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Use the Angular project template with ASP.NET Core

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Note

This isn't the latest version of this article. For the current release, see the .NET 9 version of this article.

Warning

This version of ASP.NET Core is no longer supported. For more information, see .NET and .NET Core Support Policy. For the current release, see the .NET 8 version of this article.

Important

This information relates to a pre-release product that may be substantially modified before it's commercially released. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information provided here.

For the current release, see the .NET 9 version of this article.

Visual Studio provides project templates for creating single-page apps (SPAs) based on JavaScript frameworks such as Angular, React, and Vue that have an ASP.NET Core backend. These templates:

  • Create a Visual Studio solution with a frontend project and a backend project.
  • Use the Visual Studio project type for JavaScript and TypeScript (.esproj) for the frontend.
  • Use an ASP.NET Core project for the backend.

Projects created by using the Visual Studio templates can be run from the command line on Windows, Linux, and macOS. To run the app, use dotnet run --launch-profile https to run the server project. Running the server project automatically starts the frontend JavaScript development server. The https launch profile is currently required.

Visual Studio tutorial

To get started with an Angular project, follow the Create an ASP.NET Core app with Angular tutorial in the Visual Studio documentation.

For more information, see JavaScript and TypeScript in Visual Studio

ASP.NET Core SPA templates

Visual Studio includes templates for building ASP.NET Core apps with a JavaScript or TypeScript frontend. These templates are available in Visual Studio 2022 version 17.8 or later with the ASP.NET and web development workload installed.

The Visual Studio templates for building ASP.NET Core apps with a JavaScript or TypeScript frontend offer the following benefits:

  • Clean project separation for the frontend and backend.
  • Stay up-to-date with the latest frontend framework versions.
  • Integrate with the latest frontend framework command-line tooling, such as Vite.
  • Templates for both JavaScript & TypeScript (only TypeScript for Angular).
  • Rich JavaScript and TypeScript code editing experience.
  • Integrate JavaScript build tools with the .NET build.
  • npm dependency management UI.
  • Compatible with Visual Studio Code debugging and launch configuration.
  • Run frontend unit tests in Test Explorer using JavaScript test frameworks.

Legacy ASP.NET Core SPA templates

Earlier versions of the .NET SDK included what are now legacy templates for building SPA apps with ASP.NET Core. For documentation on these older templates, see the ASP.NET Core 7.0 version of the SPA overview and the Angular and React articles.

The ASP.NET Core with Angular project template provides a convenient starting point for ASP.NET Core apps using Angular and the Angular CLI to implement a rich, client-side user interface (UI).

The project template is equivalent to creating both an ASP.NET Core project to act as a web API and an Angular CLI project to act as a UI. This project combination offers the convenience of hosting both projects in a single ASP.NET Core project that can be built and published as a single unit.

The project template isn't meant for server-side rendering (SSR).

Create a new app

Create a new project from a command prompt using the command dotnet new angular in an empty directory. For example, the following commands create the app in a my-new-app directory and switch to that directory:

dotnet new angular -o my-new-app
cd my-new-app

Run the app from either Visual Studio or the .NET CLI:

Open the generated .csproj file, and run the app as normal from there.

The build process restores npm dependencies on the first run, which can take several minutes. Subsequent builds are much faster.

The project template creates an ASP.NET Core app and an Angular app. The ASP.NET Core app is intended to be used for data access, authorization, and other server-side concerns. The Angular app, residing in the ClientApp subdirectory, is intended to be used for all UI concerns.

Add pages, images, styles, and modules

The ClientApp directory contains a standard Angular CLI app. See the official Angular documentation for more information.

There are slight differences between the Angular app created by this template and the one created by Angular CLI itself (via ng new); however, the app's capabilities are unchanged. The app created by the template contains a Bootstrap-based layout and a basic routing example.

Run ng commands

In a command prompt, switch to the ClientApp subdirectory:

cd ClientApp

If you have the ng tool installed globally, you can run any of its commands. For example, you can run ng lint, ng test, or any of the other Angular CLI commands. There's no need to run ng serve though, because your ASP.NET Core app deals with serving both server-side and client-side parts of your app. Internally, it uses ng serve in development.

If you don't have the ng tool installed, run npm run ng instead. For example, you can run npm run ng lint or npm run ng test.

