Commercial project

Enterprise project with Angular?

• YES

• BUT

Enterprise project with Angular?

• YES

• BUT

o Follow best practices (easier said than done)

o System Architecture is KEY to a solid system

o As "Agile" would advise, always try to go for simpler but "well-thought" "team-friendly"designs.

Enterprise project with Angular?

• An example Architecture

DB

Backend

(legacy)

Legacy Front End

Experimental Front

End

Experimental Front

End 2

Backend

(experimental)

Server-side team realm Front-End team realm

Final Words

• Angular 1.0.x is mature

• Angular 1.2+ will bring more awesomeness

o Better and Fluid Animations (js/css3)

o More flexibility and functionalities

� $interval: add a service wrapping setInterval

� Event directives: add ngCopy, ngCut, and ngPaste

� jQuery 1.10.x support

DEMO

(if time permits :)

Bootstrapped app

• Let's see a quick Angular App

• Bootstrapped from Yeoman

Where you can find me:

Author: Nicolas Embleton @: nicolas.embleton@gmail.com

Presentation made for “Google Developer Day GDayX 2013 Vietnam”

You can follow me at:

• https://plus.google.com/+NicolasEmbleton

• https://twitter.com/nicolasembleton

And the Javascript Ho Chi Minh City Meetup:

• http://meetup.com/JavaScript-Ho-Chi-Minh-City/

• https://www.facebook.com/JavaScriptHCMC

• https://plus.google.com/communities/116105314977285194967

o Our group is looking for Projects to mentor. If you have a project you want support for, contact me

Resources

Learning

• Learning AngularJS by the example (+60 minutes-ish training video)

• http://www.nganimate.org/

• https://github.com/angular-ui/ui-router

o It's a full "nested-view" library

• http://docs.angularjs.org/guide/dev_guide.templates.databinding

• ng-learn.org

Reusable Components

• http://ngmodules.org/

• http://www.directiv.es/