Develop Reference

Difficulty defining new custom provider in angularJS script?

I have a webapp that I would like to have some consistent themes across pages. To do so, I have attempted to modify the routeProvider provider to allow for utilization of such a template. As far as I can tell, the ways to do this are to define the provider, configure it, include it in the controller scope, and then inject it into the controller. I believe I have done this. Here are the relevant code blocks:
var webApp = angular.module('myApp.module', ['ngRoute','ngCookies','angular-jwt']);
webApp.provider('extendedRouteProvider', function($routeProvider) {
this.$get = function() {
return {
when: function(path,route) {
if (route.layOutTemplateUrl) {
route.resolve = route.resolve || {};
route.resolve.layOutTemplateUrl = function (){
return route.layOutTemplateUrl;
};
}
$routeProvider.when(path,route);
}
}
}
});
webApp.config(function(extendedRouteProvider) {
extendedRouteProvider
.when('/', {
templateUrl: 'webapp_loginScreen_UIDesign.html',
controller: 'loginScreenController'
})
//Could add the following to after the .html bellow in the file if we want screen to load at anchor point specified in the HTML file: #!/mainPage...
//This would also require adding it into the $location.path within the screenController function if so
.when('/mainPage', {
templateUrl: '/UI Design/Main Page/HTML/webapp_mainPageScreen_UIDesign.html',
controller: 'mainPageScreenController',
layOutTemplateUrl: '/UI Design/webapp_mainLayoutTemplate.html'
})
.otherwise({
redirectTo: '/'
});
});
function loginScreenController($http, $cookies, $location, $route,extendedRouteProvider) {
var vm = this;
var layOutTemplateUrl = $route.current.layOutTemplateUrl;
// do stuff
const serverURL = "URL";
$location.path('/mainPage');
}
webApp.controller('loginScreenController',loginScreenController);
loginScreenController.$inject = ['$http','$cookies','$location','$route','extendedRouteProvider'];
However, this code, when running via VSCode's live server, gives me an $injector:unpr error. I don't understand why this is happening. Note that I 'enter' the webapp through an HTML page which does not itself utilize the layout template, but $location.path('/main') should be sending the user to the mainpage, which does utilize the layout template.

Dynamic partial arguments in AngularJS routing

I'm working with an angularjs site and have a background with working with routes in Rails and also Laravel in php. With routes in Laravel we could dynamically create a set of routes similar to:
foreach($cities as $city):
Route::get($city.'/hotels');
Route::get($city.'/{slug}');
endforeach;
Here we defined series of seperate routes in Laravel which technically do look the same except for the value of city and slug.
I'm finding angularJS a bit limited in defining routes in this case. Frankly am a bit lost here.
UPDATE
I've made some modifications here - basically I set up a service which retrieves assets from my database such as in this case a list of cities and categories. I'm trying to do this:
If {slug} is in the array of categories retrieved from my API, then use my ListController and list view but if its not then instead use my SingleVenueController and single view. Here's my code at the moment but its not working :(
appRouteProvider.when('/:city/:slug', {
templateUrl : function(sharedParams, $routeParams){
t = sharedParams.getCurrentPageType($routeParams);
if(t=='list'){
return '../../app/templates/list.html';
}
if(t=='single'){
return '../../app/templates/single.html';
}
},
controller : function(sharedParams, $routeParams){
t = sharedParams.getCurrentPageType($routeParams);
if(t=='list'){
return 'ListsController';
}
if(t=='single'){
return 'SingleController';
}
},
resolve:{
sharedParamsData:function(sharedParams){
return sharedParams.promise;
},
}
})
In the above sharedParams is a service and the getCurrentPageType just checks the url slug to decide what controller to send back - but its not really working at all :(

How about defining a single route with a paramater ?
In angularjs v1.x you can defined as many routes you want with as many params xor query
.config(function($routeProvider, $locationProvider) {
$routeProvider
.when('/city/:slug', {
templateUrl: 'book.html',
controller: 'BookController',
resolve: {
// you can also retrieve some data as a resolved promise inside your route for better performance.
}
})
ref: https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ngRoute/service/$route

appRouteProvider.when('/:city/:slug', {
templateUrl : 'dafault.html',
controller : 'DefaultController',
resolve:{
factory: function($routeParams, $http, $location, sharedParams){
var city = $routeParams.city;
var slug = $routeParams.slug;
var deferred = $q.defer();
sharedParams.getCurrentPageType($routeParams).then(function(t) {
if(t=='list'){
$location.path('/' + city + '/' + slug + '/list');
deferred.resolve();
}
else if(t=='single'){
$location.path('/' + city + '/' + slug + '/single');
deferred.resolve();
} else {
deferred.reject();
}
});
return deferred.promise;
},
}
});
appRouteProvider.when('/:city/:slug/list', {
templateUrl: '../../app/templates/list.html',
controller: 'ListsController',
});
appRouteProvider.when('/:city/:slug/single', {
templateUrl: '../../app/templates/single.html',
controller: 'SingleController',
});
You can do it with separate routes. The idea is when user hits the main route it resolves first with the data from the backend. If the condition is met, resolve function will redirect to specific route if not it wont pass

