Angular Versions and Versioning

In this article we are going to discuss angular versions and versioning in detail. Please read our previous article where we gave a brief introduction to the angular framework. At the end of this article, you will understand the different angular versions and in each version what are the new features introduced as well as what improves. Till now (26/May/2021) Google has released 12 versions of angular, they are as follows:

AngularJS

The AngularJS is an open-source JavaScript-based framework which is used for developing Single-Page Applications (SPA). It was first released by Google in the year 2010 and it is maintained by Google and a community of individuals and corporations. Some of the features of Angular JS are as follows:

• It is based on the model–view–controller (MVC) and model–view–View-Model (MVVM) architecture.
• The current stable version is 1.6.10.
• Angular development code is written in JavaScript
• It extends the HTML supports by adding tags, attributes, and expressions.
• It provides event handling in a simpler manner as well as provides a built-in template and routing.
• Some of the important features are Form Validation, Dependency Injection, Animations, etc

Angular 2

The Angular 2 Framework is completely re-write from its original Angular 1 or Angular JS and this is completely re-write from the scratch using the Typescript language. It was released in September 2016 by Google. Some of the features of Angular 2 are as follow:

It is a faster, Modern, and highly scalable JavaScript framework
By default Angular 2 applications are mobile-friendly.
It supports many languages such as ES5, ES6, Typescript or Dar to write Angular 2 code.
It is based on Component-based architecture.

Angular 4

On 13 December 2016 Angular 4 was announced, skipping 3 to avoid a confusion due to the misalignment of the router package’s version which was already distributed as v3.3.0. The final version was released on March 23, 2017. Angular 4 is backward compatible with Angular 2. Some of the features of Angular 4 are as follow:

• Introducing HttpClient, a smaller, easier to use, and more powerful library for making HTTP Requests.
• New router life cycle events for Guards and Resolvers. Four new events: GuardsCheckStart, GuardsCheckEnd, ResolveStart, ResolveEnd join the existing set of life cycle event such as NavigationStart.
• Conditionally disable animations.

Angular 5

Angular 5 was released on November 1, 2017. Key improvements in Angular 5 include support for progressive web apps, a build optimizer and improvements related to Material Design. Some of the features of Angular 5 are as follow:

• Http Deprecated, HttpClient Here to Stay.
• Support for Multiple Export Alias in Angular 5.
• Internationalized Number, Date, and Currency Pipes.
• Improved Decorator Support in Angular 5.
• Build Optimization.
• Angular Universal Transfer API.
• Faster Compiler in Angular 5.

Angular 6

Angular 6 was released on May 4, 2018. This is a major release focused less on the underlying framework and more on the toolchain and on making it easier to move quickly with Angular in the future, like: ng update, ng add, Angular Elements, Angular Material + CDK Components, Angular Material Starter Components, CLI Workspaces, Library Support, Tree Shakable Providers, Animations Performance Improvements, and RxJS v6. Some of the features of Angular 6 are as follow:

• Angular Elements- Angular is a perfect framework for developing Single Page Applications.
• Service Worker Support. Service workers are basically scripts which run in the web browser and manage to cache an application.
• Bye, Bye Template Element.
• i18n.
• Ivy: New Rendering Engine.
• ngModelChange.
• ElementRef<T>
• Bazel Compiler.

Angular 7

Angular 7 was released on October 18, 2018. Updates regarding Application Performance, Angular Material & CDK, Virtual Scrolling, Improved Accessibility of Selects, now supports Content Projection using web standard for custom elements, and dependency updates regarding Typescript 3.1, RxJS 6.3, Node 10 (still supporting Node 8). Some of the features of Angular 7 are as follow:

• CLI prompts. In Angular 7, the CLI prompts have been updated to v7.
• Angular material & component dev kit (CDK)
• Drag & drop.
• Virtual scrolling.
• Application performance improvements.
• No Ivy.
• Documentation updates.
• Dependency updates.

Angular 8

Angular 8 was released on May 28, 2019. Featuring Differential loading for all application code, Dynamic imports for lazy routes, Web workers, TypeScript 3.4 support, and Angular Ivy as an opt-in preview. Angular Ivy opt-in preview includes:

• Generated code that is easier to read and debug at runtime
• Faster re-build time
• Improved payload size
• Improved template type checking
• Backwards compatibility

Angular 9

Angular 9 was released on February 6, 2020. Version 9 moves all applications to use the Ivy compiler and runtime by default. Angular has been updated to work with TypeScript 3.6 and 3.7. In addition to hundreds of bug fixes, the Ivy compiler and runtime offers numerous advantages:

• Smaller bundle sizes
• Faster testing
• Better debugging
• Improved CSS class and style binding
• Improved type checking
• Improved build errors
• Improved build times, enabling AOT on by default
• Improved Internationalization

Angular 10

Angular 10 was released on June 24, 2020.

• New Date Range Picker (Material UI library)
• Warnings about CommonJS imports
• Optional Stricter Settings
• Keeping Up to Date with the Ecosystem
• New Default Browser Configuration
• Deprecations and Removals

Angular 11

Angular 11 was released on November 11, 2020. Some of the features of Angular 11 are as follow:

• Automatic Inlining of Fonts.
• Component Test Harnesses.
• Improved Reporting and Logging.
• Updated Language Service Preview.
• Updated Hot Module Replacement (HMR) Support.
• Faster Builds.
• Experimental webpack 5 Support.

Angular 12

Angular 12 was released on May 12, 2021. Some of the features of Angular 11 are as follow:

• Moving Closer to Ivy Everywhere.
• Transitioning from Legacy i18n Message IDs.
• The Future of Protractor.
• Nullish Coalescing.
• Learning Angular.
• Stylish Improvements.
• More Great Features.
• Deprecating Support for IE11.

Conclusion

So far in this article we have discussed angular versions and versioning with details. if you have any feedback then please free to write to us.