Angular

Ignite your way with Infragistics Ultimate Developer Toolkit

Published Oct 31, 2019

Updated Feb 14, 2023

11 min read

This article was written over 18 months ago and may contain information that is out of date. Some content may be relevant but please refer to the relevant official documentation or available resources for the latest information.

Infragistics is celebrating its 30th anniversary! Throughout the years, Infragistics built its strategy around two strong pillars: embracing the latest and greatest technologies, and focusing on high-performance and speed. These main pillars enriched developers, and their communities, with toolsets that made development enjoyable, and productive at the same time.

Infragistics presents the Ultimate suite as a single platform for UX design, and enterprise app development, for the web, desktop, and mobile. The suite offers more than 100 beautifully styled, high-performance grids, charts, and other UI controls.

Infragistics thought of every detail in the development life-cycle process. They offer prototyping tools to help you sketch your designs from the client’s early inception stage, allowing you to work on the UX, finalize the layout, and even orient the developer to build the final app.

In this introductory article on their Ignite UI suite, I will explore the different platforms supported by Infragistics, and will then delve into more details on the Ignite UI for Angular suite.

Infragistics Ultimate Developer Toolkit

Infragistics provides UI components for a variety of frameworks and platforms. This includes ones for the Web (ASP.NET, Angular, React and JavaScript), Desktop (Windows Forms and WPF), and Mobile (Xamarin, iOS and Android).

The components are served in packages. For instance, when developing with React, you would only install the packages for Ignite for React.

Here’s a list of the supported platforms and their corresponding components.

Web

Indigo Design A unified workspace for visual design, UX prototyping, and code generation for Angular development.

Ignite UI for Angular Infragistics wraps together more than 50 Material-based UI native components, designed, and built on an Angular platform.

Ignite UI for React A set of native UI components for React developers, featuring a high-performance data grid, and real-time high-volume data charts.

Ignite UI for JavaScript This package offers more than 100 HTML5 / JavaScript jQuery components with wrappers for React, Angular & ASP.NET MVC.

Infragistics Ultimate UI for ASP.NET ASP.NET AJAX UI controls.

Desktop

Infragistics Ultimate UI for Windows Forms This package contains more than 100 fully-featured Microsoft Office-style UI controls.

Infragistics Ultimate UI for WPF This package contains WPF native UI controls.

Mobile

Infragistics Ultimate UI for Xamarin This package contains Xamarin native UI components including Charts, Grid, Scheduling, and much more.

Infragistics Ultimate UI for iOS This package contains native UI controls for both iPad and iPhone apps.

Infragistics Ultimate UI for Android This package contains lightning-fast native UI controls for Android apps.

Prototyping

Infragistics offers the Indigo.Design Desktop to build prototypes for User Stories to share with peers for review, and collaboration. This software comes in two flavors for both Windows and Mac OS machines. Here’s a link to the software’s official documentation.

In addition to all the packages listed, Infragistics puts great effort in delivering an easy-to-follow, and extensive documentation for all their platforms, and UI components. You can consult the document anytime by visiting the Infragistics Help documentation website.

Also, Infragistics offers a set of reference apps that you can look at, take ideas from, and that allow you to see, in real-time, how the UI components are being used and integrated inside apps. You can have a look at the reference apps by visiting the Infragistics Apps Gallery website.

Ignite UI for Angular

Infragistics has placed a great emphasis on developing their Angular suite. They offer native UI components for Angular that are based on the Google Material design standards. In addition, they enrich the Angular app development with a unique, and valuable experience, by offering the Sketch UI kits.

The Sketch UI kits have a one-to-one mapping with all the Angular components they offer. The designer opens Sketch, loads the Sketch UI kits, and then designs the app screens, using “native” Ignite UI for Angular components. The end result is a prototype that is uploaded to the Infragistics Cloud, and shared with peer developers, designers, and stakeholders to review, comment on, and use to produce a final design prototype.

The developers can then take prototype URLs, go to Visual Studio Code per se, install the Infragistics extension, and generate code assets for their Angular app, based on the prototype. The extension generates Angular Components based on the screens baked inside the prototype.

