Why are Factories more flexible than Services in AngularJS? - javascript

According to this source,
Why do the two styles exist if they can accomplish the same thing?
Factories offer slightly more flexibility than services because they
can return functions which can then be new'd. This follows the factory
pattern from object oriented programming. A factory can be an object
for creating other objects.
I'm having trouble connecting this piece of information to the concept of constructors in Javascript and object / prototype. Can someone help me connect the dot? Thanks.

Service VS Factory
A service is a constructor function that can be called with 'new' where as a factory returns an object that you may run some code before that is why it is more flexible.
To see a detailed example please check out this question. matys84pl talks about it in detail.

Factory
These are practically singletons. So for instance you can hold data across calls to it.
factory('myFactory', function () {
var internalList = [];
return {
add: function (value) { internalList.push(value); },
get: function () { return internalList; }
}
});
As you could imagine, if controller1 pushed Hi into the list and controller2 called get() immediately after, it would recieve [ 'Hi' ].
Service
From the angular docs
JavaScript developers often use custom types to write object-oriented code.
service('UnicornLauncher', function (apiToken) {
this.launchedCount = 0;
this.launch = function() {
// Make a request to the remote API and include the apiToken
...
this.launchedCount++;
}
});
Provider
For some bonus reading, I'll tell you about a provider. A provider wraps a factory. Why? Because there are two phases in an angular application, the configure phase and the run phase. Services, factories and values AREN'T available during the run phase.
So, say we need to configure a service before it is injected into the controllers. We need to use a provider.
The angular docs have a nice example:
provider('unicornLauncher', function UnicornLauncherProvider() {
var useTinfoilShielding = false;
this.useTinfoilShielding = function(value) {
useTinfoilShielding = !!value;
};
this.$get = ["apiToken", function unicornLauncherFactory(apiToken) {
// let's assume that the UnicornLauncher constructor was also changed to
// accept and use the useTinfoilShielding argument
return new UnicornLauncher(apiToken, useTinfoilShielding);
}];
});
so this.$get is basically the second argument of the factory('...', ....
So if we use this in the configure phase we do this:
config(["unicornLauncherProvider", function(unicornLauncherProvider) {
unicornLauncherProvider.useTinfoilShielding(true);
}]);
Notice how we ask for unicornLauncherProvider, we add that Provider suffix. Yet when we named our provider we didn't supply it. That is because angular automatically adds the suffix for you. If you want to access the service this provider creates, ask for the unicornLauncher.

I had an 'Eureka effect' when i realized that service & factory are only syntactic sugar for provider (https://docs.angularjs.org/api/auto/service/$provide#provider)
The only difference between these two is the way Angular processes the passed value before providing it with the injector.
When I get the object from the injector, I usually can't tell if it has been created using a service or a factory (or any of the other $provide methods)
So the Question is "How do I want to implement this?" and not "How do I want to use this?".

Related

Can we access $provide inside a decorator in Angular JS?

Recently I came across a quiz and the question is
Decorators use
Select one:
a. Both
b. $delegate
c. None
d. $provide
I choose b.$delegate and the quiz says it is wrong and the quiz says the correct answer is a.Both.
So I was wondering if this is true, I thought that decorators are inside provider i.e. they are a service which is invoked by provider and they can use $delegate like in this example
app.config(function ($provide) {
$provide.decorator('movieTitle', function ($delegate) {
return $delegate + ' - starring Keanu Reeves';
});
});
also, in the decorator documentation it states that
This function will be invoked when the service needs to be instantiated and should return the decorated service instance. The function is called using the injector.invoke method and is therefore fully injectable. Local injection arguments:
$delegate - The original service instance, which can be monkey patched, configured, decorated or delegated to.
so, am I missing something or is the quiz wrong, or am I wrong, can someone please help me understand this.
Yes the right answer is both. As an example this is a piece of code where is set a decorator for the $log service using a custom service logEnchance to add custom functionality. In this case logEnchance make posts to a external log service.
angular.module('angularApp').config(configureLogger);
// The decorator allows us to inject custom behaviors
function configureLogger($provide) {
// registers a value/object that can be accessed by providers and services
$provide.constant('logDecorator', logDecorator);
// registers a decorator function
// $provide.decorator intercept $log service letting us add custom functionality
$provide.decorator('$log', logDecorator);
// inject dependencies into logDecorator function
logDecorator.$inject = ['$delegate', 'logEnchance'];
function logDecorator($delegate, logEnchance) {
// logEnchance is the service who modify the $log service
logEnchance( $delegate );
return $delegate;
}
}

