How not to use 'this' in Angular? - javascript

New to Angular and I'm trying to follow JSLint ( written by Douglas Crockford ) recommendation of not using this in JS at all.
How can I prevent myself to use this in Angular? All the tutorials I've seen so far rely on using this and SO search had resulted in no answer.
For the purpose of being clear, let's assume I'm trying to write this controller:
app.controller('StoreController', function() {
this.products = {};
});
How can I access the controller object so I can add the products property?
var my_controller = app.controller('StoreController', function() {
});
my_controller.products = {}; // Maybe like this?

Inject $scope, for example:
app.controller('StoreController', function($scope) {
$scope.products = {};
});
Here is more information about them: https://docs.angularjs.org/guide/scope
Also, when using things like services, you can avoid this by keeping a local state and returning an interface object. For example:
.service('MyService', function(){
// state
var mystate = {};
// interface object
return {
someExposedFunc: function(){
}
};
});
I would just like to note though, that I don't see any good reason why you should avoid this when using angular. I think using $scope has more semantic usefulness when reading controller code, but when using things like services, I write less code by creating exposed functions like this.somefunc = ....

Related

AngularJS communication between modules in different html files

There are a couple of variables I want to share between two html files and two modules. Firstly, I used the service as follows but it did not work.
In vote.js:
var vote = angular.module('vote', []);
vote.service('voteParam', function () {
this.candidates = [];
this.show_result;
this.vote_begin;
this.elec_begin;
this.setValue = function (voteParam) {
this.department = voteParam.department;
this.group = voteParam.group;
this.type = voteParam.type;
this.round = voteParam.round;
this.times = voteParam.times;
this.advance_num = voteParam.advance_num;
}
});
In vote-setting.js:
angular.module('admin')
.controller('vote_setting', function ($scope, $http, voteParam) {
$scope.begin_vote = function () {
init();
startit();
$scope.vote_begin = true;
$scope.elec_begin = true;
voteParam.vote_begin = true;
voteParam.elec_begin = true;
voteParam.show_result = false;
voteParam.setValue($scope.voteParam);
if (voteParam.candidates.length == 0) {
$scope.get_candidate();
}
};
}
When the value is set as true in vote-setting.js, it is showed as undefined in vote.js. I think it's because when I import vote-setting.js in vote-setting.html, variables in the service are initialized again. Is there any other way I can make this work?
The service worked. But the value of variables in it get initialized when the js file is imported again. This is the key of this problem. Thanks
You might want to know the following:
Generally,an angular app should have only one base module. This is the module which you add to your html using ng-app directive. So your html content will know about only one angular app.
You can however create as many other modules as you would like or need. These can be custom modules as in your case, or these can be third party library (modules written by other developers for your ready use.). In any of the above case you need to add extra modules to your base module as dependencies as shown below:
angular.module('baseModule', ['extraModule1, extraModule2]);
Once you are done with this, any component like any directive , service, factory written in any of the extra modules shall be available to you for use, as if they were all written in your baseModule.
Having said this and coming to your question, the code provided by you doesn't seem sufficient to entirely diagnose your issue. However from whatever I get, I suggest you to add vote module to admin module or vice-versa. If you have any other module as a base module, you need to add both vote and admin as dependencies to that module.
Hope this helps you to start fixing the issue. Let me know if any thing seems unclear yet.
Implement your shared data service as a factory.
Implement proper getter and setters.
Encapsulate your variables and only expose the getter, setters.
Example of shared data service (can also be used as a shared Model)
app.factory('voteParam', function() {
var param1;
var param2;
var param3;
return {
setParam1: function(value){
param1 = value;
},
getParam1: function(){
return param1;
},
setParam2: function(value){
param2 = value;
},
getParam2: function(){
return param2;
},
setParam3: function(value){
param3 = value;
},
getParam3: function(){
return param3;
}
}
});
In an application this factory should be initialized once only.
If you are using 2 different angular applications (in your case 'vote' and 'admin') then use local storage or session storage to share data between them

