The Angular team is rapidly moving ahead and bringing brand new versions of the framework with some groundbreaking upgrades and improvements. The team already launched the v12 back in May 2021 and just after six months, they have come up with a new v13 upgrade with a goal to make Angular better.

Google’s TypeScript-Based Angular v13 web application development framework is available to update from Nov 3, 2021. And the team at ashutec has come up with the noteworthy changes and new features part of the Angular 13 that makes it tick for enterprise frontend development. We’ll also discuss the future of Angular 14 and when it is expected to arrive.

Let’s start off with the glimpses of the Angular v13 upgrades:

• View Engine is completely deprecated.
• Support for IE11 (Internet Explorer11) is removed.
• Approx. 68% faster production build thanks to persistence build-cache.
• Modernized Angular Package Format (APF).
• Component API Updates for simplification.
• Dependency update from RxJS v6.X to RxJS 7.4
• Support for TypeScript 4.4
• Important Improvement in TestBed for efficient testing of applications.
• Accessibility (a11y) enhancements for MDC-based components of Angular Material.
• And many more suggested by community contributors.

Let’s get deeper into all the noteworthy upgrades and improvements included in Angular v13:

Angular v13 and What Makes it Tick for Enterprise Frontend Development?

1. CLI Improvements for Faster Prod Build

Angular CLI is one of the important key instruments for a faster modern web development ecosystem. Without Command Line Interface, developers wouldn’t be able to deal with the build complexity. And Angular CLI aids in the faster production build.

Onward from this latest Angular version, the framework now will use the persistence build-cache by default. It is a feature in Angular to cache build results under the .angular/cache folder on disk. Feedback from contributors on one of the Git Repositories led to this change, which has improved the build speed by 68% and also enabled more ergonomic options.

Further, ESBuild went through some performance improvements as the newly introduced esbuild now works with terser for global script optimization.

2. View Engine Deprecated & Ivy Everywhere

At the time of releasing Angular v12, the team already hinted that Ivy will go mainstream and the View Engine will be deprecated in a future release. With the arrival of Angular 13, this has come true and View Engine is no longer supported.

Angular has bid adieu to the View Engine to welcome the next generation of Ivy-based features that boost the productivity of development and time-to-market for product owners. Another benefit of View Engine removal is the reduction of Angular’s reliance on ngcc (Angular Compatibility Compiler) in the future for faster compilation as metadata and summary files are no longer included.

3. IE11 No Longer Supported

Since we are talking about removing support for older, non-useful technologies, Internet Explorer 11 has also been eliminated from Angular v13. Dropping IE11 support from Angular v13 is important as it enables the framework to use the native web browser features such as web animations and CSS variables.

Since the IE-specific polyfills and code paths are removed completely, web apps will be smaller and can load quicker. Also, it removed differential loading that enables end-users to enjoy faster loading times and enhanced user experience — something that enterprises desire.

4. Component API Updates

The previous versions of Angular required a lot of boilerplate code for dynamically creating components. But with the introduction of Ivy, the dynamic creation of components has improved significantly.

The new API component updates included in Angular 13 remove the need of using ComponentFactoryResolver in the constructor. Also, Ivy will represent the component using ViewContainerRef.CreateComponent without needing to create the related factory.

Many more such API component updates are under development and will get introduced by the Ivy. These updates and changes will aid enterprise applications to run smoothly and efficiently.

5. Changes in Angular Package Format

Angular Package Format (APF) is refined and modernized to meet the demands of enterprise and complex level application development. The Angular team at Google has removed older input formats that include View Engine-specific metadata, which streamlines the APF in Angular 13.

The APF now uses modern JS formats such as ES Modules and ES2020 which means libraries in Angular v13 APF no longer need to use the ngcc. Another great thing about this update is that updated APF now supports the Node Package Exports. This inclusion enables developers to inadvertently rely on Internal APIs that may change.

6. Dependency Updates and Support for TypeScript 4.4

Angular V13 also packs many other helpful and important dependency updates. First is introducing the support for RxJS 7.4 and dropping for RxJS v6.4. This update is enabled by default for apps created using ng new and apps using the previous version will have to manually update to get aboard the RxJS 7.4.

Further support for TypeScript 4.4 will enable developers to leverage tons of amazing features the language has to offer. The latest Angular version also drops support for TypeScript 4.2 and 4.3. Notably, this change is made keeping the benefits for enterprise applications development in mind.

7. Improvements In Testing

Angular v13 also packs some important improvements in the testing environment. TestBed in Angular 13 does a better job of testing applications by tearing down the test modules and learn the DOM automatically. The new and improved test API decreases the test time in TestBed. All these lead to faster, better isolated, and less memory-intensive tests.

The feature was introduced in v12.1.0 and has been made default to apply where it makes more sense for the project and its testing.

Other Major Improvements in Angular v13 includes:

• Angular 13 now support Adobe Fonts in addition to Google Fonts. This would speed up the First Contentful Paint and enhance the performance of Angular-based apps.
• Introduced new types of forms, which are unions of all possible status strings.
• Improvement in Accessibility A11y in Angular Material. Components are optimized for better accessibility.
• Disabling and enabling the built-in min, max, and minLength dynamically.
• Improvement in the error messages for platform browser.
• Localization API improvements.

Final Words

Angular Framework continuous to surprise its community with the steller feature upgrades and improvements it brings in each version upgrade. Most likely this trend will continue with the release of Angular v14 that is expected to arrive in May 2022. For more information about these updates and improvements in Angular 13, read their official release note here.