5 AngularJS Frameworks to Get Apps Up and Running Quickly

Now that you are well-versed in the basics, it is time to get started on building your own web application with AngularJS. AngularJS made building a Javascript-based app more intuitive using what’s called directives, which works hand-in-hand with your HTML markups.

If building a web application from the ground seems overwhelming to you, not to worry. Some very generous developers have adapted a few frontend frameworks to support AngularJS. Like a typical framework, they come with pre-built web components. These make using the framework the perfect tool for anyone who needs to get a web application up and running quick.

Here are 5 frameworks you can use to kick-start a web-based application with AngularJS.

Recommended Reading: 10 Best Tutorials To Learn AngularJS

1. AngularUI Bootstrap

AngularUI Bootstrap, as the name implies, is built on top one of the most popular front-end frameworks, Bootstrap. This framework contains a set of Bootstrap components such as Carousel, Alert, and Collapse along with some additions, like Rating and TimePicker.

All these components have been ported to use AngularJS directives (ng-repeat and ng-controller) and custom HTML elements. For example, rather than using a <div> to wrap the Carousel, you can use a more “meaningful” custom element, <carousel> and <slide>:

 <carousel interval="slideInterval"> <slide ng-repeat="slide in slides" active="slide.active"> <img ng-src="slide.image"> </slide> </carousel>

If you are a big fan of Bootstrap while also enjoy the power and the performance that AngularJS offered, this could be a perfect choice of framework.

2. Angular Foundation

Another popular framework that has also been ported to use AngularJS is Foundation, and it is simply named “Angular Foundation”.

Similarly, this framework has modified Foundation components to adopt AngularJS’s directive and custom HTML elements so you can now build your web application using more semantically named HTML element slike <top-bar>, <accordion>, and <pagination> , rather than the ambiguous <div>. Here is one example of how we add an Alert component with the <alert> element:

 <div ng-controller="alertArea"> <alert ng-repeat="alert in alerts" type="alert.type" close="closeAlert($index)">alert.msg</alert> </div>

If you like Foundation better than Bootstrap, then this is the framework to go with. Download Angular Foundation in this page, or stay up-to-date with the project development through the Github repo.

3. Ionic Framework

Ionic comes with a handful of solid building-blocks that makes developing mobile applications easy and fast. Each component in the Ionic framework is optimized for mobile experience, which is basically dependent on touch and gestures. These UI components are also made up of custom HTML elements. In deploying a tabbed navigation, for example, you would use the <ion-tabs>:

 <ion-tabs class="tabs-default tabs-icon-only"> <ion-tab title="Home" icon-on="ion-ios-home" icon-off="ion-ios-home-outline"> </ion-tab> <!-- The rest of the tabs go here --> </ion-tabs>

To make it even easier and faster to build your application, you can use Ionic Creator which lets you build your app by drag-n-drop. So if performance and speed is important to you, Ionic is the best framework to go with.

4. Mobile Angular UI

Mobile Angular UI is a mobile UI framework which is an extension of the Bootstrap framework, aimed to build mobile applications. It uses most of Bootstrap 3 syntaxes with some added specific mobile components such as switches, overlays, sidebars and scrollable areas. It is only dependent on AngularJS and you can easily bring your current web app into mobile version by adding provided CSS to turn your content responsive and touch-enabled.

Download this framework here

5. UI Grid

UI Grid is the best way to work a grid or table with Angular. It has rich features to display simple, and also complex and large datasets on a grid. UI Grid is designed to execute complex features only when needed, thus keeping the core small. With UI Grid you can bind cells to complex properties/functions, run column sorting and filtering, edit data in place and more. To change styles of your data grid display, use Customizer.

Get the latest UI Grid from its homepage.