AiA 150: What’s New with Ionic with Mike Hartington

In this episode of Adventures in Angular the panel is Ward Bell, Alyssa Nicoll, Joe Eames, and Charles Max Wood. The panel talks to special guest Mike Hartington about Ionic. Tune in to learn more!

[00:02:02] Introduction to Mike Hartington

Mike is a developer for the Ionic framework. He helps people succeed on Mobile.

[00:02:40] What have you been working on lately?

Ionic is currently going through an investigative phase. They are moving things to a vanilla JavaScript state and web component based architecture.

[00:03:02] What do you mean by web component based architecture?

Throughout all different frameworks (such as Angular, React, Ember) and libraries have a similar concept of a reusable thing. It is a custom element they can ship, which becomes limiting. It only works in their specific framework because the API capability isn’t there. Ionic wants to make something that works in all frameworks.

[00:04:27] When you’re talking about web components, you’re talking about the idea of components?

No, talking about the web standard itself.

[00:05:25] What does this mean for people who are used to the way Ionic works with Angular?

When implementing these experiments in new releases, it shouldn’t change for people who are currently using Ionic and Angular; everything pretty much stays the same. There is a slightly smaller payload, but that’s it.

[00:06:32] As essentially as Angular developers, we will actually be interacting with an adapter?

More or less. There would have a single Ionic Angular package. Everything it needs to have the web components talk to Angular would already be including as soon as you started the entire app.

[00:07:16] If I became another kind of developer, we will be able to get the same experience because there will be a way to interact with other web components?

Yes, that’s the vision. It was the idea when we first started Ionic. It is easier to implement now than when Ionic first started.

[00:09:20] Do you think it is limiting to our creativity as developers?

Can still create something new within Ionic and have something more custom to your needs.

[00:12:26] If I have something that adapts to something else, is that going to impact performance?

It shouldn’t. The code would not be heavy; it would be vanilla JavaScript. It would run outside of your framework. It could run faster because they are default APIs. It allows for an extra layer and everything Angular can do will still work with a web component.

[00:15:15] Efficiency and simplicity of web components implementation frees you from having to carry the payload of a general application component framework. Is that where you’re going?

Generally. The building time of an app is APIs Makes sense for application development but not controls.

[00:16:25] Does this translate all the way up to desktop browsers?

Becomes more useful because web components uses browsers own APIs. Overall payload ends up being smaller. Smaller network area users can take advantage and it can be faster if a large desktop application is used.

[00:17:35] Is there a direction Ionic has?

Ionic understands hybrid technology is going to be around. Some people want distribution through an app and some just want a website. Ionic is catering to both parties. At the end, browser will implement APIs that native devices have.

[00:19:00] Do you see a move away from the phone gap approach towards PWAs or do you not know how it will play?

Just released the numbers from a developer survey we sent out. There is a healthy mix between people who want a native binary and progressive web apps.

[00:19:35] Will Ionic continue doing progressive web apps and splitting the difference?

Ionic will continue pushing for progressive web apps.

[00:21:00] Ionic and Augmented Reality

He doesn’t know. Has seen a few people that has a HoloLens. In the future, Ionic could possibly use augmented reality.

[00:26:54] Intro to Mike at Dev Summit

Will speak about Ionic components across multitude of frameworks. How to take advantage of tools that Ionic has to use to create own custom components that work across all frameworks.

Picks

Alyssa:

• Sketch

Joe:

• Dunkirk
• Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are 

Ward:

• E-biking through Switzerland
• Rösti
• The Founder 

Charles:

• The Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eke

Mike:

• Diy Nils 
• Spider-Man Homecoming

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special Guest: Mike Hartington.