Using ng-forward (Angular 1.x Using 2 Style)

The ng-forward approach is done with Angular 1.x dependencies and a few small helper libraries. ng-forward allows developers to use Angular 2 style TypeScript (annotations/decorators) without Angular 2. Unfortunately templates are still mostly in Angular 1.x style.

Once an application is converted to ng-forward style it is very close to Angular 2, but still requires refactoring. In most cases, ng-forward is not as efficient as ng-upgrade with respect to refactoring time. The payload of an ng-forwarded application is smaller, and porting to ng-forward can be done in an even more ad-hoc fashion than with ng-upgrade.

The general flow of ng-forwarding an application is:

• install ng-forward dependencies
• bootstrap root component
• upgrade components strategically
• refactor the codebase to Angular 2