Angular and Material Design: Creating Beautiful UIs

In this tutorial, we will explore how to create beautiful user interfaces (UIs) using Angular and Material Design. Angular is a powerful JavaScript framework for building web applications, while Material Design provides a set of pre-designed UI components and guidelines for creating visually appealing and consistent designs. By combining these two technologies, we can easily create stunning UIs for our Angular applications.

Introduction

What is Angular?

Angular is a popular JavaScript framework developed by Google for building web applications. It provides a robust set of tools and features that enable developers to create scalable and maintainable applications. Angular follows the component-based architecture, where each component represents a part of the user interface and encapsulates its logic and data. This modular approach makes it easier to reuse and test components, resulting in more efficient development.

What is Material Design?

Material Design is a design language developed by Google that focuses on creating visually appealing and consistent user interfaces. It provides a set of guidelines and pre-designed UI components that can be easily integrated into web applications. Material Design emphasizes the use of realistic motion, depth, and shadow effects to create a more intuitive and engaging user experience.

Getting Started

Setting up Angular project

Before we can start using Angular and Material Design, we need to set up an Angular project. We can use the Angular CLI (Command Line Interface) to quickly generate a new project with the necessary configurations. Open your terminal and run the following command to install the Angular CLI globally:

npm install -g @angular/cli

Once the installation is complete, we can create a new Angular project by running the following command:

ng new my-app

This command will generate a new project with the name "my-app" in the current directory. Navigate into the project directory:

cd my-app

Installing Material Design components

To use Material Design components in our Angular project, we need to install the necessary packages. Angular provides an official package called "@angular/material" that includes all the Material Design components. Run the following command to install it:

ng add @angular/material

This command will prompt you to choose a theme for your application. Select a theme of your choice and press enter. The CLI will automatically install the required dependencies and update the necessary configuration files.

Creating a Basic UI

Using Angular CLI

Angular CLI provides a powerful command-line interface for generating and managing Angular components, modules, services, and more. To create a new component, run the following command:

ng generate component my-component

This command will generate a new component with the name "my-component" in the "src/app" directory. It will also update the necessary files to register the component in the Angular module.

Adding Material Design components

Now that we have a basic component, we can start using Material Design components in our UI. Open the "my-component.component.html" file and add the following code:

<button mat-button>Click me</button>

This code will add a Material Design button component to the UI. Save the file and open the component's TypeScript file ("my-component.component.ts"). Import the necessary Material Design modules by adding the following code at the top of the file:

import { MatButtonModule } from '@angular/material/button';

Next, update the component's module file ("my-component.module.ts") to import the Material Design modules:

import { MatButtonModule } from '@angular/material/button';

@NgModule({
  declarations: [MyComponentComponent],
  imports: [
    MatButtonModule
  ],
})
export class MyComponentModule { }

Styling the UI

Material Design provides a set of CSS classes that can be used to style the UI components. Open the component's CSS file ("my-component.component.css") and add the following code:

.mat-button {
  background-color: blue;
  color: white;
}

This code will change the background color and text color of the button component. Save the file and you will see the changes reflected in the UI.

Advanced UI Components

Using Material Design icons

Material Design icons are a set of vector icons that can be easily integrated into web applications. To use Material Design icons in our Angular project, we need to install the official package called "@angular/material-icons". Run the following command to install it:

ng add @angular/material-icons

This command will automatically install the necessary dependencies and update the configuration files. Once the installation is complete, we can start using the icons in our UI. Open the component's HTML file and add the following code:

<mat-icon>favorite</mat-icon>

This code will add a Material Design icon with the name "favorite" to the UI.

Creating custom themes

Material Design allows us to customize the theme of our application by changing the colors, typography, and other visual properties. To create a custom theme, we need to define a theme object and apply it to our application. Open the "styles.scss" file in the "src" directory and add the following code:

@import '~@angular/material/theming';

$my-app-primary: mat-palette($mat-indigo);
$my-app-accent: mat-palette($mat-pink);
$my-app-theme: mat-light-theme($my-app-primary, $my-app-accent);

@include mat-core();

@include angular-material-theme($my-app-theme);

This code defines a custom theme with an indigo primary color and a pink accent color. Save the file and the custom theme will be applied to your application.

