What is the right way to send data between modules in AngularJS? - javascript

One of the great things about angular is that you can have independent Modules that you can reuse in different places. Say that you have a module to paint, order, and do a lot of things with lists. Say that this module will be used all around your application. And finally, say that you want to populate it in different ways. Here is an example:
angular.module('list', []).controller('listController', ListController);
var app = angular.module('myapp', ['list']).controller('appController', AppController);
function AppController() {
this.name = "Misae";
this.fetch = function() {
console.log("feching");
//change ListController list
//do something else
}
}
function ListController() {
this.list = [1, 2, 3];
this.revert = function() {
this.list.reverse();
}
}
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.2.23/angular.min.js"></script>
<div class="app" ng-app="myapp" ng-controller="appController as App">
<div class="filters">
Name:
<input type="text" ng-model="App.name" />
<button ng-click="App.fetch()">Fetch</button>
</div>
<div class="list" ng-controller="listController as List">
<button ng-click="List.revert()">Revert</button>
<ul>
<li ng-repeat="item in List.list">{{item}}</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
Now, when you click on Fetch button, you'll send the name (and other filters and stuff) to an API using $http and so on. Then you get some data, including a list of items you want to paint. Then you want to send that list to the List module, to be painted.
It has to be this way because you'll be using the list module in diferent places and it will always paint a list and add some features like reordering and reversing it. While the filters and the API connection will change, your list behaviour will not, so there must be 2 different modules.
That said, what is the best way to send the data to the List module after fetching it? With a Service?

You should be using Angular components for this task.
You should create a module with a component that will be displaying lists and providing some actions that will modify the list and tell the parent to update the value.
var list = angular.module('listModule', []);
list.controller('listCtrl', function() {
this.reverse = function() {
this.items = [].concat(this.items).reverse();
this.onUpdate({ newValue: this.items });
};
});
list.component('list', {
bindings: {
items: '<',
onUpdate: '&'
},
controller: 'listCtrl',
template: '<button ng-click="$ctrl.reverse()">Revert</button><ul><li ng-repeat="item in $ctrl.items">{{ item }}</li></ul>'
});
This way when you click on "Revert" list component will reverse the array and execute the function provided in on-update attribute of HTML element.
Then you can simply set your app to be dependent on this module
var app = angular.module('app', ['listModule']);
and use list component
<list data-items="list" data-on-update="updateList(newValue)"></list>
You can see the rest of the code in the example

It is very simple. Please take a look at this small snippet. comments are added to highlight.
You can have a common module that contains all the data that needs to be shared across modules by two steps
adding module dependency
injecting corresponding provider in the respective module's controller
angular.module('commonAppData', []).factory('AppData',function(){
var a,b,c;
a=1;
return{
a:a,
b:b,
c:c
}
})
angular.module('list', ['commonAppData']).controller('listController', ListController);
var app = angular.module('myapp', ['list','commonAppData']).controller('appController', AppController);
function AppController(AppData) {
//assigning a variable
AppData.a=100;
this.name = "Misae";
this.fetch = function() {
console.log("feching");
//change ListController list
//do something else
}
}
function ListController(AppData) {
//Using the data sent by App Controller
this.variableA=AppData.a;
this.list = [1, 2, 3];
this.revert = function() {
this.list.reverse();
}
}
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.2.23/angular.min.js"></script>
<div class="app" ng-app="myapp" ng-controller="appController as App">
<div class="filters">
Name:
<input type="text" ng-model="App.name" />
<button ng-click="App.fetch()">Fetch</button>
</div>
<div class="list" ng-controller="listController as List">
<b>Shared variable : {{List.variableA}}</b>
<br>
<button ng-click="List.revert()">Revert</button>
<ul>
<li ng-repeat="item in List.list">{{item}}</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>

There are a few ways to handle objects acress multiple controllers. Here are two.
1. Using Angulars $rootScope
You can assign an object to $rootScopewhich will hold up all information. This object can be passed into every controller through Angulars dependency injection. Also you can listen up to changes on your object by watching it through $watch or $emit.
Using $rootScope is an easy way, but may lead to performance issues on larger applications.
2. Using services
Angular provides a possibility to share object through services. Instead of defining your object inside of your controller, you could also do that inside of a service. Doing so you could inject that service into any controller and use it's values across your application.
function AppController(listService) {
// reference to the injected data
}
function ListController(listService) {
// update data
}

