In this Article I am trying to cover the major differences between JQuery and Angular.js, comment and share this if you like.
Framework
If you compare jQuery and Angular, the former is a library and the latter is a framework. You can plug the library in your project and either use it fully, partially or not use it all. It’s like a plugin, a supplement to your JS project. With a framework – you have to play by its rules, either use it fully or don’t use it all. Angular.js is a MVC framework, it has model, view and controller which is one of the most popular software development architectures today. When developing with Angular, you have to start from the ground up with your architecture in mind. Although it’s possible to add Angular to your existing project, it’s just add more complexity in the long run.
Don’t use Angular the jQuery way
There are thousands of jQuery plugins out there, it’s very to just plug something in and forget about it. Angular has different structure, it’s recommended to use directives instead. Try to develop “the angular way” instead of just patching the code with old good plugins. It’s not even necessary to add jQuery to your project, Angular comes with jqLite (simplified version of jQuery for basic DOM manipulation).
Single page application
The architecture of the Angular app is different, most of them are single page applications (SPA). Instead of loading all the code at once like we do with jQuery and showing and hiding different parts of the DOM, we load templates on demand (using http requests). That way the application stays more modular and easier to maintain, debug or update. I like the approach where you create controller, module, HTML template and CSS file for every view in your app.
Data Binding
Data binding is one of the best features in Angular.js (one way or two way binding). This makes data completely independent from the presentation, unlike in jQuery where your model (data) is the DOM. For example, data comes from HTTP request (http module), it’s added to the scope ($scope.data) in controller and rendered in HTML template as {{ data }}.
This way you as a developer know where data is coming from and where you need to go to make any changes. In jQuery if you have something like $(‘#data’).render(); it may render a whole new page and you won’t event know what it is or where this content came from.
Summary
Angular doesn’t replace jQuery, it doesn’t compete with jQuery, they both can be used in the same application. jQuery for DOM manipulation, Angular – for structure. In fact there is nothing better to do DOM manipulation than jQuery.