Angular 16 New Features

Angular 16 is the latest version of the popular frontend framework Angular, released on May 3, 2023. It brings significant improvements and updates in reactivity, server-side rendering, tooling, and more.

Some of the new features in Angular 16 are:

●     Rethinking Reactivity: Angular 16 introduces a new reactivity model that aims to improve the runtime performance and developer experience of Angular applications. It allows you to define signals, computed values, and effects that clearly specify the dependencies and data flow of your view.

●     Angular Signals: Angular Signals are a new way of managing data in Angular applications. They are observable values that can be updated and subscribed to. They are interoperable with RxJS and can be used to trigger change detection.

●     RxJS interoperability: Angular 16 supports using RxJS observables as signals, computed values, and effects. This means we can use RxJS operators and utilities to manipulate data in your Angular application.

●     Server-side rendering hydration enhanced: Angular 16 improves the server-side rendering (SSR) support by allowing us to reuse the existing DOM nodes that were pre-rendered on the server. This can improve the page load performance and reduce flickering.

●     Improved tooling experience for standalone components, pipes, and directives: Angular 16 provides migration schematics and a standalone migration guide to help you transition our code to standalone APIs. This can reduce the boilerplate code and make your components, pipes, and directives more reusable.

●     Advancing developer tooling: Angular 16 introduces new builders based on esbuild, a fast JavaScript bundler. This can significantly improve the build times of your Angular application. It also integrates with Vite, a fast development server that uses native ES modules  .

●     Required inputs: Angular 16 allows us to mark component and directive inputs as required. This means that if you use a component or directive without specifying all of its required inputs, Angular will report an error at build time. This can help us catch bugs and enforce best practices.

Here are some examples of how to use these new features in Angular 16:

●     To create a signal, use the `signal` function:

import { signal } from '@angular/core'; 

const counter = signal(0); // create a signal with initial value 0

counter.value++; // update the signal value

counter.subscribe(value => console.log(value)); // subscribe to the signal value

●     To create a computed value, use the `computed` function:

import { computed } from '@angular/core'; 

const counter = signal(0); // create a signal

const doubled = computed(() => counter.value * 2); // create a computed value based on the signal

doubled.subscribe(value => console.log(value)); // subscribe to the computed value

●     To create an effect, use the `effect` function:

import { effect } from '@angular/core'; 

const counter = signal(0); // create a signal

effect(() => console.log(counter.value)); // create an effect that runs whenever the signal changes

●     To use RxJS observables as signals, computed values, or effects, use the `fromRx` function:

import { fromRx } from '@angular/core';

import { interval } from 'rxjs'; 

const timer = fromRx(interval(1000)); // create a signal from an RxJS observable

timer.subscribe(value => console.log(value)); // subscribe to the signal value

●     To enable enhanced hydration for SSR, use the `enableHydration` function in your main.ts file: