Ionic-framework: Feature request: AngularJS 1.x revival

[jamesharvey2]

Ionic version: (check one with "x")
[X ] 1.x (For Ionic 1.x issues, please use https://github.com/ionic-team/ionic-v1)
[ ] 2.x
[ ] 3.x

I'm submitting a ... (check one with "x")
[ ] bug report
[X ] feature request
[ ] support request => Please do not submit support requests here, use one of these channels: https://forum.ionicframework.com/ or http://ionicworldwide.herokuapp.com/

Hello Ionic team,

I found out there are still a significant amount of companies using Angular JS 1.x. They don't want to upgrade to Angular 5 because AngularJS 1.x already works for them.
To be honest, I see more companies looking for AngularJS 1.x developers.
Thus, I see AngularJS 1.x as a valuable asset. I anticipate AngularJS will last more than four to five years.
Is it possible for you guys to make Ionic 4 work with both Angular 5 and Angular JS 1.6?
I started studying AngularJS 1.x and I think it would be great to be able to integrate the newest Ionic UI with 1.x.
Maybe a silly idea but I found lots of established companies and individuals using 1.x..
Current demand in job market looks like 60% AngularJS, 40% Angular 2, 4, 5 so it makes sense to sustain angularJS compatibility.

[simonhaenisch]

I think it's theoretically possible with Ionic becoming framework-agnostic (see https://github.com/ionic-team/ionic/tree/master/angular for how they do it with angular). However I wouldn't expect any work on that and I'm actually quite happy that Ionic is becoming simpler again, maybe making it a lot easier to migrate old v1 apps. Or maybe you'll be able to write the "AngularJS specific building blocks on top of @ionic/core" yourself ;)

[jamesharvey2]

Angular 5 is technically better... but when so many companies are into 1.x, you may want to have 1.x Ionic 4 to find good opportunities and clients.
I can study more React.js maybe..but that will be another long road when AngularJS offers similar amount of opportunities as react.js.
I found Google is still developing angularJS and they will continue to do so... I doubt if they can give it up given a large number of companies still using it.

Current job market:

30% React.js
40% AngularJS
10% Angular 2, 4, 5,
20% JQuery or other frameworks like Vue... or they don't require front end frameworks.

[simonhaenisch]

I just checked the Ionic CLI changelog (https://github.com/ionic-team/ionic-cli/blob/d62c12b34293ef27fa03aa25470f547eaa05e99d/CHANGELOG.md#boom-breaking-changes) and it mentions that Ionic 1 functionality has been moved into a @ionic/v1-util package. So it seems that CLI version 4 will still support Ionic 1.

[jamesharvey2]

Awesome.
AngularJS is here to stay for four to five more years despite of its technical issues. Yes, it works for small businesses which don't need more than 2000 users on a single page. and it's easy to use with just <script> tags.

[jamesharvey2]

My request was to make Ionic 4 UI available for AngularJS 1.x... so users will be able to use Ionic 4 with AngularJS 1.x but I think that'll take some time to make happen.

[simonhaenisch]

The Ionic 4 UI components will run as browser-native web components with a polyfill to support major browsers and IE11+ (you can read about it here: https://stenciljs.com/docs/browser-support). They are built using Stencil rather than a framework like Angular or React, thus you can use them with any other framework. However you would have to figure out yourself how to connect AngularJS and Stencil (which compiles from Typescript).

If I was part of Ionic I wouldn't support your request cause the amount of work for it doesn't seem worth it at all. If people want to stick with v1 rather than going through a migration, then they can even with the latest CLI version, but then they have to live with outdated UI components and software practices. IMO now is one of the best times to consider migrating.

[jamesharvey2]

Yes, that's a great improvement. Can't wait to try Ionic 4.. I hope it will feel truly native.

I understand but a lot of companies out there want to use traditional javascript, frameworks which already worked for them. If you help them, you can make your life better.
Maybe I should study more React later on...

[mlynch]

First of all: whoever is thumbing this issue down, please don't. There's no place for that kind of negativity here.

Second of all, I agree that Angular 1 is still around. I actually am hopeful that Ionic 4 web components can target Angular 1 without us having to build and maintain a custom Angular 1 implementation. I built this proof of concept recently which shows how to use stencil web components (which Ionic 4 components are), in Angular 1: https://github.com/mlynch/stencil-transform-angularjs

So, basically: I think we'll be able to give Angular 1 devs some options, and we'd love to have their input and possibly contributions to test and take this further. We probably won't officially support it until we see how stable and appealing it is to developers.

Generally, if you aren't interested in jumping to Angular 5, you pretty much don't have to just to keep using Ionic, and that's important to us.

[ionitron-bot[bot]]

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