The Ignite UI for Angular suite aims to help developers build modern, high-performance HTML 5 JavaScript apps for modern desktop browsers, mobile experiences, and progressive web apps (PWA).

Prerequisites

Before you can start using Ignite for Angular, you must have the following installed on your machine:

Visual Studio Code (VS Code). You can use any other code editor, but in order to make full use of the rich support Infragistics offers for Angular development, it is recommended that you use VS Code.
Node.js and NPM. This requirement is standard for developing front-ends using Angular, React, Vue and even vanilla JavaScript.

Ignite UI CLI

Infragistics takes that extra step, and offers the Ignite UI CLI. This is a Command-Line Interface by Ingratistics.

The easiest way to create, and scaffold an app with Infragistics, is to use the CLI. This CLI is not only used with Angular, but can also be used for React and jQuery apps.

Here’s a step by step guide on how to generate your first app using the Ignite UI CLI.

You start by installing the Ignite UI CLI as a global dependency on your machine by issuing the following command:

npm install -g igniteui-cli

Once the installation process is finished, you can start the tool using either guided experience or specific commands.

For instance, to create a new Angular app, you issue the command:

ig new <project name> --framework=angular --type=igx-ts

To add a new Component to your app you issue:

ig add <component/template> <component_name>

You can read more about the CLI on the Ignite UI CLI official page.

Selection of Angular Components

Going through all of the Angular components in depth now, isn't useful. I have highlighted a few that interested me, and will give you a small overview of what is offered.

Financial Chart

The Financial Chart is one of the most popular and advanced charts offered by Infragistics. This type of chart is used to visualize financial data using a simple, and intuitive API.

To play with a live Financial Chart, here’s a sample hosted on StackBlitz: {% stackblitz angular-ytbzfi %}

Data Chart

Infragistics Angular Data Chart is the most extensive, and feature-rich, chart on the web today. It supports chart compositions (multiple charts overlaid), axis, series, legend, and annotation layers. Being highly customizable, it offers many more options, and features.

Something special about this chart is the long list of series types supported by default. The list includes, but is not limited to:

An example of a Radial Series chart is as follows:

You can find the entire list here: Data Chart Series Types.

To play with a live Data Chart, here’s a sample hosted on StackBlitz: {% stackblitz angular-bv857d %}

Mask

You apply the igxMask directive on a text input field, and you can control the user input, and format the visual value, based on configurable mask rules. You have a rich set of masking rules to choose from.

To use this directive, start by importing the following Angular Modules into your app module:

// app.module.ts

...
import { IgxMaskModule, IgxInputGroupModule } from 'igniteui-angular';

@NgModule({
    ...
    imports: [..., IgxInputGroupModule, IgxMaskModule]
    ...
})
export class AppModule {}

Then you can apply an Input Mask inside your components. The example below shows how you can use a Phone Input Mask:

<igx-input-group>
    <igx-prefix>
        <igx-icon>phone</igx-icon>
    </igx-prefix>
    <label igxLabel>Phone</label>
    <input igxInput type="text" [igxMask]="'(####) 00-00-00 Ext. 9999'"/>
</igx-input-group>

If you would like to play with a live Mask component, here’s a sample hosted on StackBlitz:

{% stackblitz angular-yh3dpu %}

The Navigation Drawer is one of my favorite components. It provides a smooth and smart navigation experience for developing Web apps that will be used on Mobile devices.

The Navigation Drawer is a side-navigation container. It can rest above content, and slide in/out of view or be pinned to expand/collapse within content. The component is highly configurable via its input properties: Mode (pinned, open, mini-variant) and Position (Right and Left). The mini-variant mode renders the side-navigation bar with icons only instead of showing both the icon, and text of the item.

Installing and using this component is no different from the rest of component offered by Ignite for Angular.

To play with a live Navigation Drawer component, here’s a sample hosted on StackBlitz: {% stackblitz angular-rsizth %}

Layout Manager

The Layout Manager directive, which is part of Ignite UI for Angular, is a wrapper on-top of Flexbox. You can organize and structure your HTML markup without having to write a single CSS selector for the layout.