There are many ways to pass data from one module to another module and many ppl have suggested different ways.
One of the finest way and cleaner approach is using a factory instead of polluting $rootScope or using $emit or $broadcast or $controller.If you want to know more about how to use all of this visit this blog on
Accessing functions of one controller from another in angular js
By simply inject the factory you have created in main module and add child modules as dependancy in main module, then inject factory in child modules to access the factory objects.
Here is a sample example on how to use factory for sharing data across the application.
Lets create a factory which can be used in entire application across all controllers to store data and access them.
Advantages with factory is you can create objects in it and intialise them any where in the controllers or we can set the defult values by intialising them in the factory itself.
Factory
app.factory('SharedData',['$http','$rootScope',function($http,$rootScope){
var SharedData = {}; // create factory object...
SharedData.appName ='My App';
return SharedData;
}]);
Service
app.service('Auth', ['$http', '$q', 'SharedData', function($http, $q,SharedData) {
this.getUser = function() {
return $http.get('user.json')
.then(function(response) {
this.user = response.data;
SharedData.userData = this.user; // inject in the service and create a object in factory ob ject to store user data..
return response.data;
}, function(error) {
return $q.reject(error.data);
});
};
}]);
Controller
var app = angular.module("app", []);
app.controller("testController", ["$scope",'SharedData','Auth',
function($scope,SharedData,Auth) {
$scope.user ={};
// do a service call via service and check the shared data which is factory object ...
var user = Auth.getUser().then(function(res){
console.log(SharedData);
$scope.user = SharedData.userData;// assigning to scope.
});
}]);
In HTML
<body ng-app='app'>
<div class="media-list" ng-controller="testController">
<pre> {{user | json}}</pre>
</div>
</body>

It depends on the circumstance. Is there a parent child relationship? Is the relationship unknown, or you simply want to avoid having to worry about it at all?
I think this post lays it out well (it always seems to be helpful):
http://mean.expert/2016/05/21/angular-2-component-communication/

AngularJS provides $on, $emit, and $broadcast services for event-based communication between controllers.
So, if we want to pass data from the inner controller (listController) to outer controller (appController) then we have to use $emit. It dispatches an event name upwards through the scope hierarchy and notify to the registered $rootScope.
Working Plunker : https://plnkr.co/edit/szf9jHvvOPLOvQc5sQI2?p=preview
This plunker is not as per the exact requirement as I don't know the API response but this sample plunker describe the problem statement.

I think you can use the publisher-subscriber pattern implemented in $rootScope.
In the ListController you have to inject $rootScope and after that you have to subscribe to an arbitrary called event that could have the pattern _data_received
$rootScope.$on('ingredients_data_received', function(ingredients) { prepare_recipe();});
so in your AppController you have to call $rootScope.$emit once the data of that list has been received
$rootScope.$emit('ingredients_data_received', ingredients);
This is just a way to pass data, you can also push those data or the promise in a $rootScope property but this is not a good practice, or you can create your own Service that manage the data for you (remember that you are working with a frontend framework so the controller has to control the view, the business logic has to be transfered to a service, not to a crontroller).

I like to use angular resource with a caching layer to persist data to multiple controllers using a singular method. This has a few benefits namely any controller has the same entry point to data. Keep in mind sometimes you need to fetch fresh data when navigating from one portion of the site to another so persisting http data is not always ideal.
'use strict';
(function() {
angular.module('customModule')
.service('BookService', BookService);
BookService.$inject = ['$resource'];
function BookService($resource) {
var BookResource = $resource('/books', {id: '#id'}, {
getBooks: {
method: 'GET',
cache: true
}
});
return {
getBooks: getBooks
};
function getBooks(params) {
if (!params) {
params = {};
}
return BookResource.getBooks(params).$promise;
}
}
})();
In any controller
BookService.getBooks().then(function(books) {
//books will be cached so invoking the call will return the same set of data anywhere
});

