JavaScript: AngularJS users will receive extended long-term support after 2021

In July 2020, the developers of the TypeScript-based JavaScript framework Angular extended long-term support (LTS) for AngularJS until the end of December 2021 in order to compensate for pandemic-related delays in the release plans of the successor Angular. AngularJS refers to all 1.x versions of Angular, while the later releases of the framework are simply called Angular.

Alternatives for production with AngularJS

The developers had already presented the first plan in 2018, when the upheavals of the previous year could not yet be foreseen. In a new blog post, a spokesman for the Angular team has now listed the current options for action for everyone who uses AngularJS in production.

Continue working with AngularJS or incremental upgrade

There are several options: an upgrade to Angular or continuing to work with AngularJS, whereby teams can also take advantage of extended long-term support until the end of 2021 if necessary. Developers can upgrade to the successor to AngularJS (now just called Angular), which is the officially recommended way for teams. The easiest way to do this, according to the blog post, is to use the ngUpgrade library, which apparently allows incremental migration. With ngUpgrade, Angular and AngularJS can be operated in parallel in the same app. Depending on the complexity of the migration required, this is considered best practice and developers can use a forum See the experiences of colleagues as well as sharing your own. The Angular team also provides a migration tool that teams can use to pre-screen their applications and make migration recommendations, and there is a detailed migration guide.

External support for corporate customers from 2022

The developers can continue to use AngularJS 1.x in the future, and the Angular team is continuing to announce support for it. Support from the development team is guaranteed until December 31, 2021, and all versions previously published via npm and bower will remain available for as long. Companies that have AngularJS in productive use beyond 2021 can take advantage of extended long-term support for a fee. Extended support is offered by an organization called XLTS.dev, which is independent of the Angular team: The XLTS.dev group creates a fork on January 1st, 2022 the latest version of AngularJS, which it supplies with security and jQuery patches. The team should then also consider breaking changes in the Internet browser. Further information can be found in the blog post. In the future, the publicly visible roadmap should again ensure transparency. (sih)