How to Create Angular 2 Project and Set it Up

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To create an Angular 2 project, you'll need to install the Angular CLI using npm by running the command npm install -g @angular/cli.

The Angular CLI is a command-line interface tool that helps you create, build, and serve Angular applications.

First, create a new Angular project by running ng new project-name, replacing project-name with the desired name for your project.

This will create a new directory for your project, including a src folder that contains the core application code.

Getting Started

To get started with creating an Angular 2 project, you'll need to install Angular CLI. You can do this by running the command ng new GiphySearch in your terminal.

Angular CLI is a powerful tool that helps you understand how to structure your project, set up tests, and more. I personally prefer using it over Yeoman generators for Angular 2, as it's more up-to-date and easier to use.

To start a new app, run the command ng new GiphySearch. You should see an output similar to "CREATE src/main.ts (394 bytes)" and "CREATE src/polyfills.ts (99 bytes)".

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After creating your project, you can run it by navigating to the project directory and running the command ng serve. This will start the development server, and you can view your app by visiting https://localhost:4200/ in your browser.

You'll see the string "app works!" when you visit the app. This is a great starting point, and you can now begin to build and customize your Angular 2 project.

To get started with testing your app, run the command ng test. This will run your unit tests and give you an idea of how your app is performing.

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Project Setup

To start a new Angular 2 project, you can use the Angular CLI package, which you can install globally by running the command "npm install -g @angular/cli" in your terminal.

First, create a new branch for your project and blow away the existing Angular code by deleting the "client" directory. Then, install the angular-cli package globally.

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You can spin up a new Angular 2 project using the command "ng new". Since we'll be keeping our Angular code in the "client" directory, let's rename the "dream-cars" directory to "client".

You can run "ng serve" to start a server on port 4200, and navigate to http://localhost:4200 to see a message that says, "dream-cars works!".

Make sure you're in the correct directory to modify the "angular-cli-build.js" file to fix source map file issues.

Understanding the Tech

Angular 2 is built on top of TypeScript, a superset of JavaScript that adds optional static typing and other features.

TypeScript is a statically typed language, which means it checks the types of variables at compile time, not runtime. This helps catch errors early and improves code maintainability.

Angular 2 uses a component-based architecture, where each component represents a part of the application. Components are self-contained pieces of code that can be reused throughout the application.

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Components are made up of three main parts: a template, a class, and a metadata decorator. The template defines the user interface, the class contains the logic, and the metadata decorator provides additional information to the Angular compiler.

The Angular compiler takes the component's metadata and generates the necessary code to render the component in the browser. This process is called Ahead-of-Time (AOT) compilation.

Angular 2 uses dependency injection to manage dependencies between components. This allows components to be loosely coupled and easier to test.

Dependency injection is a design pattern that provides a way to decouple components from their dependencies. It allows components to receive their dependencies through a constructor, rather than instantiating them directly.

Angular 2 provides several built-in services, such as the HTTP service, that can be used to interact with the application's dependencies. These services are injected into components through dependency injection.

The HTTP service allows components to make requests to a server and receive responses. It's a powerful tool for building data-driven applications.

Angular 2's change detection mechanism is responsible for updating the application's state in response to user interactions. It uses a zone-aware approach to detect changes and update the application accordingly.

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Zone-aware change detection allows Angular to detect changes in the application's state even when the application is running outside of the Angular zone. This ensures that the application remains responsive and up-to-date.

Angular 2's router allows components to be navigated to based on user interactions. The router uses a declarative syntax to define routes and navigate between them.

The router's declarative syntax makes it easy to define routes and navigate between them. It's a powerful tool for building single-page applications.

Angular 2's template language is based on HTML and uses a syntax similar to AngularJS. However, it provides additional features such as two-way data binding and dependency injection.

Two-way data binding allows the application's state to be updated in real-time, without the need for manual updates. It's a powerful feature for building data-driven applications.

Creating the App

Start a new app using angular-cli by running the command ng new GiphySearch.

This command will create a new project, and you should see an output similar to the one shown in the example.

After the command finishes, navigate to the project directory by running cd into the project and then run it.

Your Build Process

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Your Build Process is a crucial step in creating your app.

Run the install command to populate the project.json file, which will pull the required modules.

The Angular CLI will take care of the rest, making it easy to get started.

In the npm step, you'll need to source the ng command from the local node binary directory.

This will allow you to pass the build command along with your target environment in the argument field.

By default, the ng build command publishes everything into the dist directory.

This makes it simple to create a new publish artifact task with the details from the image.

Your build process will now be set up, ready to go.

Creating Some Components

Components are the building blocks of an Angular application, and they can be reused throughout the app to keep the code organized and efficient. We can create components using the ng generate component command, which will automatically give the component a prefix based on the app name.