Services in angular are used to share functionality between components. Please try to keep them simple and with a single responsibility/purpose.
An idea would be creating a store service that will cache every response from the api in your application. Then you don't have to request it every time.
Hope it helps! ;)

Related

Shared variables and multiple controllers AngularJS

I have multiple controllers on a small app I'm writing, and I have successfully shared a 'selected' variable between the controllers like so.
app.service('selectedEmployee', function () {
var selected = null;
return
{
getSelected: function() {
return selected;
},
postSelected: function(employee) {
selected = employee;
}
};
});
I have a side nav bar with a list of employees. When I click on an employee I call the postSelected function then the getSelected to set $scope.selected.
$scope.selectEmployee = function(employee) {
//Calling Service function postSelected
selectedEmployee.postSelected(employee);
$scope.selected = selectedEmployee.getSelected();
if ($mdSidenav('left').isOpen()) {
$mdSidenav('left').close();
}
}
I have a third controller for my main content area, and this is where I don't understand what to do. I want information from the selected employee to be displayed, but angular is compiling the whole page before the first employee has a chance to get set as selected, and subsequent selections of an employee aren't reloading the main content page (because I haven't told them to I think). Here's my main content controller:
app.controller('mainContentController', ['$scope','selectedEmployee',
function ($scope, selectedEmployee) {
$scope.selected = selectedEmployee.getSelected();
console.log($scope.selected);
}
]);
My main content view is very simple right now
<h2>{{selected.firstName}}{{selected.lastName}}</h2>
My question is how I can tell one controller to effectively update its partial view so that when I select an employee it displays information.
GitLab repo
Don't rely on messy broadcasts if your goal is simply to display & modify the data in the controller's template.
Your controllers do NOT need to "know" when the Service or Factory has updated in order to use it in the template as Angular will handle this for you, as you access the data via dot notation. This is the important concept which you should read more about.
This Fiddle shows both ways of accessing the data, and how using the container object in the template causes Angular to re-check the same actual object on changes - instead of the primitive string value stored in the controller:
http://jsfiddle.net/a01f39Lw/2/
Template:
<div ng-controller="Ctrl1 as c1">
<input ng-model="c1.Bands.favorite" placeholder="Favorite band?">
</div>
<div ng-controller="Ctrl2 as c2">
<input ng-model="c2.Bands.favorite" placeholder="Favorite band?">
</div>
JS:
var app = angular.module("app", []);
app.factory('Bands', function($http) {
return {
favorite: ''
};
});
app.controller('Ctrl1', function Ctrl1(Bands){
this.Bands = Bands;
});
app.controller('Ctrl2', function Ctrl2(Bands){
this.Bands = Bands;
});
First of all lets start by good practices, then solve your problem here...
Good Practices
At least by my knowledge, i dont intend to use services the way you do... you see, services are more like objects. so if i were to convert your service to the way i normally use it would produce the following:
app.service('selectedEmployee', [selectedEmployeeService])
function selectedEmployeeService(){
this.selected = null;
this.getSelected = function(){
return this.selected;
}
this.postSelected = function(emp){
this.selected = emp;
}
}
You see there i put the function seperately, and also made the service an actual object.. i would reccomend you format your controller function argument like this... If you want to disuss/see good practices go here. Anways enough about the good practices now to the real problem.
Solving the problem
Ok The Andrew actually figured this out!! The problem was:that he need to broadcast his message using $rootScope:
$rootScope.$broadcast('selected:updated', $scope.selected);
And then you have to check when $scope.selected is updated.. kinda like $scope.$watch...
$scope.$on('selected:updated', function(event, data) {
$scope.selected = data;
})
After that it autmoatically updates and works! Hope this helped!
PS: Did not know he anwsered already...
So after much research and a lot of really great help from Dsafds, I was able to use $rootScope.$broadcast to notify my partial view of a change to a variable.
If you broadcast from the rootScope it will reach every child controller and you don't have to set a $watch on the service variable.
$scope.selectEmployee = function(employee) {
selectedEmployee.postSelected(employee);
$scope.selected = selectedEmployee.getSelected();
$rootScope.$broadcast('selected:updated', $scope.selected);
if ($mdSidenav('left').isOpen()) {
$mdSidenav('left').close();
}
}
And in the controller of the main content area
function ($scope) {
$scope.$on('selected:updated', function(event, data) {
$scope.selected = data;
})
}
I don't think you have to pass the data directly, you could also just as easily call selectedEmployee.getSelected()
$rootScope also has to be included in the Parent controller and the broadcasting controller.