Install npm packages

To install third-party npm packages, use a command prompt in the ClientApp subdirectory. For example:

cd ClientApp
npm install <package_name>

Publish and deploy

In development, the app runs in a mode optimized for developer convenience. For example, JavaScript bundles include source maps (so that when debugging, you can see your original TypeScript code). The app watches for TypeScript, HTML, and CSS file changes on disk and automatically recompiles and reloads when it sees those files change.

In production, serve a version of your app that's optimized for performance. This is configured to happen automatically. When you publish, the build configuration emits a minified, ahead-of-time (AoT) compiled build of your client-side code. Unlike the development build, the production build doesn't require Node.js to be installed on the server (unless you have enabled server-side rendering (SSR)).

You can use standard ASP.NET Core hosting and deployment methods.

Run "ng serve" independently

The project is configured to start its own instance of the Angular CLI server in the background when the ASP.NET Core app starts in development mode. This is convenient because you don't have to run a separate server manually.

There's a drawback to this default setup. Each time you modify your C# code and your ASP.NET Core app needs to restart, the Angular CLI server restarts. Around 10 seconds is required to start back up. If you're making frequent C# code edits and don't want to wait for Angular CLI to restart, run the Angular CLI server externally, independently of the ASP.NET Core process.

To run the Angular CLI server externally, switch to the ClientApp subdirectory in a command prompt and launch the Angular CLI development server:

cd ClientApp
npm start

When you start your ASP.NET Core app, it won't launch an Angular CLI server. The instance you started manually is used instead. This enables it to start and restart faster. It's no longer waiting for Angular CLI to rebuild your client app each time.

When the proxy is launched, the target URL and port is inferred from the environment variables set by .NET, ASPNETCORE_URLS and ASPNETCORE_HTTPS_PORTS. To set the URLs or HTTPS port, use one of the environment variables or change the value in proxy.conf.json.

Configure proxy middleware for SignalR

For more information, see http-proxy-middleware.

Additional resources

The updated Angular project template provides a convenient starting point for ASP.NET Core apps using Angular and the Angular CLI to implement a rich, client-side user interface (UI).

The template is equivalent to creating an ASP.NET Core project to act as an API backend and an Angular CLI project to act as a UI. The template offers the convenience of hosting both project types in a single app project. Consequently, the app project can be built and published as a single unit.

Create a new app

Create a new project from a command prompt using the command dotnet new angular in an empty directory. For example, the following commands create the app in a my-new-app directory and switch to that directory:

dotnet new angular -o my-new-app
cd my-new-app

Run the app from either Visual Studio or the .NET CLI:

Open the generated .csproj file, and run the app as normal from there.

The build process restores npm dependencies on the first run, which can take several minutes. Subsequent builds are much faster.

The project template creates an ASP.NET Core app and an Angular app. The ASP.NET Core app is intended to be used for data access, authorization, and other server-side concerns. The Angular app, residing in the ClientApp subdirectory, is intended to be used for all UI concerns.

Add pages, images, styles, and modules

The ClientApp directory contains a standard Angular CLI app. See the official Angular documentation for more information.

There are slight differences between the Angular app created by this template and the one created by Angular CLI itself (via ng new); however, the app's capabilities are unchanged. The app created by the template contains a Bootstrap-based layout and a basic routing example.

Run ng commands

In a command prompt, switch to the ClientApp subdirectory:

cd ClientApp

If you have the ng tool installed globally, you can run any of its commands. For example, you can run ng lint, ng test, or any of the other Angular CLI commands. There's no need to run ng serve though, because your ASP.NET Core app deals with serving both server-side and client-side parts of your app. Internally, it uses ng serve in development.

If you don't have the ng tool installed, run npm run ng instead. For example, you can run npm run ng lint or npm run ng test.

Install npm packages

To install third-party npm packages, use a command prompt in the ClientApp subdirectory. For example:

cd ClientApp
npm install --save <package_name>

Publish and deploy

In development, the app runs in a mode optimized for developer convenience. For example, JavaScript bundles include source maps (so that when debugging, you can see your original TypeScript code). The app watches for TypeScript, HTML, and CSS file changes on disk and automatically recompiles and reloads when it sees those files change.

