Best Features of Nx for Angular Projects

Nx is a powerful build system and monorepo tool that enhances Angular development by providing improved performance, modularity, and developer experience. Below are some of its best features:

Monorepo Support

Nx allows you to manage multiple Angular applications and libraries within a single repository. This is useful for:

• Code sharing across apps
• Enforcing consistent coding standards.
• Simplifying dependency management.

npx create-nx-workspace@latest my-org --preset=angular

Code Generation & Scaffolding

Nx provides built-in generators to quickly scaffold components, services, modules, and libraries.

nx generate @nrwl/angular:component my-component --project=my-app

Incremental Builds & Affected Commands

Nx speeds up builds by running tasks only on changed projects instead of the entire repository.

nx affected:build
nx affected:test

This ensures only modified applications and libraries are built or tested, saving time in CI/CD pipelines.

Project Graph Visualization

Nx provides a dependency graph to visualize how different applications and libraries interact.

nx graph

This helps in understanding dependencies and optimizing the project structure.

Module Federation for Micro Frontends
Nx simplifies Micro Frontend (MFE) implementation with Webpack’s Module Federation.

nx generate @nrwl/angular:host shell --remotes=app1,app2

This sets up an Angular MFE architecture with a shell app and remote apps.

Enforce Coding Standards with ESLint & Prettier
Nx integrates ESLint and Prettier, ensuring uniform coding styles and preventing bad practices.

nx lint my-app

This runs ESLint on the my-app project.

Testing with Jest & Cypress
Nx replaces Karma and Jasmine with Jest (for unit testing) and Cypress (for end-to-end testing).

nx test my-app
nx e2e my-app-e2e

Jest runs tests faster with better reporting, while Cypress provides end-to-end UI testing capabilities.

Conclusion
Nx makes Angular development more efficient with features like incremental builds, modular architecture, dependency constraints, and testing enhancements. By leveraging these capabilities, teams can improve performance, maintainability, and collaboration in large-scale projects.