How AngularJS extends HTML?
While HTML remains the basic building block of web applications, it the AngularJS that immensely extents its functionality. Here is how:
Web development has come a long way. From static web pages to dynamic and interactive pages with multimedia on top, there is hardly anything that hasn’t changed except for the underlying bedrock- HTML. But as much as HTML has evolved, the real improvements have come from other technologies that greatly extend its capabilities, the most notable of which is AngularJS. There are two key reasons for it- it brings a whole lot of features and convenience- which we will talk about in a moment, and it is much simpler to use than most of the other technologies. So let’s dig deeper:
If you ought to build a web application, you would start with an HTML backbone and then proceed to add styles and various JS components upon it by coding them separately. From Bootstrap to jQuery, the process remains similar but with AngularJS, there is something special- it extends HTML in a way no other technology does. You don’t even have to write separate JS code but simply use the directives provided or if you do need to create a custom directive, it will remain reusable for all applications.
AngularJS directives
AngularJS extends HTML through the use directives- which are basically some attributes that come inbuilt in AngularJS or can be declared by developers to add a whole range of new features in their web app. The directives, in essence, are just HTML attributes with an ng-prefix. In it’s simplest form, a directive simply passes a link to any particular function within the HTML code through appropriate tags but depending on requirements, they can be easily modified to express much more than a mere link.
When using a detailed directive, a directive constructor returns as an object with multiple properties. Some of the most important of which include:
Restrict- it the most basic of properties which determines if a directive would be used in HTML. Depending on how they should be used, it would have one of the four available option- attribute (A), element (E), class (C), and comment (M).
Scope- it creates an isolated scope for the directive- especially useful when using reusable components to cut out their reliance on their parent scope. The scope variable can be defined in any of three ways- by name, by value, and by reference, depending on the context.
Template- it is used to replace the attributes from an old element to a new one. It is generally used to declare small directives which act as a container and can be later used to pass code for any particular functionality.
Link- this is where all the action takes place as it contains all the directive logic. It can be used for performing DOM manipulations, registering event listeners, and more. It is the Link in fact that enables scope, elements, and controllers to perform their task as well.
Read about AngularJS Framework
From creating UI components to integrating third-party applications like Google Map, directives can easily bring all those features in a web application and the best part remains that it can be then reused for any other application as well.
This is perhaps the reason why AngularJS development services have in recent times gained much traction as compared to HTML5 development- which essentially can be seen as a subset of the larger web development picture. The only problem perhaps is that while building web applications has become a lot easier over the years, integrating these features still requires a lot of tech expertise and you would need to hire dedicated developers for the task.