Services in Angular cannot be injected in the configuration phase since they become available only in the run phase of an Angular application.
There is however a trick to load $http service in the config phase which you can use to load your cities/categories and set up your routes. Meanwhile, since controllers aren't registered up until the run phase, you may use the $controllerProvider to register your controllers beforehand in the configuration phase:
app.config(function ($routeProvider, $controllerProvider) {
$controllerProvider.register('ListController', ListController);
$controllerProvider.register('SingleController', SingleController);
// wire the $http service
var initInjector = angular.injector(['ng']);
var $http = initInjector.get('$http');
...
});
You can now call your API to get the cities (or whatever else) and iterate while registering each route:
...
// fetch the cities from the server
$http.get('/cities')
.then(function (response) {
var cities = response.data;
for(var i = 0; i < cities.length; i++){
$routeProvider
// assuming each city object has a `name` property
.when('/' + cities[i]['name'] + '/:slug', {
templateUrl: getTemplate(cities[i]['name']),
controller: getController(cities[i]['name'])
})
}
});
...
Note that I'm using the getTemplate and the getController methods which return the templateUrl and the relevant controller name strings respectively using an ordinary switch expression. You can choose your own approach.
Plunkr Demo
Note:
While a function with the templateUrl route options property does work with setting up a custom template, but when you use a function alongside the controller property, Angular will consider it as the constructor for the controller. Therefore, returning the name of the controller in that function won't work.

As Ahmad has already pointed out in his answer, if you pass a function to controller it is considered as a constructor for the controller.
Also you can't get a service injected dynamically in config block of your app.
So what you can do is, move your sharedData service in separate app (in my code below I've used appShared as a separate app where this service is defined) and then access it using angular.injector. This way you don't have to define it as a parameter to templateUrl / controller functions.
Btw, you can't pass custom parameters to templateUrl function (ref: https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ngRoute/provider/$routeProvider)
If templateUrl is a function, it will be called with the following
parameters:
{Array.<Object>} - route parameters extracted from the current $location.path() by applying the current route
Now for the controller, use $controller to dynamically load either ListsController or SingleController based on your condition.
Once that is loaded, extend your current controller (defined by your controller function) using angular.extend so that it inherits all the properties and methods of the dynamically loaded controller.
Check the complete code here: http://plnkr.co/edit/ORB4iXwmxgGGJW6wQDy9
app.config(function ($routeProvider) {
var initInjector = angular.injector(['appShared']);
var sharedParams = initInjector.get('sharedParams');
$routeProvider
.when('/:city/:slug', {
templateUrl: function ($routeParams) {
console.log("template url - ");
console.log($routeParams);
var t = sharedParams.getCurrentPageType($routeParams);
console.log(t);
if (t == 'list') {
return 'list.html';
}
if (t == 'single') {
return 'single.html';
}
},
controller: function ($routeParams, $controller, $scope) {
//getController(cities[i]['name'])
console.log("controller - ");
console.log($routeParams);
var t = sharedParams.getCurrentPageType($routeParams);
console.log(t);
if (t == 'list') {
angular.extend(this, $controller('ListsController', { $scope: $scope }));
}
if (t == 'single') {
angular.extend(this, $controller('SingleController', { $scope: $scope }));
}
}
});
});