The Layout Manager focuses on giving Angular developers a seamless design experience when developing, and laying out their apps.

To use this directive, start by importing the IgxLayoutModule Angular Module into your app module:

// app.module.ts

...
import { IgxLayoutModule } from 'igniteui-angular';

@NgModule({
    ...
    imports: [..., IgxLayoutModule ]
    ...
})
export class AppModule {}

Then you can apply the igxLayout, igxFlex, and other related directives to your HTML markup as follows:

<div class="layout-box" igxLayout igxLayoutDir="row">
              <div class="layout-box__el" igxFlex>1</div>
              <div class="layout-box__el" igxFlex>2</div>
              <div class="layout-box__el" igxFlex>3</div>
</div>

If you would like to play with a live Layout Manager component, here’s a sample hosted on StackBlitz: {% stackblitz angular-vtetkk %}

DataGrid

Infragistics claims to have developed the fastest high performance Data Grid for Angular platform.

The Grid is, by far, the most customizable Data Grid currently existing for the Angular ecosystem. The team at Infragistics have thought of every single detail a developer might need and want to customize in a Data Grid.

The features include data binding, live data binding (data streaming), editing, row editing, paging, filtering, advanced filtering, sorting, grouping, column moving, column pinning, column resizing, column hiding, searching, toolbar, multi-column header, exporting to Excel, pasting from Excel, and so much more.

You are in the presence of the Infragistics version of Excel Spreadsheets!

Importing and using the Data Grid cannot be simpler!

Start by importing the IgxGridModule Angular Module to the app module:

// app.module.ts

import { IgxGridModule } from 'igniteui-angular';
// Or
import { IgxGridModule } from 'igniteui-angular/grid';

@NgModule({
    imports: [
        ...
        IgxGridModule.forRoot(),
        ...
    ]
})
export class AppModule {}

To embed a Data Grid inside the HTML markup, add the following component:

<igx-grid #grid1 id="grid1" [data]="localData" [autoGenerate]="true"></igx-grid>

To reference the Data Grid from inside the Angular Component code-behind, add the following:

import { IgxGridComponent } from 'igniteui-angular/grid/';
// Or
import { IgxGridComponent } from 'igniteui-angular'
...

@ViewChild('myGrid', { read: IgxGridComponent })
public grid: IgxGridComponent;

It’s that straightforward to start using the Data Grid component for Angular!

Check the Infragistics extensive docs to learn more about customizing, and enabling more features in the Data Grid.

If you would like to play with a live Data Grid component, here’s a sample hosted on StackBlitz: {% stackblitz angular-4oqzke %}

Excel Library

An Excel Library comes as part of the Ignite UI for Angular. The Infragistics Angular Excel Library allows you to work with spreadsheet data using familiar Microsoft Excel spreadsheet objects like Workbooks, Worksheets, Cells, Formulas, and many more.

You can export your app data to an Excel sheet, and also load data from an Excel sheet into your app.

Have a look at the Excel Library page for more examples on all the options, and possibilities available for you.

Moreover, Infragistics offers an Export to Excel service that you can use inside your Angular components, and services.

To use this service, you start by importing the IgxExcelExporterService into the app module:

// app.module.ts

...
import { IgxExcelExporterService } from "igniteui-angular";

@NgModule({
  providers: [ IgxExcelExporterService ]
})

export class AppModule {}

Then, you inject the IgxExcelExporterService into the constructor of the component or service:

// component.ts

...
import { IgxExcelExporterService, IgxExcelExporterOptions } from "igniteui-angular";
...

constructor(private excelExportService: IgxExcelExporterService) {
}

And finally, to export your data to Excel, you call the exportData() function:

// component.ts

...

public localData = [
  { Name: "Eric Ridley", Age: "26" },
  { Name: "Alanis Brook", Age: "22" },
  { Name: "Jonathan Morris", Age: "23" }
];

public exportButtonHandler() {
  this.excelExportService.exportData(this.localData, new IgxExcelExporterOptions("ExportedDataFile"));
}

Indigo Design System

The Indigo Design System offered by Infragistics caught my attention to the extent that I wanted to dedicate a section to talk about this design system, and its versatility, especially for designers, and developers working on Angular apps.

