Tree Shaking

16 Apr 20253 minutes to read

Tree shaking is a powerful optimization technique used in modern JavaScript and TypeScript development with tools like Webpack or Rollup. Its main goal is to remove dead or unused code from the application’s bundle, resulting in smaller, more efficient, and faster-loading web applications.

In this guide, how tree shaking is implemented in Angular applications and how it synergizes with Syncfusion Angular components to optimize performance is explored.

Tree Shaking in Angular

The Angular CLI, utilizing Webpack for bundling script files, has supported tree shaking since Angular CLI version 2. Tree shaking operates on the static structure of ES2015 module syntax, using import and export declarations. Any exported functions or methods that are not used in your code are considered unnecessary and removed from the output bundle. This results in improved performance, with faster load times and consequently a better user experience.

NOTE

Ahead Of Time (AOT) compilation process performs tree shaking in the Angular application, which was enabled by default starting from Angular version 9.

Using Syncfusion^® components with Tree Shaking

Syncfusion^® Angular components support Tree Shaking by default and do not require any additional changes at the application level.

Implementing Tree Shaking in an Angular Application

Follow these steps to implement an Angular application with Syncfusion components, optimizing it through tree shaking:

1. Create an Angular Application: Begin with the Syncfusion Angular DataGrid component as outlined in the Getting Started guide using Angular Standalone.

2. Configuration for Tree Shaking: Modify the angular.json configuration file to enable optimization features for tree shaking.

angular.json

"configurations": {
    "production": {
        "optimization": true,
        "outputHashing": "all",
        "sourceMap": false,
        "namedChunks": false,
        "aot": true,
        "extractLicenses": true
    }
},

1. Build the Application: Use the command ng build –configuration=production or ng serve –configuration=production to build or serve the application with tree shaking enabled.

2. Verify the Bundle Size: After building the application, use the source-map-explorer tool to analyze and ensure that tree shaking is working effectively.

Explore the Angular Tree Shaking Example on GitHub

By adhering to these practices, the performance of the Angular application can be significantly enhanced, delivering an improved user experience.

Bundle size for Syncfusion^® Angular Grid component

The following table demonstrates the size of the Grid module and includes the addition of some features to it in the Angular application.

Module	Raw Size	Transfer Size
Empty App	199.45 kB	56.22 kB
GridModule	1.13 MB	249.94 kB
PageService	1.31 MB	274.79 kB
SortService	1.32 MB	276.41 kB
FilterService	1.68 MB	333.16 kB
GroupService	1.73 MB	340.22 kB

NOTE

Make sure to use GridModule for the DataGrid component instead of GridAllModule. Using GridAllModule will increase the bundle size by including all features of DataGrid. To know about the feature modules of DataGrid, refer to this documentation.