Dynamically Creating Routes in Angular JS

We're trying to make the switch to angular, but we have a pretty big issue with routing. Our current site has something like 10,000 unique routes -- ever page has a unique ".html" identifier. There's no particular convention that would allow us to assign the controller to them, so I created a lookup API endpoint.
Here's the workflow I'm trying to create:
Angular app loads. One "otherwise" route is set up.
When someone clicks a link, I don't know if the resource is a product or a category, so a query is made to the lookup endpoint with the unique ".html" identifier. The endpoint returns two things: the name of the resource, and an ID ("product" and "10" for example). So to be clear, they hit a page like, "http://www.example.com/some-identifier.html," I query the lookup API to find out what kind of resource this is, and get a result like, "product" and "10" -- now I know it's the product controller/template and I need the data from product id 10.
The app assigns the controller and template ("productController" and "product.html"), queries the correct endpoint for data ("/api/product/10"), and renders the template.
The problems I'm facing:
$http isn't available during config, so I can't hit the lookup table.
Adding routes after the config is sloppy at best -- I've done it successfully by assigning $routeProvider to a global variable and doing it after the fact, but man, it's ugly.
Loading all the routes seems impractical -- just the size of the file would be pretty heavy for a lot of connections/browsers.
We can't change the convention now. We have 4 years of SEO and a lot of organic traffic to abandon our URLs.
I feel like I might be thinking about this the wrong way and there's something missing. The lookup table is really the problem -- not knowing what kind of resource to load (product, category, etc). I read this article about loading routes dynamically, but again, he's not making an external query. For us, loading the controllers isn't the problem, it's resolving the routes and then assigning them c
How would you solve the problem?
Solution
Huge thanks to #user2943490 for pointing me in the right direction. Don't forget to upvote his answer! I made it a little more general so that I don't have to define the route types.
API Structure
This configuration requires at least two endpoints: /api/routes/lookup/:resource_to_lookup:/ and /api/some_resource_type/id/:some_resource_id:/. We query the lookup to find out what kind of resource it points to and what the ID of the resource is. This allows you to have nice clean urls, like, "http://www.example.com/thriller.html" (a single) and "http://www.example.com/michaeljackson.html" (a collection).
In my case, if I query something like, "awesome_sweatshirt.html" my lookup will return a JSON object with "{type: 'product', id: 10}". Then I query "/api/product/id/10" to get the data.
"Isn't that slow?" you ask. With varnish in front, all of this happens in way less than 1 second. We're seeing pageload times locally of less than 20ms. Across the wire from a slow dev server was closer to half a second.
app.js
var app = angular.module('myApp', [
'ngRoute'
])
.config(function($routeProvider, $locationProvider) {
$routeProvider
.otherwise({
controller: function($scope, $routeParams, $controller, lookupService) {
/* this creates a child controller which, if served as it is, should accomplish your goal behaving as the actual controller (params.dashboardName + "Controller") */
if ( typeof lookupService.controller == "undefined" )
return;
$controller(lookupService.controller, {$scope:$scope});
delete lookupService.controller;
//We have to delete it so that it doesn't try to load again before the next lookup is complete.
},
template: '<div ng-include="templateUrl"></div>'
});
$locationProvider.html5Mode(true);
})
.controller('appController', ['$scope', '$window', '$rootScope', 'lookupService', '$location', '$route', function($scope, $window, $rootScope, lookupService, $location, $route){
$rootScope.$on('$locationChangeStart', handleUniqueIdentifiers);
function handleUniqueIdentifiers (event, currentUrl, previousUrl) {
window.scrollTo(0,0)
// Only intercept those URLs which are "unique identifiers".
if (!isUniqueIdentifierUrl($location.path())) {
return;
}
// Show the page load spinner
$scope.isLoaded = false
lookupService.query($location.path())
.then(function (lookupDefinition) {
$route.reload();
})
.catch(function () {
// Handle the look up error.
});
}
function isUniqueIdentifierUrl (url) {
// Is this a unique identifier URL?
// Right now any url with a '.html' is considered one, substitute this
// with your actual business logic.
return url.indexOf('.html') > -1;
}
}]);
lookupService.js
myApp.factory('lookupService', ['$http', '$q', '$location', function lookupService($http, $q, $location) {
return {
id: null,
originalPath: '',
contoller: '',
templateUrl: '',
query: function (url) {
var deferred = $q.defer();
var self = this;
$http.get("/api/routes/lookup"+url)
.success(function(data, status, headers, config){
self.id = data.id;
self.originalPath = url;
self.controller = data.controller+'Controller';
self.templateUrl = '/js/angular/components/'+data.controller+'/'+data.controller+'.html';
//Our naming convention works as "components/product/product.html" for templates
deferred.resolve(data);
})
return deferred.promise;
}
}
}]);
productController.js
myApp.controller('productController', ['$scope', 'productService', 'cartService', '$location', 'lookupService', function ($scope, productService, cartService, $location, lookupService) {
$scope.cart = cartService
// ** This is important! ** //
$scope.templateUrl = lookupService.templateUrl
productService.getProduct(lookupService.id).then(function(data){
$scope.data = data
$scope.data.selectedItem = {}
$scope.$emit('viewLoaded')
});
$scope.addToCart = function(item) {
$scope.cart.addProduct(angular.copy(item))
$scope.$emit('toggleCart')
}
}]);