Indigo Design System offers a unified platform for visual design, UX prototyping, code generation, and app development.

You’ve got your designers, and developers, both integrated into a single platform. This design system has a workflow that is depicted as follows:

Designers create designs in Sketch using the Indigo.Design System. The Indigo Design System integrates with Sketch in the form of:
Indigo-Components (Design library with 50+ components that match Ignite UI for Angular)
Indigo-Patterns (A collection of common UI patterns composed of Indigo-Components)
Indigo-Styling (Customize colors, typography, icons, and elevations to match your brand)
Designers share and test prototypes with peer developers, designers, and stakeholders, via a common platform known as cloud.indigo.design.
Use Sketch to create interactive prototypes of your designs and screens.
Share and Collaborate with others: View prototypes on any device, and collect feedback using comments.
Developers generate Angular components, and code from prototypes
Install the Infragistics Extension for VS Code
Load-in a prototype by URL and the code generation process starts

Conclusion

To explore and try all the features of Infragistics Ultimate Developer Toolkit, would require writing books and articles! This article introduces the Infragistics Ultimate Developer Toolkit, and related hyperlinks, that you can follow to read more about the topics.

Still, what has been discussed in this article is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what the modern and efficient development ecosystem Infragistics offers!

The Infragistics design model for their components and controls is, by far, one of the easiest, and most straightforward model to follow. For instance, when using the Ignite UI for Angular components, you get the feeling that you are using Angular built-in components and services. They’ve done an excellent job giving Angular developers a seamless experience when using their UI components.

This Dot is a consultancy dedicated to guiding companies through their modernization and digital transformation journeys. Specializing in replatforming, modernizing, and launching new initiatives, we stand out by taking true ownership of your engineering projects.

We love helping teams with projects that have missed their deadlines or helping keep your strategic digital initiatives on course. Check out our case studies and our clients that trust us with their engineering.

About the author(s)

Bilal Haidar
Author, Developer, and Mentor: Professional ASP.NET 3.5 Security, Membership, and Role Management with C# and VB | A Complete Guide to VueJS
@bhaidar @bhaidar

