Debugging is one of the important things in handling web application development and angular apps as well. Over the time when your angular app grows in complexity… understanding performance bottlenecks, trackers of unexpected behavior, and navigational issues can be very hard to figure out, maybe it practically impossible.
While Angular DevTools are tools created to tackle this beast. This outstanding browser extension provides developers with tools to inspect, profile, and optimize Angular applications. For this guide, we are going to explore how you can use Angular DevTools in debugging and profiling capabilities of your Angular projects easily as well as building better in-development workflow with them.
Angular DevTools is a debugging tool built for Angular applications. Developed by an Angular team introduced with Angular 12, it gives a lot of useful data about component states, change detection, and performance.
This tool provides more menu items customized for features supported by Angular framework, instead of the traditional browser DevTools to provide you a deeper view of all the components and capabilities of your application at run time development configuration. From looking around a complex component tree to deeply analyzing change detection cycles, Angular DevTools gives the visibility you need in order to debug effectively.
Component Explorer
The Component Explorer shows the component tree of your application. This allows you to have a more in-depth look at the component tree displays what properties, inputs, and outputs each component features, therefore facilitating understanding of the data flow within your app. This kind of feature is great for debugging the component scope, like if data-binding or state changes are happening unexpectedly.
Profiler
If you are looking to optimize your angular apps performance profiling is a must. The Profiler node in Angular DevTools shows you how much time your change detection and rendering components take to perform. It provides you with the ability to take snapshots of your app’s performance, peruse the findings, and figure out how to optimize accordingly.
Change Detection cycles
One of the most powerful features of Angular is its change detection mechanism, but if the way you use it is not correct you can easily run into performance problems. Angular DevTools helps you visualize how and when angular's change detection really kicks in, highlighting all checks or expensive operations that slow your app.
Routing Insights
If your app uses Angular’s router module, Angular DevTools can be used to inspect your routing configuration and monitor navigation events. This feature is particularly useful for debugging complex routing scenarios, such as lazy-loaded modules, guards, and redirects.
Angular DevTools is available for both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. It supports Angular apps built with version 9 or above with Ivy enabled.
Open Google Chrome and navigate to the Chrome Web Store.
Search for the "Angular DevTools" extension and click on the extension.
Click the “Add to Chrome” button to install the extension.
Once installed, you can access Angular DevTools by opening the Chrome DevTools panel (right-click on your page > Inspect) and navigating to the “Angular” tab.
Open Mozilla Firefox and navigate to the Firefox add-ons
Search for the "Angular DevTools" extension and click on the extension.
Click the “Add to Firefox” button to install the extension.
With Angular DevTools installed, you’re ready to start debugging!
After installing the DevTools extension, open an Angular application that runs in development mode. There, you can see that the extension’s icon color changes from black to red, indicating that you can debug the application. Now, open the developer tools and select the Angular tab.
In the above image, you can see the running Angular version and the latest commit hash of the extension in the bar chart in the top-right corner of DevTools. Moreover, here you can see the three subtabs when you open DevTools: Components, Profiler, and Injector tree
The Components substory shows the structure of an app and allows to inspection of directive and component instances (with a possibility to preview or edit their states).
You also can see the component tree from the application so it shows the hierarchical position, I mean something told that whether or not your angular application is nice or no longer.
Let’s explore some common debugging scenarios and how Angular DevTools can help you solve them:
Inspecting Components
Use the Component Explorer to drill down into your app’s component tree. By selecting a particular component name, you can view its properties, input bindings, and output events in real-time. This makes it easier to identify where data mismatches or unexpected state changes are occurring.
Performance Profiling
The Profiler captures a snapshot of your app’s performance during a given interaction. For instance, if you notice that a specific page is slow, you can start profiling and interact with the page.
The results will show you which components are taking the longest to render, allowing you to target your optimizations precisely.
Monitoring Change Detection
If you suspect that change detection is running too frequently or inefficiently, Angular DevTools can help. Use the Change Detection tool to monitor how often your app’s state is checked and updated. This insight allows you to adjust strategies, such as using OnPush as a change detection execution strategy, to improve performance.
Troubleshooting Routing Issues
Debugging navigation errors and unexpected routing behavior is made easier with Angular DevTools. By examining routing events and inspecting only the components and router state, you can quickly identify misconfigured routes, misplaced guards, or incorrect parameters that might be causing navigation failures.
View and Modify Property Values
When a specific component or directive instance is selected, additional information about inspect element icons such as properties, metadata, inputs, and outputs, is displayed on the right panel. This panel also allows you to modify a property value and see the feedback immediately in the UI right away,
Note: Text input won’t be visible if the edit functionality is unavailable for a specific property value.
Detecting Slow Components: Use the Profiler to find out which are the slowest components in rendering. Find the components with heavy computation or complex templates and think about splitting these into smaller Reusable Parts.
Troubleshooting Unexpected State Changes: Use the Component Explorer to inspect component properties and identify where state mismatches occur. This tool is particularly helpful when debugging input-output binding issues between parent and child components.
Fixing Routing Errors: Routing issues can be complex to diagnose, but Angular DevTools allows you to see exactly which routes are being activated and why. Use this to ensure that your routing configuration matches your application’s intended flow.
Keep DevTools Updated: Angular DevTools is actively maintained, so make sure you’re using the latest version to benefit from new features and bug fixes.
Profile Regularly: Make performance profiling a part of your regular development routine to catch inefficiencies early.
Leverage Change Detection Insights: Use the information provided by the Change Detection tool to refine your approach, whether by refactoring components or adjusting strategies to improve your app’s overall performance.
Not only can you debug an app with Angular DevTools, you can also profile your app to identify the factors that degrade its performance.
Open the Profiler tab next to the Components tab, and you can profile each component definition your application.
In Angular DevTools you access the Profiler tab To begin profiling your app, click on the green Start recording icon in the top-left corner of the Profiler tab (or load an existing recording).
After that, when you interact with app elements during profiling each event execution like change detection, the lifecycle hook method implementation will be captured by the profiler. Further, you simply click the icon again to stop recording. and you can export the recorded profiler as a JSON file by clicking the Save Profile button at the top-right corner.
In summary, if you are an Angular Developer and want to debug fast then having Angular DevTools open is a must.
Giving your developer tools gives you a window into the inner workings of your application’s components, performance, and routing, it makes spotting and resolving issues much more quickly.
From troubleshooting that pesky bug to debugging your app for enhanced performance, Angular DevTools is the extension that will make all aspects related to debugging fast and simple.
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