28 Jul
2014
28 Jul
'14
3:56 p.m.
Since Marius wrote the FileManager application using AngularJS
and there has been some discussion about making increasing use
of it in XWiki, I wanted to share a review by someone who uses
it in his job as their entire platform.
These are advantages and disadvantages which I determined from the chat:
+ Easy and efficient workflow (when you know it)
+ Testing is easy and well understood
+ Debugging is not difficult, thanks to Angular's popularity and integrated software
+ Separates model and view well (makes angular apps skinable).
- Owns your system, if angular dies you die with it
- Learning curve
- Though it separates your model and view well, you can't test your model and
controller without a DOM present (he's not sure of this).
Although I think we need to keep investigating, I feel that
Angular warrants more investigation.
Thanks,
Caleb
PS: And the actual conversation, including some useful links:
16:31 < cjd> gimme teh infoz
16:32 < SomeoneWeird> well, there's a lot of (maybe too much) magic going on
behind the scenes
16:32 < SomeoneWeird> all the DI stuff, scope tracking
16:32 < SomeoneWeird> sticking one broken thing in the digest loop will kill the
entire app
16:32 < cjd> /nod
16:32 < SomeoneWeird> but.. once you know how it works, it's great
16:33 < SomeoneWeird> it's entire stdlib is all promises (which I don't care
for, but because it's ALL promises, it makes it a breeze to work with)
16:33 < SomeoneWeird> plus, the DI system is awsm
16:33 < cjd> ok
16:34 < SomeoneWeird> scoping it out because you wanna use it?
16:34 < cjd> xwiki is interested in it
16:34 < cjd> do you use it as a system to control your entire app or as a library?
16:34 < SomeoneWeird> it's our entire thing
16:34 < cjd> ok
16:34 < SomeoneWeird> our CMS is built up of multiple angular apps
16:34 < SomeoneWeird> which are nested
16:35 < cjd> how is it for debugging?
16:36 < SomeoneWeird> not terrible, the errors it gives up are sometimes broken (but
we're using a slightly outdated version), but there's also batarang, which is a
cool ext. so you can view scope contents in your browser
16:36 < SomeoneWeird>
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/angularjs-batarang/ighdmehidhipcm…
16:36 < cjd> ok
16:37 < SomeoneWeird> oh, testing
16:37 < SomeoneWeird> is awesome
16:37 < cjd> you can unit test in node ?
16:37 < SomeoneWeird> built in mocking support for everything in build in libraries
16:37 < SomeoneWeird> cjd: probably, using phantom or something
16:38 < cjd> ok, so you need a DOM to test
16:38 < SomeoneWeird> hm
16:38 < SomeoneWeird> i think
16:38 < cjd> ok
16:38 < SomeoneWeird> we're using karma at work
16:39 < cjd> explain?
16:39 < SomeoneWeird> http://karma-runner.github.io/0.12/index.html
16:39 < SomeoneWeird> check the vid
16:39 < cjd> ok
16:39 < SomeoneWeird> it's a test runner for browser tests
16:39 < SomeoneWeird> i think you can do headless stuff with it too
16:39 < cjd> how is the seperation between your models and the views?
16:40 < cjd> (is it skinnable?)
16:40 < SomeoneWeird> skinnable?
16:40 < cjd> could you write a new <fakehtml> view for a widget
16:41 < SomeoneWeird> yes
16:41 < cjd> so put a new skin on that widget
16:41 < SomeoneWeird> directives
16:41 < cjd> ok and you don't need to tinker with your model or controller code
to do that?
16:41 < SomeoneWeird> models & views are pretty seperated, html can be
completely declarative if you want
16:41 < cjd> ok
16:42 < SomeoneWeird>
http://www.sitepoint.com/practical-guide-angularjs-directives/
16:42 < cjd> so summary:
16:42 < SomeoneWeird> so you can define <hello>, and then bind that to a model
etc
16:42 < cjd> + easy and efficient workflow (when you know it)
16:42 < SomeoneWeird> but they're seperate until you do
16:42 < cjd> + testing is easy and well understood
16:43 < cjd> + debugging is not difficult, thanks to angular's popularity and
integrated software
16:43 < SomeoneWeird> there is a definite learning curve though
16:44 < cjd> - Owns your system, if angular dies you die with it
16:44 < SomeoneWeird> especially if people are used to using jquery etc
16:44 < cjd> - Learning curve
16:44 < cjd> - Though it seperates your model and view well, you can't test your
model and controller without a DOM present.
16:45 < cjd> anything to add?
16:45 < SomeoneWeird> i'm not 100% sure on the last point
16:45 < cjd> ok
16:45 < cjd> can I publish this conversation?
16:46 < SomeoneWeird> i guess, hopefully I'm not wrong about anything >.>
16:46 < cjd> ok :)
16:48 < SomeoneWeird>
http://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/1rbz0h/is_angularjs_worth_developin…
16:48 < SomeoneWeird> good points in here