Exploring Angular Forms: A New Alternative with Signals

Exploring Angular Forms: A New Alternative with Signals In the world of Angular, forms are essential for user interaction, whether you're crafting a simple login page or a more complex user profile interface. Angular traditionally offers two primary approaches: template-driven forms and reactive forms. In my previous series on Angular Reactive Forms, I explored how to harness reactive forms' power to manage complex logic, create dynamic forms, and build custom form controls. A new tool for managing reactivity - signals - has been introduced in version 16 of Angular and has been the focus of Angular maintainers ever since, becoming stable with version 17. Signals allow you to handle state changes declaratively, offering an exciting alternative that combines the simplicity of template-driven forms with the robust reactivity of reactive forms. This article will examine how signals can add reactivity to both simple and complex forms in Angular. Recap: Angular Forms Approaches Before diving into the topic of enhancing template-driven forms with signals, let’s quickly recap Angular's traditional forms approaches: 1. Template-Driven Forms: Defined directly in the HTML template using directives like ngModel, these forms are easy to set up and are ideal for simple forms. However, they may not provide the fine-grained control required for more complex scenarios. Here's a minimal example of a template-driven form: ` ` 2. Reactive Forms: Managed programmatically in the component class using Angular's FormGroup, FormControl, and FormArray classes; reactive forms offer granular control over form state and validation. This approach is well-suited for complex forms, as my previous articles on Angular Reactive Forms discussed. And here's a minimal example of a reactive form: ` ` Introducing Signals as a New Way to Handle Form Reactivity With the release of Angular 16, signals have emerged as a new way to manage reactivity. Signals provide a declarative approach to state management, making your code more predictable and easier to understand. When applied to forms, signals can enhance the simplicity of template-driven forms while offering the reactivity and control typically associated with reactive forms. Let’s explore how signals can be used in both simple and complex form scenarios. Example 1: A Simple Template-Driven Form with Signals Consider a basic login form. Typically, this would be implemented using template-driven forms like this: ` ` This approach works well for simple forms, but by introducing signals, we can keep the simplicity while adding reactive capabilities: ` ` In this example, the form fields are defined as signals, allowing for reactive updates whenever the form state changes. The formValue signal provides a computed value that reflects the current state of the form. This approach offers a more declarative way to manage form state and reactivity, combining the simplicity of template-driven forms with the power of signals. You may be tempted to define the form directly as an object inside a signal. While such an approach may seem more concise, typing into the individual fields does not dispatch reactivity updates, which is usually a deal breaker. Here’s an example StackBlitz with a component suffering from such an issue: Therefore, if you'd like to react to changes in the form fields, it's better to define each field as a separate signal. By defining each form field as a separate signal, you ensure that changes to individual fields trigger reactivity updates correctly. Example 2: A Complex Form with Signals You may see little benefit in using signals for simple forms like the login form above, but they truly shine when handling more complex forms. Let's explore a more intricate scenario - a user profile form that includes fields like firstName, lastName, email, phoneNumbers, and address. The phoneNumbers field is dynamic, allowing users to add or remove phone numbers as needed. Here's how this form might be defined using signals: ` > Notice that the phoneNumbers field is defined as a signal of an array of signals. This structure allows us to track changes to individual phone numbers and update the form state reactively. The addPhoneNumber and removePhoneNumber methods update the phoneNumbers signal array, triggering reactivity updates in the form. ` > In the template, we use the phoneNumbers signal array to dynamically render the phone number input fields. The addPhoneNumber and removePhoneNumber methods allow users to reactively add or remove phone numbers, updating the form state. Notice the usage of the track function, which is necessary to ensure that the ngFor directive tracks changes to the phoneNumbers array correctly. Here's a StackBlitz demo of the complex form example for you to play around with: Validating Forms with Signals Validation is critical to any form, ensuring that user input meets the required criteria before submission. With signals, validation can be handled in a reactive and declarative manner. In the complex form example above, we've implemented a computed signal called formValid, which checks whether all fields meet specific validation criteria. The validation logic can easily be customized to accommodate different rules, such as checking for valid email formats or ensuring that all required fields are filled out. Using signals for validation allows you to create more maintainable and testable code, as the validation rules are clearly defined and react automatically to changes in form fields. It can even be abstracted into a separate utility to make it reusable across different forms. In the complex form example, the formValid signal ensures that all required fields are filled and validates the email and phone numbers format. This approach to validation is a bit simple and needs to be better connected to the actual form fields. While it will work for many use cases, in some cases, you might want to wait until explicit "signal forms" support is added to Angular. Tim Deschryver started implementing some abstractions around signal forms, including validation and wrote an article about it. Let's see if something like this will be added to Angular in the future. Why Use Signals in Angular Forms? The adoption of signals in Angular provides a powerful new way to manage form state and reactivity. Signals offer a flexible, declarative approach that can simplify complex form handling by combining the strengths of template-driven forms and reactive forms. Here are some key benefits of using signals in Angular forms: 1. Declarative State Management: Signals allow you to define form fields and computed values declaratively, making your code more predictable and easier to understand. 2. Reactivity: Signals provide reactive updates to form fields, ensuring that changes to the form state trigger reactivity updates automatically. 3. Granular Control: Signals allow you to define form fields at a granular level, enabling fine-grained control over form state and validation. 4. Dynamic Forms: Signals can be used to create dynamic forms with fields that can be added or removed dynamically, providing a flexible way to handle complex form scenarios. 5. Simplicity: Signals can offer a simpler, more concise way to manage form states than traditional reactive forms, making building and maintaining complex forms easier. Conclusion In my previous articles, we explored the powerful features of Angular reactive forms, from dynamic form construction to custom form controls. With the introduction of signals, Angular developers have a new tool that merges the simplicity of template-driven forms with the reactivity of reactive forms. While many use cases warrant Reactive Forms, signals provide a fresh, powerful alternative for managing form state in Angular applications requiring a more straightforward, declarative approach. As Angular continues to evolve, experimenting with these new features will help you build more maintainable, performant applications. Happy coding!...

