How to update angular 2 in Angular CLI

Question

How do I update Angular 2 version? I use Angular CLI 1.0.0-beta.20-4 and I tried npm update --save but it does not do anything.

Below is my package.json file at the moment. Appreciate any help on this.

{
  "name": "todo1",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "license": "MIT",
  "angular-cli": {},
  "scripts": {
    "start": "ng serve",
    "lint": "tslint \"src/**/*.ts\"",
    "test": "ng test",
    "pree2e": "webdriver-manager update",
    "e2e": "protractor"
  },
  "private": true,
  "dependencies": {
    "@angular/common": "2.2.1",
    "@angular/compiler": "2.2.1",
    "@angular/core": "2.2.1",
    "@angular/forms": "2.2.1",
    "@angular/http": "2.2.1",
    "@angular/material": "^2.0.0-alpha.11-3",
    "@angular/platform-browser": "2.2.1",
    "@angular/platform-browser-dynamic": "2.2.1",
    "@angular/router": "3.0.0",
    "@types/hammerjs": "^2.0.33",
    "@types/lodash": "^4.14.43",
    "angular2-jwt": "^0.1.25",
    "angular2-uuid": "^1.1.0",
    "core-js": "^2.4.1",
    "hammerjs": "^2.0.8",
    "lodash": "^4.17.2",
    "material-design-icons": "^3.0.1",
    "rxjs": "5.0.0-beta.12",
    "ts-helpers": "^1.1.1",
    "zone.js": "^0.6.23"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@types/hammerjs": "^2.0.33",
    "@types/jasmine": "^2.2.30",
    "angular-cli": "^1.0.0-beta.20-4",
    "codelyzer": "~0.0.26",
    "jasmine-core": "2.4.1",
    "jasmine-spec-reporter": "2.5.0",
    "karma": "1.2.0",
    "karma-chrome-launcher": "^2.0.0",
    "karma-cli": "^1.0.1",
    "karma-jasmine": "^1.0.2",
    "karma-remap-istanbul": "^0.2.1",
    "protractor": "4.0.5",
    "ts-node": "1.2.1",
    "tslint": "3.13.0",
    "typescript": "2.0.2"
  }
}

Answer 1

You can change the @angular versions to use a caret range so NPM will install the latest package up to the next major release.

  "dependencies": {
    "@angular/common": "^2.2.1",
    "@angular/compiler": "^2.2.1",
    "@angular/core": "^2.2.1",
    "@angular/forms": "^2.2.1",
    "@angular/http": "^2.2.1",

Also it would be worth updating to the latest angular-cli version. See here for instructions.

Answer 2

The main issue you have here is that npm update will only update to the latest compatible version of each module with a limit of the highest version specified in the package.json.

The safest way to do this is to update your package.json to have a wildcard for the minor and patch sections. Angular 2 (as opposed to angular 1) uses semVer (http://semver.org/) so you can safely wildcard the minor and patch parts.

"@angular/common": "2.*.*",
"@angular/compiler": "2.*.*",
"@angular/core": "2.*.*",
"@angular/forms": "2.*.*",
"@angular/http": "2.*.*",
"@angular/material": "^2.0.0-alpha.11-3",
"@angular/platform-browser": "2.*.*",
"@angular/platform-browser-dynamic": "2.*.*",
"@angular/router": "3.0.0",

Run npm update / npm install again and you should upgrade.