AngularJS trigger and watch object value change in service from controller from another module (Extended)

Referring to this question
AngularJS trigger and watch object value change in service from controller
It is trying to watch for changes in a service from a controller.
Im trying to extend it to handle multiple module (concurrent app in same page's different div's) communication.
Problem:
I want to achieve the similar feat, but with slight different scenario. I have two modules myApp and yourApp for example. myApp has a service. I want to watch changes in myApp's service within yourApp module's controller. Can it be done? or is there different method to reflect and detect data changes of one module inside another module.
Consider the example code below:
HTML
<div ng-app="myApp">
<div ng-controller="MyCtrl">
<div ng-click="setFTag()">Click Me</div>
</div>
</div>
<div ng-app="yourApp">
<div ng-controller="yourCtrl">
</div>
</div>
Javascript
// myApp module
var myApp = angular.module('myApp',[]);
// myApp's service
myApp.service('myService', function() {
this.tags = {
a: true,
b: true
};
this.setFalseTag = function() {
alert("Within myService->setFalseTag");
this.tags.a = false;
this.tags.b = false;
//how do I get the watch in YourCtrl of yourApp module to be triggered?
};
});
// myApp's controller
myApp.controller('MyCtrl', function($scope, myService) {
//$scope.myService = myService;
$scope.setFTag = function() {
alert("Within MyCtrl->setFTag");
myService.setFalseTag();
};
/*
$scope.$watch(function () {
return myService.tags;
}, function(newVal, oldVal) {
alert("Inside watch");
console.log(newVal);
console.log(oldVal);
}, true);
*/
});
// yourApp module (Injecting myApp module into yourApp module)
var yourApp = angular.module('yourApp',['myApp']);
// yourApp's controller
yourApp.controller('YourCtrl', function($scope, myService) {
$scope.$watch(function () {
return myService.tags;
}, function(newVal, oldVal) {
alert("Inside watch of yourcontroller");
console.log(newVal);
console.log(oldVal);
}, true);
});
Note: I am not sure if this is the right way to communicate between modules. Any suggestion or the solution will be highly appreciated.
P.S. Ive bootstrapped two modules to fit into same page.
JSFiddle
Communicating between modules is a whole different story from communicating between apps.
In the case of communicating between modules, it's only a matter of injecting module A into module B.
In which case, module B has complete access to inject/communicate with anything exposed in module A.
Communicating between apps however, is somewhat more complicated. You would need to setup something 'outside' the angular world, accepting properties from both applications.
I've put together a jsBin, showcasing how you can do it.
With that said, I'm not sure I would recommend it - but then again best practices on the subject do not exist afaik.
The gist of it is;
Setup a new instance of a shared service that lives outside the Angular world.
Attach the instance of said service to window.
Access the above instance in your app specific services/controllers through $window.
Register each $scope that needs to access the data stored in the shared service.
Upon updating data in the shared service, loop through the registered $scopes and trigger an $evalAsync(so as to not end up with $digest already in progress).
Watch as your data is synced across applications.
This is just a PoC on how to do it, I would not recommend it as it sort of blows when it comes to unit testing. And also because we are exposing properties on window. yuck.
Sure, you could disregard from exposing on window - but then your code would have to live in the same file (afaic). Yet another, yuck.
To build upon this, if you were to decide (or, be able to) only use a single app (multiple modules is just fine) and want to communicate/sync a service with multiple components I reckon this would be the best way to do so:
app.service('shared', function () {
var data = {
a: true,
b: true
};
this.toggle = function() {
data.a = !data.a;
data.b = !data.b;
};
Object.defineProperty(this, 'data', {
get: function () {
return data;
}
});
});
By using an object getter, you won't need to setup a $watch to sync data across your components within the same module. Nor trigger manual $digest's.
another jsbin - showcasing the above.
The difference between two modules and two apps as I see it:
2 modules
Two separate modules that gets 'bundled' together into a single application (either by a third module, or injecting module A into B).
var app1 = angular.module('app1', ['app2', 'app3']);
var app2 = angular.module('app2', []);
var app3 = angular.module('app3', []);
angular.bootstrap(/*domElement*/, app1);
2 Apps
var app1 = angular.module('app1', []);
var app2 = angular.module('app2', []);
angular.bootstrap(/*domElement1*/, app1);
angular.bootstrap(/*domElement2*/, app2);
I don't think there is any point in having two applications and share state between the two. I think the whole point with running two applications is to separate the two. Otherwise it's just over engineering imho.
Some thoughts:
You could add a common dependency to both applications. It probably wont be a shared state, but you would have access to the same implementation in both apps.
You could possibly utilise sessionStorage as a medium of transportation for your data between the two applications. Just make sure to cleanup afterwards :)