Try something like this.
In the route config you set up a definition for each resource type and their controllers, templates and a resolve:
$routeProvider.when('/products', {
controller: 'productController',
templateUrl: 'product.html',
resolve: {
product: function ($route, productService) {
var productId = $route.current.params.id;
// productService makes a request to //api/product/<productId>
return productService.getProduct(productId);
}
}
});
// $routeProvider.when(...
// add route definitions for your other resource types
Then you listen for $locationChangeStart. If the URL being navigated to is a "unique identifer", query the lookup. Depending on the resource type returned by the lookup, navigate to the correct route as defined above.
$rootScope.$on('$locationChangeStart', handleUniqueIdentifiers);
function handleUniqueIdentifiers (event, currentUrl, previousUrl) {
// Only intercept those URLs which are "unique identifiers".
if (!isUniqueIdentifierUrl(currentUrl)) {
return;
}
// Stop the default navigation.
// Now you are in control of where to navigate to.
event.preventDefault();
lookupService.query(currentUrl)
.then(function (lookupDefinition) {
switch (lookupDefinition.type) {
case 'product':
$location.url('/products');
break;
case 'category':
$location.url('/categories');
break;
// case ...
// add other resource types
}
$location.search({
// Set the resource's ID in the query string, so
// it can be retrieved by the route resolver.
id: lookupDefinition.id
});
})
.catch(function () {
// Handle the look up error.
});
}
function isUniqueIdentifierUrl (url) {
// Is this a unique identifier URL?
// Right now any url with a '.html' is considered one, substitute this
// with your actual business logic.
return url.indexOf('.html') > -1;
}

You can use $routeParams for this.
e.g.
route/:type/:id
so type and id can be totally dynamic, the different type handling will be up to the route's controller.

What if you have a json file with the information of the routes (and if there is not a security issue) and iterate over it to attach routes to the app?
e.g.
JSON:
routes: [
{
controller: "Controller1"
path: "/path1"
templateUrl: 'partials/home/home.html'
},
{
controller: "Controller1"
path: "/path1"
templateUrl: 'partials/home/home.html'
}
]
And then iterate over the contents of the JSON and attach them to $routeProvider.when ?
I am not sure if it is a good idea, depends how big would be the JSON file and if you dont want to expose all your routes to a possible attacker.

From the AngularJS documentation,
The $routeParams service allows you to retrieve the current set of
route parameters.
Dependencies: $route
Example look like
// Given:
// URL: http://server.com/index.html#/Chapter/1/Section/2?search=moby
// Route: /Chapter/:chapterId/Section/:sectionId
// Then
$routeParams ==> {chapterId:'1', sectionId:'2', search:'moby'}
ngRouteModule.provider('$routeParams', $RouteParamsProvider);
function $RouteParamsProvider() {
this.$get = function() { return {}; };
}

Delaying AngularJS route change until model loaded to prevent flicker

I am wondering if there is a way (similar to Gmail) for AngularJS to delay showing a new route until after each model and its data has been fetched using its respective services.
For example, if there were a ProjectsController that listed all Projects and project_index.html which was the template that showed these Projects, Project.query() would be fetched completely before showing the new page.
Until then, the old page would still continue to show (for example, if I were browsing another page and then decided to see this Project index).

$routeProvider resolve property allows delaying of route change until data is loaded.
First define a route with resolve attribute like this.
angular.module('phonecat', ['phonecatFilters', 'phonecatServices', 'phonecatDirectives']).
config(['$routeProvider', function($routeProvider) {
$routeProvider.
when('/phones', {
templateUrl: 'partials/phone-list.html',
controller: PhoneListCtrl,
resolve: PhoneListCtrl.resolve}).
when('/phones/:phoneId', {
templateUrl: 'partials/phone-detail.html',
controller: PhoneDetailCtrl,
resolve: PhoneDetailCtrl.resolve}).
otherwise({redirectTo: '/phones'});
}]);
notice that the resolve property is defined on route.
function PhoneListCtrl($scope, phones) {
$scope.phones = phones;
$scope.orderProp = 'age';
}
PhoneListCtrl.resolve = {
phones: function(Phone, $q) {
// see: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/angular/DGf7yyD4Oc4
var deferred = $q.defer();
Phone.query(function(successData) {
deferred.resolve(successData);
}, function(errorData) {
deferred.reject(); // you could optionally pass error data here
});
return deferred.promise;
},
delay: function($q, $defer) {
var delay = $q.defer();
$defer(delay.resolve, 1000);
return delay.promise;
}
}
Notice that the controller definition contains a resolve object which declares things which should be available to the controller constructor. Here the phones is injected into the controller and it is defined in the resolve property.
The resolve.phones function is responsible for returning a promise. All of the promises are collected and the route change is delayed until after all of the promises are resolved.
Working demo: http://mhevery.github.com/angular-phonecat/app/#/phones
Source: https://github.com/mhevery/angular-phonecat/commit/ba33d3ec2d01b70eb5d3d531619bf90153496831

