Difference between latest Ionic CLI version and latests release

Ionic Framework
1

How can I know the CLI available version without create a new project?

Example: Today, the CLI version for a new Ionic/Angular project is 5.5.2, but the latest release is 5.6.11. The 5.5.2 is the latest stable version?

2

The CLI and the framework are completely separate beasts, with completely separate versioning and release schedules.

If you’re asking “how can I find out the latest framework version?”, look here. If you want the latest CLI version, look here.

1 Like
3

Thanks for information sir. The question is mostly to know how to use the latest ionic version in a new or existing project with all the other libs in compatible version (like angular).

Sure, I can just update Ionic/Angular individually from 5.5.2 (version provided by CLI now) to 5.6.11, but it will be compatible to all other libs installed? Installing from CLI grants that i’m using all libs compatible. Is there any way to know that kind of enverioment on creating or updating an Ionic project?

I have a big project using Ionic 5.3 and Angular 10 and I really would like to update it in a secure way.

Thanks!

4

As far as i know there is no Ionic CLI method that updates all of your libraries to match, that would be hard to implement :smiley:

Here is what i do:

  • Check what the latest Ionic Framework Version supported version of Angular is (12 currently)
  • Check if all the angular related Modules that you use also support it
  • I use npm-check to check which of my dependencies is ready to update
  • For some dependencies like rxjs or typescript you have to check what the latest angular version supports
  • Update Angular according to: update.angular.io
1 Like
5

When you create an ionic/angular app, the @ionic/angular dependency in the package.json looks like this: "@ionic/angular": "^5.5.2".

That doesn’t mean it will use 5.5.2, the ^ means something like “latest minor version available”.
But of course, if you already ran npm install a package-lock.json file will be created and it will fix the version, but if you delete the file (and node_modules) and run npm install again, it will install latest minor at the moment.

It should always be safe to update minor versions, the breaking changes (that usually need manual changes) are made in major versions.

2 Likes
6

Thank you! It makes more sense now. :slight_smile:

So it’s safe to update minor versions and major updates will require some time to grant everything is working fine, as @EinfachHans points some strategy to do it so.

7

Just to help anybody on same situation…

I succefully updated a project with Ionic 5.3.2 and Angular 10 to Ionic 5.6.11 (latests at this date) and Angular 12.

I did the following:
1 - ng update @angular/core@11 @angular/cli@11

2 - ng update @angular/core@12 @angular/cli@12

Ionic and Typescript libs was automatically updated. It could be needed to use the --allow-dirty to update. Example:
ng update @angular/core@12 @angular/cli@12 --allow-dirty

3 - Resolve any Angular build problems (mostly done on updating other project dependencies).

Now I have an updated project with all benefits of latest Ionic and Angular.