Oct 4, 2024

5 mins

AngularJavaScript

Using HttpClient in Modern Angular Applications

Introduction With all the wonderful treats that the Angular team has given us during the recent "renaissance" era, many new developers are joining in on the fun. And one of the challenges they'll face at some point is how to call an API from your Angular application properly. Unfortunately, while searching for a guide on how to do this, they might stumble upon a lot of outdated information. Hence, this article should serve as a reliable guide on how to use the HttpClient in Angular >= 17. The Setup To make an HTTP request in Angular, you can take advantage of the HttpClient provided by the @angular/common/http package. To use it, you'll need to provide it. Here's how you can do that for the whole application using the bootstrapApplication function from @angular/platform-browser: ` With that, you should be good to go. You can now inject the HttpClient into any service or component in your application. Using HttpClient in Services Let's take a common example: You have a database object, say a Movie, and you want to implement CRUD operations on it. Typically, you'll want to create a service that provides methods for these operations. Let's call this service MovieService and create a skeleton for it with a method for getting all movies. ` Implementing the Method using HttpClient Let's assume we have a GraphQL API for our movies. We can implement our getAllMovies using HttpClient to make a request to fetch all movies. First, we will need to define a new type to represent the response from the API. This is especially important when you are using GraphQL, which may return a specific structure, such as: ` When working with a real API, you'll likely use some code generator to generate the types for the response from the GraphQL schema. But for the sake of this example, we'll create an interface to represent the response manually: ` Now, we can implement the getAllMovies method using HttpClient: ` > Note: The post method is used here because we are sending a request body. If you are making a GET request (e.g. to a REST API), you can use the get method instead. The getAllMovies method returns an Observable of MoviesListResponse. In this example, I have typed it explicitly to make it obvious at first glance, but you could also omit the type annotation, and TypeScript should infer it. > Note: While I'm excited about signals as much as the next guy, making HTTP requests is one of the typical async operations for which RxJS Observables are a perfect fit, making a great argument for RxJS still having a solid place in Angular alongside signals. Using the Service in a Component Now that we have our MovieService set up, we can use it as a component to fetch and display all movies. But first, let's create a Movie interface to represent the structure of a movie. Trust me, this will prevent many potential headaches down the line. Although using any at the beginning and implementing the types later is a valid approach in some cases, using data fetched from an API without validating the type will inevitably lead to bugs that are difficult to solve. ` Now, we can start implementing our standalone MoviesComponent: ` In this component, we are calling the getAllMovies method from the MovieService in the constructor to fetch all movies and assign them to the movies property which we will use to display the movies in the template. ` In this case, placing our code inside the constructor is safe because it doesn’t depend on any @Input(). If it were, our code would fail because the inputs aren’t initialized at time of instantiation. That's why it is sometimes recommended to place logic in ngOnInit instead. You could also put this call in an arbitrary method that is called e.g. on a button click. Another way to handle the subscription is to use the async pipe in the template. This way, Angular will automatically subscribe and unsubscribe from the observable for you and you won't have to assign the response to a property in the component. Due to the structure of the returned data, however, we'll need to use the RxJS map operator to extract the movies from the response. ` > Note using the pipe method to chain the map operator to the observable returned by getAllMovies. This is a common pattern when working with RxJS observables introduced in RxJs 5.5. If you see code that uses the map operator directly on the observable and wonder why it isn't working for you, it's likely using an older version of RxJS. Now, we can simply apply the async pipe in the template to subscribe to the observable and display the movies: ` Conclusion HttpClient in Angular is pretty straightforward, but with all the changes to RxJS and Angular in the past few years, it can pose a significant challenge if you're not super-experienced with those technologies and stumble upon outdated resources. Following this article, you should hopefully be able to implement your service using HttpClient to make requests to an API in your modern Angular application and avoid the struggle of copying outdated code snippets....

