Upgrade Angular version (now: 2.4.3 or 4.0.0-beta.3) following the best practice?

Question

Now that Angular is following a Semantic Versioning, and Angular2.4.3 were released, I'm a little confused here on what is the best practice when I upgrade to the next Angular version in existing project.

I've a project with Angular-cli, with @angular/core: 2.2.0. Here is my package.json:

"dependencies": {
    "@angular/common": "~2.2.0",
    "@angular/compiler": "~2.2.0",
    "@angular/core": "~2.2.0",
    "@angular/forms": "~2.2.0",
    "@angular/http": "~2.2.0",
    "@angular/platform-browser": "~2.2.0",
    "@angular/platform-browser-dynamic": "~2.2.0",
    "@angular/router": "~3.2.0",
    "@types/jasmine": "^2.5.40",
    "angular2-click-outside": "^0.1.0",
    "angular2-modal": "^2.0.2",
    "bootstrap": "4.0.0-alpha.4",
    "bootstrap-loader": "^2.0.0-beta.15",
    "core-js": "^2.4.1",
    "karma-remap-istanbul": "^0.2.2",
    "material-design-icons": "^3.0.1",
    "ng2-bootstrap": "^1.1.16",
    "ng2-charts": "^1.4.4",
    "postcss-loader": "^1.1.1",
    "rxjs": "5.0.0-rc.4",
    "screenfull": "^3.0.2",
    "ts-helpers": "^1.1.1",
    "zone.js": "^0.6.23"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@types/jasmine": "^2.2.30",
    "@types/node": "^6.0.42",
    "angular-cli": "1.0.0-beta.19-3",
    "codelyzer": "1.0.0-beta.3",
    "jasmine-core": "2.5.2",
    "jasmine-spec-reporter": "2.7.0",
    "karma": "1.3.0",
    "karma-chrome-launcher": "^2.0.0",
    "karma-cli": "^1.0.1",
    "karma-jasmine": "^1.0.2",
    "karma-remap-istanbul": "^0.2.1",
    "node-sass": "^3.13.0",
    "protractor": "4.0.11",
    "replace": "0.3.0",
    "ts-node": "1.7.0",
    "tslint": "3.15.1",
    "typescript": "~2.0.3",
    "webdriver-manager": "10.2.8"
  }

Question: How do I upgrade to the next Angular version(now: 2.4.3 or 4.0.0-beta.3) following the best practice? Using npm or yarn.

Answer 1

I suggest you install npm-check-updates library. This will let you find the latest version of dependencies, which you use.

Follow the steps:

1. To install

   npm i -g npm-check-updates

---

2. To update your package.json:

   npm-check-updates -u

---

3. To install latest versions your dependencies

   npm install

Answer 2

I've upgraded my app from Angular 2.4.0 to 4.0.2 without any code changes! Bare in mind, though that it depends of which features/classes/methods you are using.

I ran

npm i @angular/common@latest @angular/compiler@latest @angular/core@latest @angular/forms@latest @angular/http@latest @angular/platform-browser@latest @angular/platform-browser-dynamic@latest @angular/platform-server@latest @angular/router@latest typescript@latest --S -E

then

npm i @angular/compiler-cli@latest --D -E

NOTE: use @latest if you want the latest stable version. Use @next if you want the latest 'bleeding edge' version.