Angular.js: How to update data from one HTML to other HTML which uses same controller

I have following 2 html pages
1. home.html
<div data-ng-controller="userComments">
<Will display all the comments>
</div>
2. comments.html
<div data-ng-controller="userComments">
<Have a comment box and submit button.
Submit button calls submit() function on ng-click>
</div>
where comments.html is pop-up which is initiated from the home page.
And controller
.controller('userComment',['$scope', function($scope){
$scope.title = 'User Comment';
$scope.comments = <db call>
$scope.cmt = '';
$scope.submit = function(){
console.log("comment just entered", $scope.cmt);
$scope.comments = $scope.comments.concat($scope.cmt);
console.log("Updated Comments", $scope.comments);
};
}])
New comments need to be updated automatically in the home.html as well. What should i do to accomplish that?
Thanks
Update:
when the comments are added in the comment.html page, ng-click triggers submit function, $scope.comments gets updated with the new comment, but what should i do to get the updated comments in the home.html too?
When you use the same controller on different views, different instances of the controller are created. You'll need a factory or service to store and share data between views.
So in your case, you'll want a comments factory, something like
myApp.factory('commentsService', function() {
return {
comments: []
};
});
Then in your controller:
.controller('userComment',['$scope', 'commentsService', function($scope, commentsService){
$scope.title = 'User Comment';
$scope.comments = commentsService.comments;
$scope.cmt = '';
$scope.submit = function(){
console.log("comment just entered", $scope.cmt);
$scope.comments = $scope.comments.concat($scope.cmt);
// store the comments for use across views
commentsService.comments = $scope.comments;
console.log("Updated Comments", $scope.comments);
};
}])
You can build out the comments service to also make the db call, as that is an angular best practice (don't fetch external data from controllers, do it from factory/service). You'd build a method called getComments() or something, then call that from the controller.
See:
https://docs.angularjs.org/guide/services
Angularjs - Updating multiple instances of the same controller
Angularjs provides two-way binding so inserting
<div data-ng-controller="userComments">
{{comments}}
</div>
would update comments.
To have same data in entire application( that one defined by ng-app directive ), define a service:
You can inject service to whatever controller
Service data is the same in entire application.
Create service using service method of module.
var app = angular.module('myApp',[]).service('myService', function() {
this.comments = [];
});
Injecting service to controller:
.controller('MyController',['myService',function(myService){
this.addComments = function(data){
myService.comments.push(data);
}
this.getComments = function(){
return myService.comments;
};
}]);
This would keep data same across aplication, and you can also inject this service to another controllers.
Invoke later controller, which uses service:
<div ng-controller="MyController as mc">
{{mc.getComments()}}
</div>
and in another view, set:
<div ng-controller="MyController as mc">
<input type="text" ng-model="myComm"/>
<button type="submit" ng-click="mc.addComment(myComm)" value="Add comment"></button>
</div>
It sets service with new comment. myComm is variable.
ng-model is set with input text, user entered, and ng-click attribute executes on user click.
As final word, there are services provided with angular.
There is $http for network calls, $timeout for invoking things after specific time. You can use them for specific operations and also you can have your own services.
You could also use the events bundled in AngularJS in order to communicate the two instances. So every time the comments array has changes, you can trigger an custom event that the other controller listens and then update the comments array of the other controller.

