# [4.0.0-rc.1](https://github.com/angular/angular/compare/4.0.0-beta.8...4.0.0-rc.1) (2017-02-24) We are excited to share 4.0.0-RC.1 with the community. This is a feature-complete pre-release of 4.0.0. Upgrade to get to know the new features to be released in 4.0.0, and to help us validate the release. It’s important to note that this release has been tested extensively. All Angular applications within Google use the master branch of Angular, so every commit is tested and validated at scale prior to any release. ## We Need Your Help Please give this RC a try and test it with your projects! We have spent a significant amount of time working to ensure that this release is backwards compatible and will work with your existing code, but you may have use cases we haven’t anticipated. If you are broken by this release, let us know so that we can look into it right away. We are also looking for feedback related to the ergonomics of any newly added APIs. ## What’s New ### View Engine We’ve made changes under to hood to what AOT generated code looks like. These changes should reduce the size of the generated code for your components by more than half in some cases. Read the [Design Doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/195L4WaDSoI_kkW094LlShH6gT3B7K1GZpSBnnLkQR-g/preview) for the View Engine updates. ### Enhanced `*ngIf` syntax Our template binding syntax now supports a couple helpful changes. You can now use an if/else style syntax, and assign local variables such as when unrolling an observable. ```
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{{ user.name }}
``` ### Animation Package We have pulled Animations into their own package. This means that if you don’t use Animations, this extra code will not end up in your production bundles. This also allows you to more easily find documentation and to take better advantage of autocompletion. If you do need animations, libraries like Material will automatically import the module (once you install it via NPM), or you can add it yourself to your main NgModule. ### TypeScript 2.1 We’ve updated Angular to a more recent version of TypeScript. This will improve the speed of `ngc` and you will get better type checking throughout your application. ### StrictNullChecks Angular is now compliant with [TypeScript’s StrictNullChecks](https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/release-notes/typescript-2-0.html). This means that you can enable StrictNullChecks in your project, if desired. ### Universal Universal, the project that allows developers to run Angular on a server, is now up to date with Angular again, and has been adopted by the Angular team. This release now includes the results of the work from the Universal team over the last few months. The majority of the Universal code is now in platform-server. To learn more about this change, take a look the new [`renderModuleFactory`](https://github.com/angular/angular/blob/56f232cdd70a352cb9151bc7cfe8981bc2710ea6/modules/%40angular/platform-server/src/utils.ts#L63-L72) method, or Rob Wormald’s [Demo Repository](https://github.com/robwormald/ng-universal-demo/). More documentation is forthcoming. ### Flat ES Modules (ESM) We now ship flattened versions of our modules, this should help tree-shaking and help reduce the size of your generated bundles. ### ES2015 Builds We now also ship our packages in the ES2015 Flat ESM format. This option is experimental and opt-in (configure your webpack to resolve ["es2015" property](https://github.com/angular/core-builds/blob/dc0c8d828a8bae6591d2b9c77974271481af818c/package.json#L7) in package.json over the regular ["module" property](https://github.com/angular/core-builds/blob/dc0c8d828a8bae6591d2b9c77974271481af818c/package.json#L6)). ## Known Issues The following is a list of known issues that will be fixed in the next rcs. - Source maps are missing in npm packages - Generated bundles will be larger temporarily while we validate new code paths and remove old ones - angular.io docs have not been updated to reflect API changes in 4.0 - legacy UMD bundles don't have correct RxJS mappings when running in ES5 mode without a module system ## Installing RC.0 We have two main ways to update. If you have an existing project, you should be able to run: `npm install @angular/{common,compiler,compiler-cli,core,forms,http,platform-browser,platform-browser-dynamic,platform-server,router,animations}@next --save` Then run whatever `ng serve` or `npm start` command you normally use, and everything should work. *Please ensure that you are using Typescript v2.1.6 or higher.* *If you rely on Animations* you’ll also need to install the animations package and import the new `AnimationsModule` from `@angular/animations` in your root NgModule. Without this, your code will compile and run, but animations won’t activate. ## What's next? We have [three more release candidates scheduled](https://github.com/angular/angular/blob/master/docs/RELEASE_SCHEDULE.md) before our planned GA the week of March 22. In the meantime we'll be looking for your feedback, fixing bugs and working on docs. ## Commit Summary ### Features * **compiler:** Add a `enableLegacyTemplate` option to support `