Implementing animations

Material Design provides a set of predefined animations that can be easily applied to UI components. To use animations in our Angular project, we need to import the necessary modules. Open the component's TypeScript file and add the following code at the top of the file:

import { BrowserAnimationsModule } from '@angular/platform-browser/animations';

Next, update the component's module file to import the BrowserAnimationsModule:

import { BrowserAnimationsModule } from '@angular/platform-browser/animations';

@NgModule({
  declarations: [MyComponentComponent],
  imports: [
    BrowserAnimationsModule
  ],
})
export class MyComponentModule { }

Now we can start using the animations in our UI. Open the component's HTML file and add the following code:

<button mat-button [@myAnimation]>Click me</button>

This code adds the "myAnimation" animation to the button component. To define the animation, open the component's TypeScript file and add the following code:

import { trigger, state, style, animate, transition } from '@angular/animations';

@Component({
  animations: [
    trigger('myAnimation', [
      state('inactive', style({
        backgroundColor: '#eee',
        transform: 'scale(1)'
      })),
      state('active', style({
        backgroundColor: '#cfd8dc',
        transform: 'scale(1.1)'
      })),
      transition('inactive => active', [
        animate('500ms ease-in')
      ]),
      transition('active => inactive', [
        animate('500ms ease-out')
      ])
    ])
  ]
})
export class MyComponentComponent {
  currentState = 'inactive';

  toggleAnimation() {
    this.currentState = this.currentState === 'inactive' ? 'active' : 'inactive';
  }
}

This code defines an animation with two states ("inactive" and "active") and two transitions ("inactive => active" and "active => inactive"). The animation changes the background color and scale of the button component. The "toggleAnimation" method toggles the state of the animation when the button is clicked.

Form Controls and Validation

Using Material Design form controls

Material Design provides a set of form controls that can be easily integrated into web forms. To use the form controls in our Angular project, we need to import the necessary modules. Open the component's TypeScript file and add the following code at the top of the file:

import { MatInputModule } from '@angular/material/input';

Next, update the component's module file to import the MatInputModule:

import { MatInputModule } from '@angular/material/input';

@NgModule({
  declarations: [MyComponentComponent],
  imports: [
    MatInputModule
  ],
})
export class MyComponentModule { }

Now we can start using the form controls in our UI. Open the component's HTML file and add the following code:

<mat-form-field>
  <input matInput placeholder="Username" required>
</mat-form-field>

This code adds a Material Design input field component to the UI.

Implementing form validation

Material Design provides built-in support for form validation. To implement form validation in our Angular project, we need to add the necessary attributes to the form controls. Open the component's HTML file and update the code as follows:

<mat-form-field>
  <input matInput placeholder="Username" required minlength="3" maxlength="10" pattern="[a-zA-Z0-9]+">
  <mat-error>
    Username must be between 3 and 10 characters long and can only contain alphanumeric characters.
  </mat-error>
</mat-form-field>

This code adds validation attributes to the input field component. The "required" attribute makes the field mandatory, the "minlength" and "maxlength" attributes define the length constraints, and the "pattern" attribute enforces the alphanumeric character pattern. The "mat-error" element displays an error message when the validation fails.

Responsive Design

Using Angular Flex Layout

Angular Flex Layout is a powerful library that provides a flexible and responsive grid system for Angular applications. To use Angular Flex Layout in our project, we need to install the official package called "@angular/flex-layout". Run the following command to install it:

npm install @angular/flex-layout

Next, import the FlexLayoutModule in the component's module file:

import { FlexLayoutModule } from '@angular/flex-layout';

@NgModule({
  declarations: [MyComponentComponent],
  imports: [
    FlexLayoutModule
  ],
})
export class MyComponentModule { }

Now we can start using the Flex Layout directives in our UI. Open the component's HTML file and add the following code:

<div fxLayout="row" fxLayoutAlign="center center">
  <div fxFlex="50%">
    <!-- Content goes here -->
  </div>
</div>

This code creates a responsive layout with a row direction and centers the content horizontally and vertically. The "fxFlex" directive defines the size of the element based on a fraction of the available space.

Creating responsive layouts

Angular Flex Layout provides a wide range of directives that can be used to create responsive layouts. For example, we can use the "fxHide" directive to hide an element on certain screen sizes. Open the component's HTML file and update the code as follows:

<div fxLayout="row" fxLayoutAlign="center center">
  <div fxFlex="50%" fxHide.lt-md>
    <!-- Content goes here -->
  </div>
</div>

This code hides the element when the screen size is less than medium (md).

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have learned how to create beautiful user interfaces (UIs) using Angular and Material Design. We started by setting up an Angular project and installing the necessary Material Design components. Then, we created a basic UI using Angular CLI and added Material Design components to it. We also explored advanced UI components such as icons, custom themes, and animations. Additionally, we learned how to use Material Design form controls and implement form validation. Finally, we discussed responsive design using Angular Flex Layout.

By leveraging the power of Angular and Material Design, developers can easily create visually appealing and user-friendly UIs for their web applications. With the knowledge gained from this tutorial, you can now confidently build amazing UIs using Angular and Material Design. Happy coding!