In production, serve a version of your app that's optimized for performance. This is configured to happen automatically. When you publish, the build configuration emits a minified, ahead-of-time (AoT) compiled build of your client-side code. Unlike the development build, the production build doesn't require Node.js to be installed on the server (unless you have enabled server-side rendering (SSR)).

You can use standard ASP.NET Core hosting and deployment methods.

Run "ng serve" independently

The project is configured to start its own instance of the Angular CLI server in the background when the ASP.NET Core app starts in development mode. This is convenient because you don't have to run a separate server manually.

There's a drawback to this default setup. Each time you modify your C# code and your ASP.NET Core app needs to restart, the Angular CLI server restarts. Around 10 seconds is required to start back up. If you're making frequent C# code edits and don't want to wait for Angular CLI to restart, run the Angular CLI server externally, independently of the ASP.NET Core process. To do so:

  1. In a command prompt, switch to the ClientApp subdirectory, and launch the Angular CLI development server:

    cd ClientApp
npm start

    Important

    Use npm start to launch the Angular CLI development server, not ng serve, so that the configuration in package.json is respected. To pass additional parameters to the Angular CLI server, add them to the relevant scripts line in your package.json file.

  2. Modify your ASP.NET Core app to use the external Angular CLI instance instead of launching one of its own. In your Startup class, replace the spa.UseAngularCliServer invocation with the following:

    spa.UseProxyToSpaDevelopmentServer("http://localhost:4200");

When you start your ASP.NET Core app, it won't launch an Angular CLI server. The instance you started manually is used instead. This enables it to start and restart faster. It's no longer waiting for Angular CLI to rebuild your client app each time.

When the proxy is launched, the target URL and port is inferred from the environment variables set by .NET, ASPNETCORE_URLS and ASPNETCORE_HTTPS_PORTS. To set the URLs or HTTPS port, use one of the environment variables or change the value in proxy.conf.json.

Pass data from .NET code into TypeScript code

During SSR, you might want to pass per-request data from your ASP.NET Core app into your Angular app. For example, you could pass cookie information or something read from a database. To do this, edit your Startup class. In the callback for UseSpaPrerendering, set a value for options.SupplyData such as the following:

options.SupplyData = (context, data) =>
{
    // Creates a new value called isHttpsRequest that's passed to TypeScript code
    data["isHttpsRequest"] = context.Request.IsHttps;
};

The SupplyData callback lets you pass arbitrary, per-request, JSON-serializable data (for example, strings, booleans, or numbers). Your main.server.ts code receives this as params.data. For example, the preceding code sample passes a boolean value as params.data.isHttpsRequest into the createServerRenderer callback. You can pass this to other parts of your app in any way supported by Angular. For example, see how main.server.ts passes the BASE_URL value to any component whose constructor is declared to receive it.

Drawbacks of SSR

Not all apps benefit from SSR. The primary benefit is perceived performance. Visitors reaching your app over a slow network connection or on slow mobile devices see the initial UI quickly, even if it takes a while to fetch or parse the JavaScript bundles. However, many SPAs are mainly used over fast, internal company networks on fast computers where the app appears almost instantly.

At the same time, there are significant drawbacks to enabling SSR. It adds complexity to your development process. Your code must run in two different environments: client-side and server-side (in a Node.js environment invoked from ASP.NET Core). Here are some things to bear in mind:

  • SSR requires a Node.js installation on your production servers. This is automatically the case for some deployment scenarios, such as Azure App Services, but not for others, such as Azure Service Fabric.
  • Enabling the BuildServerSideRenderer build flag causes your node_modules directory to publish. This folder contains 20,000+ files, which increases deployment time.
  • To run your code in a Node.js environment, it can't rely on the existence of browser-specific JavaScript APIs such as window or localStorage. If your code (or some third-party library you reference) tries to use these APIs, you'll get an error during SSR. For example, don't use jQuery because it references browser-specific APIs in many places. To prevent errors, you must either avoid SSR or avoid browser-specific APIs or libraries. You can wrap any calls to such APIs in checks to ensure they aren't invoked during SSR. For example, use a check such as the following in JavaScript or TypeScript code:
if (typeof window !== 'undefined') {
    // Call browser-specific APIs here
}

Configure proxy middleware for SignalR

For more information, see http-proxy-middleware.

Additional resources