Angular 10/9 Update Guide with Examples

In this guide, we’ll learn how to upgrade our project to the latest Angular 10 version and update the dependencies.

We have two scenerios:

• You have an Angular 8 project and want to update to Angular 10
• You have an Angular 9 project and want to update to Angular 10

Updating your Angular 8 Project to Angular 10

Before we can start upgrading your project to Angular 10 from v8, you first need to update it to the latest patch version of Angular 9.

You also need to make sure you do the following changes in your code when appropriate:

• Swap NgForm selector.
• Change @ContentChild and @ContentChildren hosts.
• Remove assigned values to template-only variables.
• Remove the Renderer directive and replace it with Renderer2.

Remember this for your Angular 8 project before updating to Angular 9.

Update ngForm to ng-form

If you are using Angular forms in your templates with the <ngForm> directive, you need to update any instance of <ngForm> with <ng-form> instead.

For example, if you have declared a form like below:

<ngForm #exampleForm="ngForm">
    <input [(ngModel)]="userName" name="userName" />
</ngForm>

You’ll simply need to update it as follows:

<ng-form #exampleForm="ngForm">
    <input [(ngModel)]="userName" name="userName" />
</ng-form>

Update @ContentChild and @ContentChildren Hosts

The @ContentChild and @ContentChildren decorator that are used to query the DOM will no longer be able to match their directive’s own host node.

Before:

@Directive({
  selector: '[myActions]'
})
export class MyDirective implements AfterContentInit {
  // [TODO]: Angular v9 ContentChild will not return host element!!
  @ContentChild(MyDirective, { static: true, read: ElementRef })
  selfElementRef: ElementRef;

  constructor(private readonly renderer: Renderer2) {}

  ngAfterContentInit() {
    const el = this.selfElementRef.nativeElement as HTMLElement;
    if (!el) {
      return;
    }
    this.renderer.setStyle(el, 'color', 'black');
  }
}

We used the @ContentChild content query to access the host ElementRef for the directive.

You need to change the previous code to access ElementRef via an injected dependency in the directive as follows:

@Directive({
  selector: '[myActions]'
})
export class MyDirective implements AfterContentInit {
  constructor(
    private readonly elementRef: ElementRef,
    private readonly renderer: Renderer2
  ) {}

  ngAfterContentInit() {
    const el = this.elementRef.nativeElement as HTMLElement;
    if (!el) {
      return;
    }
    this.renderer.setStyle(el, 'color', 'black');

  }
}

This way, we don’t need to use the @ContentChild() and @ContentChildren() decorators to query a host element.

Do Not Assign Values to Template-only Variables

Thanks to the Ivy renderer which is used by default in Angular 9+, templates have type checking.

Before the Angular 9 version, template-only variables had the TypeScript any type i.e you can change the object and use unknown properties as you need and the compiler will not complain.

Starting with Angular version 9 which uses the Ivy renderer by default, template-only variables are strongly typed based on your TypeScript compiler options for strictness of template type checking. So you need to avoid changing template-only variables in directly your templates.

Let’s look at an example that does mutate template-only variables:

<button #myBtn (click)="myBtn.state = 'clicked'">
  Click Me
</button>

The myBtn template-only variable has the any type in the Angular 8 version.

Starting With the Angular 9 version, the template variable becomes strongly typed with the built-in HTMLButtonElement type.

Therefore we’ll have an error since the HTMLButtonElement interface doesn’t have a state member.

To fix this, you need to refactor any changes of template-only variables, and replace them with the component methods. For exmple:

<button (click)="onClick()">
  Click Me
</button>

We simply removed the template-only variable and added the onClick() method and the state property in the component’s class:

export class MyComponent {
  state = 'not clicked';

  onClick(): void {
    this.state = 'clicked';
  }
}

Replace Renderer with Renderer2

The Renderer directive is deprecated on Angular 8 and removed in Angular 9.

You need to replace it with the Renderer2 directive instead.

Fortunately for us, this can automatically done with the ng update command.

Updating your Angular 9 Project to Angular 10

Start from this section, if you already have an Angular 9 project and want to upgrade it to Angular 10.

Update to the Latest Angular 9 Patch

Before updating your project to the latest Angular 10 version, make sure to start by updating it to the latest stable release of Angular 9.

Head back to your terminal and run the following command:

$ ng update @angular/core@9 @angular/cli@9

Make sure you add the version number for Angular 9 to install the latest patch of this version otherwise, Angular 10 will be installed.

After Upgrading to Angular 9

If you have updated your project to the Angular 9 version, you only have a couple of things to do:

• You need to migrate your code to use the TestBed.inject<T>() method instead of the TestBed.get() method.
• You need to remove the entryComponents properties in the @NgModule() decorator of your modules since they are no longer required.

Update to the Angular 10 Version

If you have added the required changes to your code and updated your Angular project to the latest Angular 9 patch, you are ready to update it to Angular 10 using the ng update command.

Head back to your terminal and run the following command:

$ ng update @angular/cli @angular/core

Note: Since Angular 10 is not the final release at the current time, you’ll need to use the --next flag as follows:

$ ng update @angular/cli @angular/core --next

Conclusion

In this guide, we have seen what it takes to update an Angular 9/8 project to the new Angular 10 version with examples.

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