Angularjs: a factory to share data between controllers

I have an angular.js app with multiple views, and I need to preserve status among view change.
So I use a very simple factory to share data.
And, in the controllers, I use the factory name to use my data, instead of "$scope":
app.factory('share', function() {
return {};
}
app.controller('FirstCtrl', function ($scope, share) {
share.obj1['a'] = 'ABC';
});
app.controller('SecondCtrl', function ($scope, share) {
share.obj1['b'] = 'DEF';
if (share.obj1['a'] === 'ABC') {
...
}
});
And, my simplified html view is like this:
...
<div ng-repeat="(key, item) in obj1">
{{item}}
</div>
...
This of course doesn't work, because ng-* directives in views only have access to $scope...
Is it possible to keep my data in sync with share factory using $scope?
You can just do $scope.share = share at the end of each controller and of course modify the view:
<div ng-repeat="(key, item) in share.obj1">
Alternatively, and if the structure of share is NOT going to change (there is always an obj1), you could do angular.extend($scope, share). This is dangerous if share gets new properties, these will not be seen by the scope, until a new controller is created.

Create a model based on a Database entity

I'm new to AngularJS and I would like to understand how to properly separate the model from the controller. Till now I've always worked with the models inside the controllers. For instance:
angular.module("app").controller("customerController", ["Customer", "$scope", "$routeParams",
function (Customer, $scope, $routeParams){
$scope.customer = Customer.find({ID:$routeParams.ID});
}]);
This function retrieves a customer from the database and exposes that customer to the view. But I would like to go further: for example I could have the necessity to ecapsulate something or create some useful functions to abstract from the row data contained in the database. Something like:
customer.getName = function(){
//return customer_name + customer_surname
};
customer.save = function(){
//save the customer in the database after some modifies
};
I want to create a model for the Customer and reuse that model in lots of controllers. Maybe I could then create a List for the customers with methods to retrieve all customers from the database or something else.
In conclusion I would like to have a model that reflects a database entity (like the customer above) with properties and methods to interact with. And maybe a factory that creates a Customer or a list of Customers. How can I achieve a task like this in AngularJS? I would like to receive some advices for this issue from you. A simple example will be very useful or a theoretical answer that helps me to undestand the right method to approch issues like these in Angular. Thanks and good luck with your work.
Angular JS enables you to have automatic view updates when a model change or an event occur.
TAHTS IT!
it does so by using $watches which are a kind of Global Scope java script objects and stay in primary memory through out the life cycle of the angular js web app.
1.Please consider the size of data before putting anything onto the $scope because each data object you attach to it does +1 to $watch. As you are reading from a database you might have 100+ rows with >4 columns and trust me it will eat up client side processing.Pls do consider the size of your dataset and read about angular related performance issues for huge data set
2.to have models for your database entity i would suggest having plain javascript classes i.e. dont put everything on $scope (it will avoid un necessay watches! ) http://www.phpied.com/3-ways-to-define-a-javascript-class/
3.You wish to fire up events when the user changes the values. For this best i would suggest that if you are using ng-repeat to render the data in your array then use $index to get the row number where the change was done and pass this in ng-click i.e. and use actionIdentifier to distinguish in the kinds of events you want
ng-click="someFunc($index,actionIdentifier)"
You need to create a factory/service to do do the job, check jsfiddle
html:
<div ng-app="users-app">
<h2>Users</h2>
<div ng-view ></div>
<script type="text/ng-template" id="list.html">
<p>Users: {{(user || {}).name || 'not created'}}</p>
<button ng-click='getUser()'>Get</button>
<button ng-click='saveUser(user)'>Save</button>
</script>
</div>
js:
angular.module('users-app', ['ngRoute'])
.factory('Users', function() {
function User (user) {
angular.extend(this, user);
}
User.prototype.save = function () {
alert("saved " + this.name);
}
return {
get: function() {
return new User({name:'newUser'});
}
}
})
.config(function($routeProvider) {
$routeProvider
.when('/', {controller:'ListCtrl',templateUrl:'list.html'});
})
.controller('ListCtrl', function($scope, Users) {
$scope.getUser = function() {
$scope.user = Users.get();
}
$scope.saveUser = function(u) {
u.save();
}
})
Hope that help,
Ron

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