WebStorm 2024.2 Help

AngularJS

AngularJS also known as Angular 1 is a framework for developing single page web applications. WebStorm suggests AngularJS-aware completion options for predefined and custom ng directives and for controller and application names, as well as code insights for data bindings inside curly-brace expressions {{}}. You can use built-in AngularJS live templates and navigate between the name of a controller in HTML and its definition in JavaScript or between ngView or &routeProvider and the template. For AngularJS entities, use the Go To Symbol navigation.

Before you start

  1. Make sure you have Node.js on your computer.

  2. Make sure the Angular and AngularJS plugin is enabled in the settings. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open settings and then select Plugins. Click the Installed tab. In the search field, type Angular and AngularJS. For more information about plugins, refer to Managing plugins.

Create a new AngularJS application

You can install AngularJS in a project either manually, by downloading the AngularJS framework, or using the Bower package manager.

Download AngularJS dependencies

  • In the embedded Terminal (Alt+F12) , type:

    npm install

  • Alternatively, select Run 'npm install' from the context menu of the package.json file in your project root.

Create an empty WebStorm project

  1. Click New Project on the Welcome screen or select File | New | Project from the main menu. The New Project dialog opens.

  2. In the left-hand pane, choose Empty Project.

  3. Specify The path to the folder where the project-related files will be stored.

  4. Click Create.

Install and configure AngularJS in an empty project manually

  1. Download the AngularJS framework at http://angularjs.org/.

  2. Open the empty project where you will use AngularJS.

  3. Configure AngularJS as a WebStorm JavaScript library, to let WebStorm recognize AngularJS-specific structures and provide full coding assistance:

    1. In the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S) , go to Languages & Frameworks | JavaScript | Libraries.

    2. In the Libraries area, click the Add button.

    3. In the New Library dialog that opens, specify the name of the library.

    4. Click the Add button (the Add button) next to the list of library files and select Attach Files or Attach Directories, depending on whether you need separate files or an entire folder.

    5. Select the Angular.js, or Angular.min.js, or an entire directory in the dialog that opens.

      WebStorm returns to the New Library dialog where the Name read-only field shows the name of the selected files or folder.

    6. In the Type field, specify which version you have downloaded and are going to add.

      • If you added Angular.js, select Debug. This version is helpful in the development environment, especially for debugging.

      • If you added the minified Angular.min.js, select Release. This version is helpful in the production environment because the file size is significantly smaller.

    Learn more from Configure JavaScript libraries.

Install AngularJS in an empty project with Bower

  1. Open the empty project where you will use AngularJS.

  2. Install Bower as described in Bower.

  3. In the embedded Terminal (Alt+F12) , type bower install angular to install the package as a project dependency.

Start with an existing AngularJS application

If you already have Angular sources in your project (for example, in the bower_components folder), just open your project and start working. If these sources are excluded from project, then you only need to configure AngularJS as a JavaScript library.

Check out the application sources from your version control

  1. Click Clone Repository on the Welcome screen.

    Alternatively, select File | New | Project from Version Control or Git | Clone or VCS | Get from Version Control from the main menu.

    Instead of Git in the main menu, you may see any other Version Control System that is associated with your project. For example, Mercurial or Perforce.

  2. In the dialog that opens, select your version control system from the list and specify the repository to check out the application sources from. For more information, refer to Check out a project (clone).

Download the dependencies

  • Click Run 'npm install' in the popup:

    Opening an Angular application and downloading the dependencies from package.json

Project security

When you open a project that was created outside WebStorm and was imported into it, WebStorm displays a dialog where you can decide how to handle this project with unfamiliar source code.

Untrusted project warning

Select one of the following options:

  • Preview in Safe Mode: in this case, WebStorm opens the project in a preview mode. It means that you can browse the project's sources but you cannot run tasks and script or run/debug your project.

    WebStorm displays a notification on top of the editor area, and you can click the Trust project link and load your project at any time.

  • Trust Project: in this case, WebStorm opens and loads a project. That means the project is initialized, project's plugins are resolved, dependencies are added, and all WebStorm features are available.

  • Don't Open: in this case, WebStorm doesn't open the project.

Learn more from Project security.

Use AngularJS Router state diagrams

You can see a diagram illustrating the relations between views, states, and templates in AngularJS applications that use ui-router.

Generate and view a diagram

  • Open the desired file in the editor, and then choose Diagrams | Show AngularJS ui-router State Diagram from the context menu. WebStorm generates a diagram and shows it in a separate editor tab.

  • Select the element and choose Jump to Source from the context menu.

Last modified: 11 October 2024