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The Angular Style Guide recommends giving our selectors application-specific prefixes to avoid naming conflicts. For example, if our app is called Cadence, we could use a cadence- prefix on each of our components.

To create a component, we can use the ng generate component command, which will generate a new component with a template, a TypeScript file, and a selector. We can then use this selector in any template file to display the component.

Let's generate a calendar component using the ng generate component command. We'll put the selector for the CalendarComponent in the AppComponent template, and it will show us the CalendarComponent.

We can also create child components that are nested inside parent components, which is a recommended structure by Angular.

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Enhancing the App

Now that you have a solid Angular 2 project set up, it's time to think about enhancing the app. You can use TypeScript to add type checking and improve code maintainability.

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To take advantage of TypeScript, you need to install the TypeScript compiler and add it to your project. We covered how to do this in the "Installing TypeScript" section. This will help you catch errors and improve your code's overall quality.

One key feature of Angular 2 is its two-way data binding. This means that when the user interacts with the app, the data is automatically updated. We discussed how to set up two-way data binding in the "Setting Up Two-Way Data Binding" section.

Refactoring Appointment Code into a Service

Refactoring code is a crucial step in enhancing the app, and in this case, we're moving the appointment-saving and appointment-retrieving code out of the components and into a service.

Business logic in Angular should be placed in services, not components, as components should only call services that do things.

We'll use Angular CLI to generate a service called AppointmentService, which will contain functions for saving and retrieving appointments.

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The save() function will accept an appointment and contain the code previously used in NewAppointmentComponent to save an appointment.

NewAppointmentComponent can then simply call the service's save() function.

To make the service available to components, we'll add it as a provider.

We'll also create a getList() function in AppointmentService to retrieve appointments, which can be called by CalendarComponent.

By having both save() and getList() functions in the service, we can remove duplication between them by calling getList() to get the list of appointments.

Enhance Appearance

To enhance the appearance of our app, we can start by making it look nicer. We can do this by clearing the appointment form itself when we save an appointment, which can be achieved by calling reset() on the form when the submit button is clicked.

A little padding can also make a big difference in the overall look and feel of our app. It can help to make the form more visually appealing and easier to use.

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We can also give the appointment form a containing gray box, which can help to draw attention to the form and make it stand out on the page. To do this, we'll first give it a class name, and then add the necessary styles to make it look the way we want.

By making these simple changes, we can give our app a more polished and professional look, which can help to make a great impression on our users.

Pulling Data from Server

Navigating to http://localhost:3000/api/cars.json will display some data.

To enable HTTP functionality, you'll need to add it to your application's bootstrap in src/main.ts.

Your Angular server on port 4200 will try to access http://localhost:4200/api/cars.json, which doesn't exist, causing an error.

You can use a proxy to make your Angular server talk to your Rails server on port 3000.

To set up the proxy, kill your Angular server process and run the command to route all XHR requests to port 3000.

Refreshing the browser will resolve the error.

You should now see a list of cars when navigating to http://localhost:4200/car.

Restarting your server is necessary to see the updated data, which can be done by killing the ng serve process and starting it again.

Running the App

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To run an Angular application, you first need to build it. You can build and run applications using either the Angular CLI command or the NPM command.

Use the Angular CLI command ng serve -o to build an application. The -o indicates to open it automatically in the default browser. You can also use the NPM command npm start to build an application, but this internally uses the ng serve command only.

Open a terminal in VS Code and type ng serve -o command and press enter. The ng serve command builds the app, starts the development server, watches the source files, and rebuilds the app as you make changes to those files. It will open your Angular application in the default browser.

The ng serve command keeps watching source files, so if you make any changes in any file of the project, it will rebuild it and refresh the browser automatically to reflect the changes. To stop the automatic build process, press Ctrl + c in the terminal of VS Code.

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To start a new app with Angular CLI, use the command ng new GiphySearch. After this command finishes, you can cd into the project and run it using the command ng serve -o. Your browser should show you the string "app works!" when you visit the app on the link: https://localhost:4200/.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I run two Angular projects at a time?

Yes, you can run multiple Angular projects simultaneously using the Angular CLI's multi-project workspace feature, which allows you to manage multiple apps and projects in a single workspace. This feature is available in Angular CLI version 6 and later.

Ismael Anderson

Lead Writer

Ismael Anderson is a seasoned writer with a passion for crafting informative and engaging content. With a focus on technical topics, he has established himself as a reliable source for readers seeking in-depth knowledge on complex subjects. His writing portfolio showcases a range of expertise, including articles on cloud computing and storage solutions, such as AWS S3.

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