TLDR; Native Federation for Angular 17.1 uses the CLI's Application Builder and Dev Server to keep track with the innovations and performance improvements the CLI team works on.
Today, we announce Native Federation 17.1 for Angular 17.1. While it's just a minor version, this release brings a huge improvement: For the first time, Native Federation uses the Angular CLI's new and really fast Application Builder, delegating to esbuild for both client-side and server-side bundles. Before, the esbuild Builder, intended as an intermediate solution when migrating from webpack, was used.
Also, this new version of Native Federation is build on top of the CLI's dev server. Hence, all the known configuration options are available in your angular.json.
Using the Application Builder and the Dev Server also allows us to gain all the new and upcoming features as well as all the smart performance improvements the Angular CLI team is implementing.
I want to thank the Angular CLI team for providing the necessary hooks that make this important milestone possible. My thanks especially go to Charles Lyding from the CLI team and Minko Gechev, Developer Relations and Product Lead for Angular.
The Underlying Philosophy
This release mirrors the underlying philosophy of Native Federation: Being a thin wrapper delegating to the Angular CLI. This makes sure Native Federation-based applications keep track with all the innovations in Angular:
This philosophy is also reflected when running ng build or ng serve. These commands inform about the extra work Native Federation takes care of and about the CLI's default tasks:
Migrating to 17.1
After npm-installing version 17.1, you need to update your angular.json (or project.json
ng g @angular-architects/native-federation:appbuilderMore information and details on this can be found here.