Here's a minimal working example which works for Angular 1.0.2
Template:
<script type="text/ng-template" id="/editor-tpl.html">
Editor Template {{datasets}}
</script>
<div ng-view>
</div>
JavaScript:
function MyCtrl($scope, datasets) {
$scope.datasets = datasets;
}
MyCtrl.resolve = {
datasets : function($q, $http) {
var deferred = $q.defer();
$http({method: 'GET', url: '/someUrl'})
.success(function(data) {
deferred.resolve(data)
})
.error(function(data){
//actually you'd want deffered.reject(data) here
//but to show what would happen on success..
deferred.resolve("error value");
});
return deferred.promise;
}
};
var myApp = angular.module('myApp', [], function($routeProvider) {
$routeProvider.when('/', {
templateUrl: '/editor-tpl.html',
controller: MyCtrl,
resolve: MyCtrl.resolve
});
});​
​
http://jsfiddle.net/dTJ9N/3/
Streamlined version:
Since $http() already returns a promise (aka deferred), we actually don't need to create our own. So we can simplify MyCtrl. resolve to:
MyCtrl.resolve = {
datasets : function($http) {
return $http({
method: 'GET',
url: 'http://fiddle.jshell.net/'
});
}
};
The result of $http() contains data, status, headers and config objects, so we need to change the body of MyCtrl to:
$scope.datasets = datasets.data;
http://jsfiddle.net/dTJ9N/5/

I see some people asking how to do this using the angular.controller method with minification friendly dependency injection. Since I just got this working I felt obliged to come back and help. Here's my solution (adopted from the original question and Misko's answer):
angular.module('phonecat', ['phonecatFilters', 'phonecatServices', 'phonecatDirectives']).
config(['$routeProvider', function($routeProvider) {
$routeProvider.
when('/phones', {
templateUrl: 'partials/phone-list.html',
controller: PhoneListCtrl,
resolve: {
phones: ["Phone", "$q", function(Phone, $q) {
var deferred = $q.defer();
Phone.query(function(successData) {
deferred.resolve(successData);
}, function(errorData) {
deferred.reject(); // you could optionally pass error data here
});
return deferred.promise;
]
},
delay: ["$q","$defer", function($q, $defer) {
var delay = $q.defer();
$defer(delay.resolve, 1000);
return delay.promise;
}
]
},
}).
when('/phones/:phoneId', {
templateUrl: 'partials/phone-detail.html',
controller: PhoneDetailCtrl,
resolve: PhoneDetailCtrl.resolve}).
otherwise({redirectTo: '/phones'});
}]);
angular.controller("PhoneListCtrl", [ "$scope", "phones", ($scope, phones) {
$scope.phones = phones;
$scope.orderProp = 'age';
}]);
Since this code is derived from the question/most popular answer it is untested, but it should send you in the right direction if you already understand how to make minification friendly angular code. The one part that my own code didn't requires was an injection of "Phone" into the resolve function for 'phones', nor did I use any 'delay' object at all.
I also recommend this youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6KITGRQujQ&list=UUKW92i7iQFuNILqQOUOCrFw&index=4&feature=plcp , which helped me quite a bit
Should it interest you I've decided to also paste my own code (Written in coffeescript) so you can see how I got it working.
FYI, in advance I use a generic controller that helps me do CRUD on several models:
appModule.config ['$routeProvider', ($routeProvider) ->
genericControllers = ["boards","teachers","classrooms","students"]
for controllerName in genericControllers
$routeProvider
.when "/#{controllerName}/",
action: 'confirmLogin'
controller: 'GenericController'
controllerName: controllerName
templateUrl: "/static/templates/#{controllerName}.html"
resolve:
items : ["$q", "$route", "$http", ($q, $route, $http) ->
deferred = $q.defer()
controllerName = $route.current.controllerName
$http(
method: "GET"
url: "/api/#{controllerName}/"
)
.success (response) ->
deferred.resolve(response.payload)
.error (response) ->
deferred.reject(response.message)
return deferred.promise
]
$routeProvider
.otherwise
redirectTo: '/'
action: 'checkStatus'
]
appModule.controller "GenericController", ["$scope", "$route", "$http", "$cookies", "items", ($scope, $route, $http, $cookies, items) ->
$scope.items = items
#etc ....
]

This commit, which is part of version 1.1.5 and above, exposes the $promise object of $resource. Versions of ngResource including this commit allow resolving resources like this:
$routeProvider
resolve: {
data: function(Resource) {
return Resource.get().$promise;
}
}
controller
app.controller('ResourceCtrl', ['$scope', 'data', function($scope, data) {
$scope.data = data;
}]);