Injecting service which define by module.provider

Sorry to ask something like this, but i m already spend couple of days to solve this one.
But i m really need help. I am already read Understanding Dependency Injection
and also other stack question use $http inside custom provider in app config use the
$injector
on run block also not work in my code.
Perhaps someone here can help me, i am also worried how annotate the injection on my provider for minification.
My code in
Here
The problem is that when you call $http in the _getItem you are in the "controller". A solution could be to do this:
this.$get = function($http) {
return {
mainUrl : _mainUrl,
getItem : _getItem,
httpWrapper : $http
};
And then in the _getItem assign (or use the httpWrapper directly):
var $http = this.httpWrapper;
In order to avoid problems with the minification, you could add the injection to the method $get:
this.$get = ['$http', function($http) {
Here the updated Plunker: http://plnkr.co/edit/m7oXNolo6iV8Zy1NJ0vx
EDIT: I think that what you wanted to achieve is this:
var _getItem = function() {
var _d = null;
console.log(this)
var $http = this.httpWrapper;
var $q = this.qWrapper;
_d = $q.defer();
$http.get(_mainUrl)
.success(function(data) {
console.log(data);
_d.resolve( {data: data, x: "efe"} );
})
.error(function(status) {
_d.resolve( status );
});
return _d.promise;
};
$q.defer() allows to defer the http call to your controller, then on your controller you have to edit this:
facade.getItem().then(function(data){
$scope.myReturn = data;
}
Updated Plunker: http://plnkr.co/edit/xR1d3KnWhX51jHHZ8t3m
Note: Consider that the nature of then is asynchronous, thus if you use the variable straight afterwards, it still will be undefined

service vs controller vs external js to put frequently used methods in angularjs

I have an angularjs app, which has several controllers with several viewes. When I started coding the app there were few methods(of similar kind), which were used in more than places, initially it looked OK to me to put those methods where ever needed (two or three controllers). But as my application grew I started noticing the code redundancy issue, as the method was required at more places.
Definitely this was my lack of experience which lead to this issue.
Now I decided to remove this redundant code from my app. I found the following options:
Service way: Remove the redundant code and put it in a new service and include the service all the places where I need the functionality.
External JS: Putting the redundant code in an external js file and just call the required method.
Leave the code as it is.
But here I want to mention that the redundant code I am talking is not very tight coupled and can be added and removed any where with a very little effort.
Now, what I want to know is from the above options, which one should I choose? OR are there much better options available for this issue(may be provided by angularJS itself).
Edit Basic examples of code:as I said
$scope.showSomething = function (show, ele) {
//show or hide the ele (element) based on value of show
}
You are using angular so surely you want to make your app structured according to MVC. what kind of MVC pattern your app will follow if your code is put anywhere in a js file like anything. I would recommend putting your code inside a service. that's the angular way of reducing redundancy. Also you have another option to set the function to the $rootscope here
I'm not sure about your case, but I had similar situation: I had a number of functions which provide validation functionality. I created service:
'use strict';
angular.module('myApp')
.factory('UtilService', ['Env', 'IBANChecker', function(Env, IBANChecker) {
var validateCallbacks = {
checkAddress: function (address) {
return address.action != 'delete';
},
validateIBAN: function (iban) {
return !iban || IBANChecker.isValid(iban);
},
.....
validateYCode: function(id) {
return YCodeChecker.isValid(id);
}
};
return {
/**
* Factory with callbacks for 'validate' directive.
* 0 arguments -- get all callbacks, over wise see #validateCallbacks object to get specific callbacks.
* if wrong callback name requested -> it will be ignored
* #returns {object} -- call requested callbacks.
*/
getValidateCallbacks : function() {
if(arguments.length) {
var result = {};
_.each(arguments, function(argument){
if(validateCallbacks[argument]) {
result[argument] = validateCallbacks[argument];
}
});
return result;
} else {
return validateCallbacks;
}
}
};
}]);
And code in controller looks like:
var validateCallbacks = UtilService.getValidateCallbacks('validateText', 'validateNumber');
_.each(validateCallbacks, function(callback, key) {
$scope[key] = callback;
});
I tend to use factories, specifically because factories can depend on other factories and logical modules can be defined. Consider the psuedo code below.
.controller('HisController', function (UtilityService) {
$scope.foo = UtilityService.foo;
})
.controller('HerController', function (UtilityService) {
$scope.foo = UtilityService.foo;
})
.factory('UtilityService', function (SomeOtherService) {
var service = {
foo: foo,
bar: bar,
}
return service
///////
function foo(a) {
return a.substring(0,1);
}
function bar(a) {
return SomeOtherService.doStuff(service.foo(a));
}
})

AngularJS learning about services and factories, a service in a factory?

