Angular is one of the most popular frameworks for building modern web applications. It provides a comprehensive set of tools and features for developing scalable, maintainable, and performant applications. However, as Angular has grown in popularity and functionality, it has also become a little bit more complex and slightly harder for developers to understand and work with.
To address these challenges, the Angular team introduced Angular Ivy, a new renderer for Angular that aims to improve performance, size, and developer experience. In this blog post, I'll explore what Angular Ivy is, when it was introduced, and how it's different from previous renderers.
What is Angular Ivy?
Angular Ivy is a complete rewrite of Angular's rendering engine. It's designed to be faster, more efficient, and more scalable than previous renderers. Ivy also introduces new features and improvements, such as ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation by default, improved error handling, and more flexible and modular architecture.
When was Angular Ivy introduced?
Angular Ivy was first introduced in Angular version 9 and became the default renderer in Angular starting from version 9. With Angular Ivy, developers can now enjoy improved performance, smaller application sizes, and faster build times.
Previous renderers in Angular
Before Angular Ivy, Angular used two main renderers: View Engine and Render3.
View Engine was the original renderer in Angular and was used up until Angular version 8. It was known for its performance and stability, but it had some limitations, such as a lack of tree-shaking support and larger bundle sizes.
Render3 was introduced in Angular version 8 and aimed to address some of the limitations of View Engine. It introduced improvements such as improved error handling and more efficient change detection. However, Render3 was still considered to be a work in progress and had some performance limitations compared to View Engine.
How is Angular Ivy better?
Angular Ivy represents a major improvement over previous renderers in Angular. Here are some of the key benefits:
Faster performance: Angular Ivy is faster than previous renderers and offers improved runtime performance. This means that applications built with Ivy will load faster and run smoother.
Smaller application sizes: Angular Ivy offers a more modular and flexible architecture, allowing developers to select only the parts of Angular that they need for their specific application. This results in smaller application sizes and faster build times.
Improved developer experience: Angular Ivy introduces new features and improvements, such as improved error handling and more efficient change detection. This makes it easier for developers to understand and work with Angular applications.
Ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation: Angular Ivy enables ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation by default, resulting in faster load times and improved runtime performance.
Angular Ivy represents a major step forward for Angular and offers a host of benefits for developers. With its faster performance, smaller application sizes, and improved developer experience, Ivy is sure to make Angular an even more popular choice for building modern web applications. If you're looking to start a new Angular project, we recommend giving Ivy a try!
What is an Angular rendering engine?
Angular rendering engine aka renderer is the part of the Angular framework that is responsible for rendering the view of a component, transforming the component's template into actual HTML elements on the page. The Angular renderer takes care of rendering components, updating the DOM, and handling events and interactions.
The Angular renderer is responsible for interpreting the component's template and creating the necessary HTML elements, CSS styles, and JavaScript code to display the component on the page. It also interacts with the Angular change detection mechanism to keep the view up-to-date with the component's data.