This snippet is dependency injection friendly (I even use it in combination of ngmin and uglify) and it's a more elegant domain driven based solution.
The example below registers a Phone resource and a constant phoneRoutes, which contains all your routing information for that (phone) domain. Something I didn't like in the provided answer was the location of the resolve logic -- the main module should not know anything or be bothered about the way the resource arguments are provided to the controller. This way the logic stays in the same domain.
Note: if you're using ngmin (and if you're not: you should) you only have to write the resolve functions with the DI array convention.
angular.module('myApp').factory('Phone',function ($resource) {
return $resource('/api/phone/:id', {id: '#id'});
}).constant('phoneRoutes', {
'/phone': {
templateUrl: 'app/phone/index.tmpl.html',
controller: 'PhoneIndexController'
},
'/phone/create': {
templateUrl: 'app/phone/edit.tmpl.html',
controller: 'PhoneEditController',
resolve: {
phone: ['$route', 'Phone', function ($route, Phone) {
return new Phone();
}]
}
},
'/phone/edit/:id': {
templateUrl: 'app/phone/edit.tmpl.html',
controller: 'PhoneEditController',
resolve: {
form: ['$route', 'Phone', function ($route, Phone) {
return Phone.get({ id: $route.current.params.id }).$promise;
}]
}
}
});
The next piece is injecting the routing data when the module is in the configure state and applying it to the $routeProvider.
angular.module('myApp').config(function ($routeProvider,
phoneRoutes,
/* ... otherRoutes ... */) {
$routeProvider.when('/', { templateUrl: 'app/main/index.tmpl.html' });
// Loop through all paths provided by the injected route data.
angular.forEach(phoneRoutes, function(routeData, path) {
$routeProvider.when(path, routeData);
});
$routeProvider.otherwise({ redirectTo: '/' });
});
Testing the route configuration with this setup is also pretty easy:
describe('phoneRoutes', function() {
it('should match route configuration', function() {
module('myApp');
// Mock the Phone resource
function PhoneMock() {}
PhoneMock.get = function() { return {}; };
module(function($provide) {
$provide.value('Phone', FormMock);
});
inject(function($route, $location, $rootScope, phoneRoutes) {
angular.forEach(phoneRoutes, function (routeData, path) {
$location.path(path);
$rootScope.$digest();
expect($route.current.templateUrl).toBe(routeData.templateUrl);
expect($route.current.controller).toBe(routeData.controller);
});
});
});
});
You can see it in full glory in my latest (upcoming) experiment.
Although this method works fine for me, I really wonder why the $injector isn't delaying construction of anything when it detects injection of anything that is a promise object; it would make things soooOOOOOooOOOOO much easier.
Edit: used Angular v1.2(rc2)

Delaying showing the route is sure to lead to an asynchronous tangle... why not simply track the loading status of your main entity and use that in the view. For example in your controller you might use both the success and error callbacks on ngResource:
$scope.httpStatus = 0; // in progress
$scope.projects = $resource.query('/projects', function() {
$scope.httpStatus = 200;
}, function(response) {
$scope.httpStatus = response.status;
});
Then in the view you could do whatever:
<div ng-show="httpStatus == 0">
Loading
</div>
<div ng-show="httpStatus == 200">
Real stuff
<div ng-repeat="project in projects">
...
</div>
</div>
<div ng-show="httpStatus >= 400">
Error, not found, etc. Could distinguish 4xx not found from
5xx server error even.
</div>

I worked from Misko's code above and this is what I've done with it. This is a more current solution since $defer has been changed to $timeout. Substituting $timeout however will wait for the timeout period (in Misko's code, 1 second), then return the data hoping it's resolved in time. With this way, it returns asap.
function PhoneListCtrl($scope, phones) {
$scope.phones = phones;
$scope.orderProp = 'age';
}
PhoneListCtrl.resolve = {
phones: function($q, Phone) {
var deferred = $q.defer();
Phone.query(function(phones) {
deferred.resolve(phones);
});
return deferred.promise;
}
}

Using AngularJS 1.1.5
Updating the 'phones' function in Justen's answer using AngularJS 1.1.5 syntax.
Original:
phones: function($q, Phone) {
var deferred = $q.defer();
Phone.query(function(phones) {
deferred.resolve(phones);
});
return deferred.promise;
}
Updated:
phones: function(Phone) {
return Phone.query().$promise;
}
Much shorter thanks to the Angular team and contributors. :)
This is also the answer of Maximilian Hoffmann. Apparently that commit made it into 1.1.5.

You can use $routeProvider resolve property to delay route change until data is loaded.
angular.module('app', ['ngRoute']).
config(['$routeProvider', function($routeProvider, EntitiesCtrlResolve, EntityCtrlResolve) {
$routeProvider.
when('/entities', {
templateUrl: 'entities.html',
controller: 'EntitiesCtrl',
resolve: EntitiesCtrlResolve
}).
when('/entity/:entityId', {
templateUrl: 'entity.html',
controller: 'EntityCtrl',
resolve: EntityCtrlResolve
}).
otherwise({redirectTo: '/entities'});
}]);
Notice that the resolve property is defined on route.
EntitiesCtrlResolve and EntityCtrlResolve is constant objects defined in same file as EntitiesCtrl and EntityCtrl controllers.
// EntitiesCtrl.js
angular.module('app').constant('EntitiesCtrlResolve', {
Entities: function(EntitiesService) {
return EntitiesService.getAll();
}
});
angular.module('app').controller('EntitiesCtrl', function(Entities) {
$scope.entities = Entities;
// some code..
});
// EntityCtrl.js
angular.module('app').constant('EntityCtrlResolve', {
Entity: function($route, EntitiesService) {
return EntitiesService.getById($route.current.params.projectId);
}
});
angular.module('app').controller('EntityCtrl', function(Entity) {
$scope.entity = Entity;
// some code..
});