I'm really trying to wrap my head around angular's service/factory/provider constructs before I refactor a pretty big project.
I've read lots of docs and articles on services vs. factories and thought I understood how each of them are created and what they do.
However, while trying stuff I attempted to use a service in a factory or two...
This was really useful: I now understand that there is only one of my 'jsonService' (it's a singleton), so this simple approach WILL NOT WORK... (I'll need each factory to have a separate instance of something)
.service('jsonService', ['$http', function ($http) {
var data= {'msg':'no data'};
this.serviceData= data;
this.get= function(url){
$http.get(url).then(function (resp) {
data= resp.data;
});
}
}])
.factory('fac1', ['jsonService', function(jsonService){
jsonService.get('json/data1.json');
return jsonService.serviceData;
}])
.factory('fac2', ['jsonService', function(jsonService){
jsonService.get('json/data2.json');
return jsonService;
}])
When I use the factories in a controller like:
myController.f1= fac1;
myController.f2= fac2.serviceData;
I can see that fac1 and fac2 both return the same object, they both have {msg:'no data'}, if I change one then they both change.
My question is:
Even though I can break on the service and see data= {msg:'no data'} and see it being set to the response data - why do I not see any change in fac1 or fac2 ?
All I can think is that somewhere there must be more than one var data, something is not a 'singleton' ????
EDIT: I have now tried:
this.serviceData= function(){return data;};
and:
myController.f2= fac2.serviceData(); // this is always the 'no data' object
myController.f3= fac2.serviceData;
if I then (a long time later) call:
var something= myController.f3();
then I do get the json data... but myController.f2 is still {msg:'no data'} why ?
Ok, after trying m.e.conroy's suggestion I finally figured it out...
The problem is nothing to do with angular, it's how javascript passes objects.
(see: Is JavaScript a pass-by-reference or pass-by-value language? )
The factories passed back a 'copy-reference' of the original {msg:'no data'} object, and when the service eventually assigned:
data= resp.data;
that replaced 'data', but the factory-supplied references persist as the old object.
Now, if I do:
.service('jsonService', ['$http', function ($http) {
var data= {'msg':'no data', 'result':null};
this.serviceData= data;
this.get= function(url){
$http.get(url).then(function (resp) {
data.result= resp.data; // update properties of the data object
data.msg='got data!'; // instead of replacing it
});
}
}])
...then everything makes sense!
The variables in myController are changed when data arrives (since I have not 'swapped out' the data object).
Obviously, I still have the problem that my two factories return the same object (I'll look at Sacho's suggestion on this) - but I think I've learned something pretty fundamental here.
Try this:
this.serviceData = function(){
return data;
};
Also you probably have a race situation. $http may not have returned by the time the application asks for the serviceData
The difference between angular's "services" and "factories" is miniscule - I suggest just using one or the other, and sticking with it. From this point out, I'll refer to these elements as "services", even though I exclusively use angular.factory to declare them.
For what you ultimately want to do, there is a much simpler solution - simply return the promise from your service.
this.get= function(url){
return $http.get(url)
}
Then in your controller/directive/whatever, just use it like:
jsonService.get(url).then(function success(response) {
// do things with the response
})
But you seem to want to use a service to create many instances, so here's a contrived example achieving that:
.factory('jsonService', jsonService)
jsonService.$inject = ['$http']
function jsonService($http) {
return Fixed
function Fixed(url) {
this.url = url
this.promise = null
this.get = get.bind(this)
function get() {
// This caches the request so you only do it once, for example
if (this.promise == null) {
this.promise = $http.get(url)
}
return this.promise
}
}
}
Then in your controller, you would do something like:
var fixedOne = new jsonService('fixedOne')
fixedOne.get().then(...)