Mar 27, 2024

4 mins

AngularJavaScript

Introducing the release of Vue 3

Back in October 2018, Evan You announced plans to start building the third version of VueJS. Featuring 30+ RFCs, over 2,600 commits, 628 pull request from 99 contributors, Vue 3's release reflects tireless ingenuity, passion, and hard work. Its release, no doubt, is a cause for celebration for all of the Vue community members who have been eagerly awaiting it. I, for one, am thrilled to share some resources that I believe will help developers migrate to Vue 3: - Vue 2 -> Vue 3 Migration Guide - Vue Router 3.0 -> Vue Router 4.0 Migration Guide - Vuex 4 - Chrome Vue JS DevTools - FireFox DevTools Here at This Dot, we have tracked Vue 3's development from the onset. We have written blog posts, published a book, hosted Vue Meetups, debuted JavaScript Marathon, shared Modern Web Podcasts, and more! Today, we’ll take a guided tour through all the material we have shared on Vue 2 and Vue 3. Blog Posts Here are our latest blog posts on Vue 3: - How to Set Up Storybook in Vue 3 - Async Components in Vue 3 - Your first Vue 3 app using TypeScript - Teleporting in Vue 3 - Content Distribution in Vue 3 - Custom Directives in Vue 3 - Vue 3 Composition API, do you really need it? You may access the remaining blog posts at This Dot Labs Blog. A Complete Guide to VueJS In April 2020, This Dot released A Complete Guide to VueJS by Bilal Haidar. This book is a precise, and detailed resource for learning VueJS, and highlights some top courses for Vue and JavaScript. Most importantly, it gives a brief introduction to almost all the new features in Vue 3. Grab your own copy for free! Vue Meetups We have hosted more than 10+ Vue Meetups in the past year with dozens of speakers, including Evan You, other Vue Core team members, and Vue developers interested in the future of the framework. To watch past meetup recordings, follow this link to get access to all the meetups on one page. JavaScript Marathon This Dot's team delivered six free live Vue JS tutorials during the JavaScript Marathon. Here’s a list of all the VueJS live sessions recordings: - 1 Hour to Learn Vue - Master State Management in Vue with VueX - Master PWA in Vue - Learning Unit Testing in Vue - Pro Tips on Using AWS with Vue - Debugging Vue: Quick Tips and Tricks Modern Web Podcasts This Dot's team delivered more than 40+ podcasts in the last two years. Here’s a link to the Vue JS Podcasts: - S07E1 Modern Web Podcast - Introducing Vite - Evan You’s new project + Vue 3 Updates - S06E12 Modern Web Podcast - Vue 3, Code Education, & the Vue Community - S06E4 Modern Web Podcast - Vue Updates with Chris Fitz, Jake Dohm, and Rob Ocel The Future of Vue The team at This Dot is hardly finished tracking Vue's progress, as well as the progress of many other web based technologies. To join us on our technical exploration journey, be sure to follow This Dot Media on Twitter! If you have specific questions about how to begin your Vue 3 migration, or have general questions about Vue 3, don't hesitate to reach out to us at hi@thisdot.co....