I like darkporter's idea because it will be easy for a dev team new to AngularJS to understand and worked straight away.
I created this adaptation which uses 2 divs, one for loader bar and another for actual content displayed after data is loaded. Error handling would be done elsewhere.
Add a 'ready' flag to $scope:
$http({method: 'GET', url: '...'}).
success(function(data, status, headers, config) {
$scope.dataForView = data;
$scope.ready = true; // <-- set true after loaded
})
});
In html view:
<div ng-show="!ready">
<!-- Show loading graphic, e.g. Twitter Boostrap progress bar -->
<div class="progress progress-striped active">
<div class="bar" style="width: 100%;"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div ng-show="ready">
<!-- Real content goes here and will appear after loading -->
</div>
See also: Boostrap progress bar docs

I liked above answers and learned a lot from them but there is something that is missing in most of the above answers.
I was stuck in a similar scenario where I was resolving url with some data that is fetched in the first request from the server. Problem I faced was what if the promise is rejected.
I was using a custom provider which used to return a Promise which was resolved by the resolve of $routeProvider at the time of config phase.
What I want to stress here is the concept of when it does something like this.
It sees the url in url bar and then respective when block in called controller and view is referred so far so good.
Lets say I have following config phase code.
App.when('/', {
templateUrl: '/assets/campaigns/index.html',
controller: 'CampaignListCtr',
resolve : {
Auth : function(){
return AuthServiceProvider.auth('campaign');
}
}
})
// Default route
.otherwise({
redirectTo: '/segments'
});
On root url in browser first block of run get called otherwise otherwise gets called.
Let's imagine a scenario I hit rootUrl in address bar AuthServicePrivider.auth() function gets called.
Lets say Promise returned is in reject state what then???
Nothing gets rendered at all.
Otherwise block will not get executed as it is for any url which is not defined in the config block and is unknown to angularJs config phase.
We will have to handle the event that gets fired when this promise is not resolved. On failure $routeChangeErorr gets fired on $rootScope.
It can be captured as shown in code below.
$rootScope.$on('$routeChangeError', function(event, current, previous, rejection){
// Use params in redirection logic.
// event is the routeChangeEvent
// current is the current url
// previous is the previous url
$location.path($rootScope.rootPath);
});
IMO It's generally a good idea to put event tracking code in run block of application. This code run just after the config phase of the application.
App.run(['$routeParams', '$rootScope', '$location', function($routeParams, $rootScope, $location){
$rootScope.rootPath = "my custom path";
// Event to listen to all the routeChangeErrors raised
// by the resolve in config part of application
$rootScope.$on('$routeChangeError', function(event, current, previous, rejection){
// I am redirecting to rootPath I have set above.
$location.path($rootScope.rootPath);
});
}]);
This way we can handle promise failure at the time of config phase.

I have had a complex multi-level sliding panel interface, with disabled screen layer. Creating directive on disable screen layer that would create click event to execute the state like
$state.go('account.stream.social.view');
were producing a flicking effect. history.back() instead of it worked ok, however its not always back in history in my case. SO what I find out is that if I simply create attribute href on my disable screen instead of state.go , worked like a charm.
<a class="disable-screen" back></a>
Directive 'back'
app.directive('back', [ '$rootScope', function($rootScope) {
return {
restrict : 'A',
link : function(scope, element, attrs) {
element.attr('href', $rootScope.previousState.replace(/\./gi, '/'));
}
};
} ]);
app.js I just save previous state
app.run(function($rootScope, $state) {
$rootScope.$on("$stateChangeStart", function(event, toState, toParams, fromState, fromParams) {
$rootScope.previousState = fromState.name;
$rootScope.currentState = toState.name;
});
});

One possible solution might be to use the ng-cloak directive with the element where we are using the models e.g.
<div ng-cloak="">
Value in myModel is: {{myModel}}
</div>
I think this one takes least effort.

AngularJS - Pass parameters into Controller?