Problems with circular dependency and OOP in AngularJS

AngularJS + OOP is kinda sexy feature to use
Hi, I'm successfully using OOP with AngularJs for some time already (first started with angularjs with oop inheritance in action), the provided approach allows you define your classes as angular services, which you can later extend or inherit from like that:
Application.factory('AbstractObject', [function () {
var AbstractObject = Class.extend({
virtualMethod: function() {
alert("Hello world");
},
abstractMethod: function() { // You may omit abstract definitions, but they make your interface more readable
throw new Error("Pure abstract call");
}
});
return AbstractObject; // You return class definition instead of it's instance
}]);
Application.factory('DerivedObject', ['AbstractObject', function (AbstractObject) {
var DerivedObject = AbstractObject.extend({
virtualMethod: function() { // Shows two alerts: `Hey!` and `Hello world`
alert("Hey!");
this._super();
},
abstractMethod: function() {
alert("Now I'm not abstract");
}
});
return DerivedObject;
}]);
Plunker: http://plnkr.co/edit/rAtVGAsNYggBhNADMeoT
using the described approach gives you the ability to define classes that beautifully integrate into angular infrastructure. You get all sort of nifty features from two worlds - OOP and AngularJs. Dependency injection is free for your classes, and it makes your classes simple, allows putting a lot of boilerplate controller code into some base class that can be later reused.
However
AngularJs infrastructure blocks previously described approach from spreading it's wings on all 100%. The problem occurs when you try to define recursive class definitions (i.e. recursive aggregation), say you have two class definitions like Blog and Tag
Application.factory('Blog', ['Tag', function (Tag) {
var Blog = Class.extend({
tags: function() {
return this.tags;
}
});
return Blog;
}]);
Application.factory('Tag', ['Blog', function (Blog) {
var Tag = Class.extend({
Blogs: function() {
return this.blogs;
}
});
return Tag;
}]);
It won't work because both Blog and Tag are self-referencing themselves causing circular dependency.
P.S
The last thing, I have found kinda ugly solution that solves my problem in my specific case but doesn't work in general and as I said, it isn't pretty:
Application.factory('BlogNamespace', [function () {
var Blog = Class.extend({
tags: function() {
return this.tags;
}
});
var Tag = Class.extend({
Blogs: function() {
return this.blogs;
}
});
return {
Tag: Tag,
Blog: Blog
};
}]);
Question
The above fix won't work because namespaces may also be a subject of circular dependency. This means that it isn't solution to described problem but rather one level deeper problem now.
Any suggestions on how it is possible to solve described problem in general case?
A circular dependency is always the sign of mixing of concerns, which is a really bad thing. Miško Hevery, one of the authors of AngularJS, explains a nice solution on his awesome blog. In short, you probably have a third service hidden somewhere, which is the only part of your code really needed by the two others.
I'm answering my own question just because I've found a technical way of resolving the issue that I have originally posted about. But before that, I strongly encourage you to use Blackhole's suggestion since it allows solving a broader set of problems which are usually caused by bad architecture. Please prefer using his approach first, and return to current one in case that you know what you are doing.
So here goes:
You can use $injector service and inject required definitions at run-time, which is legal from technical point of view, but again according to this post (hard to imagine that it is written in 2008), this is like a black magic, do that and it will strike you back:
Application.factory('Blog', ['$injector', function ($injector) {
var Tag = $injector.get('Tag'); // Here is your tag
...
}]);
Application.factory('Tag', ['Blog', function (Blog) {
...
}]);
Edit
It turned out that current approach is an example of Service Locator pattern, which is IoC Antipattern.
LAST RESORT: NOT ENCOURAGED
In my case the best way to get around a circular-dependency-problem like this in angular, is to trigger function-calls via $rootScope-broadcasts. The other service can then listen to this broadcast and react with the desired function-call. It may not be the most elegant solution but in some cases where the interaction between the services is mainly one-directional anyways, it may be a reasonable alternative. (note that this also allows return-values to be passed back to the broadcasting function via callbacks only)
A pseudo-example of this would be:
angular.module('myApp').factory('service1', ["$rootScope",
function($rootScope) {
function func1() {
// do something
}
$rootScope.$broadcast("callFunc2"); // calls func2 from service 1
return {
func1: func1
}
}
]);
angular.module('myApp').factory('service2', ["service1", "$rootScope",
function(service1, $rootScope) {
function func2() {
// do something
}
service1.func1(); // calls func1 from service 2
$rootScope.on("callFunc2", func2);
}
]);

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