Sep 18, 2020

4 mins

VueJavaScriptWeb Development

Understanding the Difference Between `:focus` and `:focus-visible` in CSS

Understanding the Difference Between :focus and :focus-visible in CSS I have learned my fair share about the importance of keyboard accessibility, so I know that visual indication of the focused element is very important. But the well-known :focus pseudo-class is not always the best fit for this job. That's where :focus-visible comes in. Let's look at the differences between these two pseudo-classes and explore the best practices for using them effectively. What is the :focus Pseudo-Class? The :focus pseudo-class is a CSS selector that applies styles to any element that receives focus, regardless of how that focus was triggered. This includes focus events from keyboard navigation, mouse clicks, and touch interactions. Example Usage of :focus ` In this example, the button will display a blue outline whenever it is focused, whether the user clicks on it with a mouse, taps it on a touchscreen, or navigates to it using the keyboard. What is the :focus-visible Pseudo-Class? The :focus-visible pseudo-class is more specialized. It only applies styles to an element when the browser determines that the focus should be visible. This typically occurs when the user navigates via the keyboard or assistive technologies rather than through mouse or touch input. Example Usage of :focus-visible ` Here, the button will only show a blue outline when focused through keyboard navigation or another input method that usually requires visible focus indicators. Key Differences Between :focus and :focus-visible :focus - Behavior: Applies to any element that receives focus, regardless of the input method. - Use Cases: Ensures that all interactions with the element are visually indicated, whether by mouse, keyboard, or touch. :focus-visible - Behavior: Applies styles only when the focus should be visible, such as using a keyboard or assistive technology. - Use Cases: Ideal for scenarios where you want to provide focus indicators only to keyboard and assistive technology users while avoiding unnecessary outlines for mouse and touch users, typically required by design. Accessibility Implications :focus - Pros: - Guarantees that all users can see when an element is focused, which is critical for accessibility. - Cons: - Can lead to a suboptimal experience for mouse users, as focus styles may appear unnecessarily during mouse interactions. :focus-visible - Pros: - Enhances user experience by showing focus indicators only when necessary, thus keeping the interface clean for mouse and touch users. - Tailors the experience for keyboard and assistive technology users, providing them with clear visual cues. - Cons: - Additional considerations may be required to ensure that focus indicators are not accidentally omitted, especially in older browsers that do not support :focus-visible. - There may be cases where you want to show focus indicators for all users, regardless of input method. Best Practices for Using :focus and :focus-visible To achieve the best accessibility and user experience, combining both :focus and :focus-visible in your CSS is often a good idea. Combining :focus and :focus-visible ` Here is a Stackblitz example of what such styling could look like for you to try out and play with. Additional Tips - Test with Keyboard and Assistive Technology: Ensure that your web application is navigable using a keyboard (Tab, Shift + Tab, etc.) and that focus indicators are visible for those who rely on them. It's never a bad idea to include accessibility testing in your e2e testing suite. - Provide Clear Focus Indicators: Make sure that focus indicators are prominent and easy to see. A subtle or hard-to-spot focus indicator can severely impact accessibility for users who rely on keyboard navigation. Conclusion The :focus-visible pseudo-class offers a more refined way to manage focus indicators, improving accessibility and user experience, particularly for keyboard and assistive technology users. By understanding the differences between :focus and :focus-visible, and applying best practices in your CSS, you can create more accessible and user-friendly web applications. Remember, accessibility should never be an afterthought. By thoughtfully applying focus styles, you ensure that all users, regardless of how they interact with your site, can easily navigate and interact....

Nov 8, 2024

3 mins

AccessibilityCSSPlaywright

Let's innovate together!

We're ready to be your trusted technical partners in your digital innovation journey.

Whether it's modernization or custom software solutions, our team of experts can guide you through best practices and how to build scalable, performant software that lasts.

Ignite your way with Infragistics Ultimate Developer Toolkit

Infragistics Ultimate Developer Toolkit

Web

Desktop

Mobile

Prototyping

Ignite UI for Angular

Prerequisites

Ignite UI CLI

Selection of Angular Components

Financial Chart

Data Chart

Mask

Navigation Drawer

Layout Manager

DataGrid

Excel Library

Indigo Design System

Conclusion

Bilal Haidar

You might also like

Exploring Angular Forms: A New Alternative with Signals

Using HttpClient in Modern Angular Applications

Introducing the release of Vue 3

Understanding the Difference Between `:focus` and `:focus-visible` in CSS

Let's innovate together!

You might also like

Exploring Angular Forms: A New Alternative with Signals

Using HttpClient in Modern Angular Applications

Introducing the release of Vue 3

Understanding the Difference Between `:focus` and `:focus-visible` in CSS