I'm trying to create a simple blog website using AngularJS. I'm just starting out, so what I'm thinking my not be the best way to do this, so any alternative suggestions are welcome.
I have a controller.js file with two blog controllers. One to display a list of blog posts, and the other that displays the post content by including an HTML file.
controller.js
myAppControllers.controller('BlogListCtrl', ['$scope', '$http', function ($scope, $http) {
$http.get('articles/articles.json').success(function (articles) {
$scope.articles = articles;
});
}]);
myAppControllers.controller('BlogPostCtrl', ['$scope', '$routeParams', function ($scope, $routeParams) {
$scope.includeFile = 'articles/' + $routeParams.blogPostId + '.html';
}]);
articles.json
[
{
"id": "test-article-one",
"title": "Test Article one",
"author": "Gareth Lewis",
"datePosted": "2015-06-23",
"summary": "This is a test summary"
},
{
"id": "test-article-two",
"title": "Test article two",
"author": "Gareth Lewis",
"datePosted": "2015-06-23",
"summary": "This is a test for article two"
}
]
app.js
when('/blog', {
templateUrl: 'partials/blog-articles.html',
controller: 'BlogListCtrl'
}).
when('/blog/:blogPostId', {
templateUrl: 'partials/blog-post.html',
controller: 'BlogPostCtrl'
}).
blog-post.html
<ng-include src="'partials/header.html'"></ng-include>
<!-- Want to add title, author, datePosted information here... -->
<article class="content">
<ng-include src="includeFile"></ng-include>
</article>
This blog listings work fine. When I click into a blog post, it also serves up the content from the HTML file OK as well. However, I want to be able to reuse the title, author and datePosted properties from the selected article in the blog-post.html partial view. What's the best way to do this? Would I need to pass them to the Controller somehow to then pass to the view? I don't really want to pass these as routeParams. Or would I need to do a $http.get on articles.json and iterate through to find the selected article and then pass the property values back to the view?
Thanks for the help.

You said that suggestions are welcome, so here it goes.
1 - Transport all your Blog logic to a service;
2 - Provide the data on resolving routes. This is a better approach to handle errors during the load time, 404s, and so on. You can provide a listener to $routeChangeError and deal with it there;
3 - On the service declared below, you have the methods to call your data and a method to retrieve the list cached on the service:
// services.js
myAppServices
.service('BlogService', ['$http', '$q', function ($http, $q) {
var api = {},
currentData = {
list: [],
article: {}
};
api.getSaved = function () {
return currentData;
};
api.listArticles = function () {
var deferred = $q.defer(),
backup = angular.copy(currentData.list);
$http.get('articles/articles.json')
.then(function (response) {
currentData.list = response;
deferred.resolve(response);
}, function () {
currentData.list = backup;
deferred.reject(reason);
});
return deferred.promise;
};
api.getArticle = function (id) {
var deferred = $q.defer(),
backup = angular.copy(currentData.article),
path = 'articles/' + id + '.html';
$http.get(path, {
cache: true
})
.then(function (response) {
currentData.article = {
path: path,
response: response
};
deferred.resolve(currentData.article);
}, function (reason) {
currentData.article = backup;
deferred.reject(currentData.article);
});
return deferred.promise;
};
return api;
}]);
The BlogService.getSaved() will retrieve the stored data, made after each call.
I've made a method to call the ng-include path too, so you can verify if it exists, with cache === true, the browser will keep a copy of it, when calling it again on the view. A copy of the response of the blog article is made too, so you can access its path and the response whenever you need.
On the controllers below, they were adaptated to supply the current needs:
// controller.js
myAppControllers
.controller('BlogListCtrl', ['$scope', 'articles',
function ($scope, articles) {
$scope.articles = articles;
/* OTHER STUFF HERE */
}
])
.controller('BlogPostCtrl', ['$routeParams', '$scope', 'article' 'BlogService',
function ($routeParams, $scope, article, BlogService) {
// On `article` dependency, you have both the original response
// and the path formed. If you want to use any of it.
$scope.includeFile = article.path;
// To get the current stored data (if any):
$scope.articles = BlogService.getSaved().list;
// Traverse the array to get your current article:
$scope.article = $scope.articles.filter(function (item) {
return item.id === $routeParams.id;
});
/* OTHER STUFF HERE */
}
]);
And the route declarations were changed to load the data when resolving the routes.
// app.js
$routeProvider
.when('/blog', {
templateUrl: 'partials/blog-articles.html',
controller: 'BlogListCtrl',
resolve: {
articles: ['BlogService', '$routeParams', function (BlogService, $routeParams) {
return BlogService.listArticles();
}]
}
})
.when('/blog/:id', {
templateUrl: 'partials/blog-post.html',
controller: 'BlogPostCtrl',
resolve: {
article: ['BlogService', '$routeParams', function (BlogService, $routeParams) {
return BlogService.getArticle($routeParams.blogPostId);
}]
}
})

This is maybe a common question in angular. What you have to understand is that Scope is defined per controller... In order to share data across controller you still have the option to use $scope.$parent or $rootScope to link controllers but I would use those carefully.
It is better to use Angular Services which are based on singleton patterns therefore you can use them to share information between controllers and I think it will be a better approach.
I found that this has been previously discussed and here are some good examples:
AngularJS Service Passing Data Between Controllers

You can use a global scope to set this data, or you can use service to communicate between the controllers. There is a lot of ways to resolve this problem read a little bit more about services in the link bellow and see if you can find how to resolve your problem.
AngularJS: Service vs provider vs factory