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diff --git a/posts/2013-08-08-angularjs-post-mortem.skr b/posts/2013-08-08-angularjs-post-mortem.skr deleted file mode 100644 index 2f7a804..0000000 --- a/posts/2013-08-08-angularjs-post-mortem.skr +++ /dev/null @@ -1,135 +0,0 @@ -(post - :title "AngularJS Post-mortem" - :date (make-date* 2013 08 08) - :tags '("web" "javascript" "angularjs" "wsu") - :summary "AngularJS likes/dislikes and what went right/wrong" - - (p [,(anchor [AngularJS] "http://angularjs.org/") -is the new popular client-side Javascript application framework -developed by Google. We have recently adopted it at Vista Higher -Learning for building our latest features that require a lot -client-side logic. Now that I have a few applications under my belt, -it’s time to talk about my experience.]) - - (p [If you want a quick TL\;DR: I think AngularJS is good, but it has -a steep learning curve and there’s no well defined set of best -practices.]) - - (p [Note: I will be using plenty of terms that will probably only -make sense for people that have used AngularJS.]) - - (h2 [The Good Stuff]) - - (p [These are the things that went well. The things that made me glad -that we chose to use AngularJS.]) - - (h3 [Easier Testing]) - - (p [Our Javascript test suite uses -,(anchor [Jasmine.] "http://pivotal.github.io/jasmine/") -AngularJS is built with test frameworks like Jasmine in mind. -AngularJS could tends to be easily testable due to dependency -injection. When the components of an application don’t rely on global -state, it is easier to mock services for unit tests.]) - - (h3 [Separation of Concerns]) - - (p [AngularJS stresses separating the view from the data structures -and logic behind it. I think everyone that’s written a somewhat -complex JQuery application can relate to the mess of CSS selectors and -click callbacks that the code quickly degenerates into.]) - - (p [AngularJS allows you to break up the DOM into logical chunks that -are handled by separate controllers. Treating the application as many -small pieces working together rather than one giant DOM blob keeps the -code clean. Message passing via -,(code [$emit]) and ,(code [$broadcast]) -keeps controllers loosely coupled to each other.]) - - (h3 [No More JQuery Spaghetti]) - - (p [Directives, the strategy for encapsulating DOM manipulation, are -wonderful. It is an elegant solution to the mess that was JQuery -selectors and event callbacks. AngularJS comes with a lot of -directives out of the box to handle the most common stuff like -showing/hiding elements, handling clicks, dynamically setting CSS -classes.]) - - (h3 [More Maintainable Code]) - - (p [AngularJS is feature-rich. It does a lot on your behalf, which -greatly reduces the amount of boilerplate code needed to get a -prototype up and running. I had the opportunity to essentially -rewrite an existing JQuery application using AngularJS. The results -were clear: The AngularJS version had fewer lines of code, was more -readable, and was easier to debug.]) - - (h2 [Bumps in the Road]) - - (p [These are the things that didn’t go smoothly. They boil down to -AngularJS having a steep learning curve and ill-informed software -design decisions on my part.]) - - (h3 [Understanding the Magic]) - - (p [A lot of things seem to happen by magic. For example, it is -possible to make a asynchronous request and get a promise object in -return. When the promise is assigned to a variable on ,(code [$scope]), -AngularJS not only knows to ignore it while the request hasn’t -finished, but it will re-assign to that variable the value of the -asynchronous call when it completes. It is a nice feature, but it -takes some digging to find out what is really going on.]) - - (h3 [Poor Documentation]) - - (p [I know I’m not the only one that hates the official AngularJS -documentation. The documentation is getting more complete, but it’s -still not very useful. Functions frequently have a blurb describing -what they do, but no explanation of the parameter list. It’s hard to -use a function that doesn’t describe what it expects for input.]) - - (p [When the documentation confused us, which it did frequently, we -turned to the AngularJS book from -,(anchor [O’Reilly] "http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028055.do") -for help. I need to get around to reading more of it.]) - - (h3 [RESTful Resources and Rails]) - - (p [AngularJS claims to be targeted at CRUD applications, but using -the HTTP backend and the ,(code [Resource]) abstraction that sits on -top of it was particularly difficult. A good amount of time was spent -on trying to get the HTTP requests from resources to conform to what -our Rails backend expects, like root-wrapping.]) - - (h3 [Bloated Controllers]) - - (p [I frequently made controllers that had too much state and logic -that should have been extracted into services/factories/etc. A -controller would start out slim but would quickly grow to several -hundred lines of code as features were added. Controllers should be -the middle man between the view and the model and that’s it.]) - - (p [Some tell-tale signs that a controller is becoming bloated:]) - - (ul - (li [There are a lot of private functions (not defined on -,(code [$scope]))]) - (li [Functions are defined on ,(code [$scope]) just so you can -unit-test them, but are never used in the template])) - - (p [I attribute controller bloat to a lack of knowing the appropriate uses -for other AngularJS components. It was easy to just keep adding to the -controller.]) - - (h2 [Conclusion]) - - (p [Overall, I think things went well, but I (and the rest of my -team) made a lot of beginner mistakes. But that’s the learning -process, isn’t it?]) - - (p [Now that I know more about AngularJS, it will be easier to make -better design decisions moving forward.]) - - (p [I believe that as AngularJS continues to mature, some concensus -in the community about best practices will emerge that will make -things easier for beginners.])) |