Angularjs simple meaning of module and Dependency

Hello I am New to angularjs
var app = angular.module('app', [])
app.controller('ProductController', ['$scope,$htttp', productController]);
Please correct me if i am wrong
This above two line is saying we have created the module name app
and we have controller called productController and have $scope, $http as a dependency.
App is starting point of our angularjs application.
Controller is basically for business logic.
what is the servieces ,Factory ?
what is Dependency Injection in simple words ?
I want to understand it more clearly as i study on angualar.js also. but unable to understand it clearly.
Please help to provide me some simple understanding on this
angular.module create module for application, and an application can one or more than one module. It's for modularity. so if you want to initialize core module. then you have to
var app=angular.module("core.module", [
/* Shared Modules */
"services",
"widgets",
"layout"])
So what it does it will initialize every module for application.so by using app object you can directly create common directive for all the modules and much more.
core.module is behaves like constructor and what you want to initialize will pass in "[]" during the call of constructor. it's up-to you.
You can call it as dependency.
In every module you can have different controllers but one thing always keep in mind whenever you add script file reference in html then do add child modules first then core otherwise it will give error. Module not defined.
Service and Factory pretty much they both are equivalent. Most important is to realize that both are singletons.
Factories are functions that return the object, while services are constructor functions of the object which are instantiated with the new keyword.
Services:
angular.module('app').service('abcservice', function() {
this.getdata= function() {};
});
Factory:
angular.module('app').factory('TestFactory', function() {
return {
someFunction: function() {}
};
});
when you want to use services and factory in our application then you have to pass it as argument/dependency in controller declaration.
app.controller(controllerId, ['$scope','abcservice','TestFactory']);
For much please refer Angular Tutorial

JavaScript variable scope - proper use

I read this style guide for angular from johnpapa. There is a snippet:
/*
* recommend
* Using function declarations
* and bindable members up top.
*/
function Avengers(dataservice, logger) {
var vm = this;
vm.avengers = [];
vm.getAvengers = getAvengers;
vm.title = 'Avengers';
activate();
function activate() {
return getAvengers().then(function() {
logger.info('Activated Avengers View');
});
}
function getAvengers() {
return dataservice.getAvengers().then(function(data) {
vm.avengers = data;
return vm.avengers;
});
}
}
So my question is in functions activate() and getAvengers(), they both reference variable (dataservice) and function (getAvengers()) outside of their scope. Is this proper use? Should I bind these 2 in the variable vm instead, e.g:
vm.getAvengers = getAvengers;
vm.dataservice = dataservice;
...
function activate() {
return vm.getAvengers().then(....);
}
function getAvengers() {
return vm.dataservice.getAvengers().then(.....);
}
Specifically for your case
Would say if you are meaning to use this within angular app would recommend not exposing the service, exposing it through this object does not add value and might down the road, when a less experienced developer modifies your code, might result in wonky access to shared dependencies.
If you want access to the dataservice objects functionality across multiple entities then register it as an angular service, and inject it to the different entities that need it.
In General
Both of the ways you are describing are perfectly correct use, but as is usually the case the answer which to use is "it depends."
Why you would use one for another would be if you wanted to expose the variable externally (i.e. if you wanted to let others access that object through the returned object, expecting others to dynamically change the service on your object)
So in this example you should ask yourself a few question
Do I want to expose this object through another object or do I want to let angular DI pass this along to the other controllers that need this functionality
Do I want to allow external entities to modify this object
Does exposing this service through my object make the use of the perceived use of this object more confusing?
But again for this particular case you should not expose it through your object ( through your variable vm, which is bound to the return object this, in this case )
The vm is a acronym for a view model (a object representation of your view) it is meant to be used within your view to bind elements, ui events to it. The dataservice and the logger seems to nothing to do with the view at all, they are just services used within a controller. If you assign them to the vm then you probably create a tightly coupling between your view and services thus it seems like a not a very good idea to me. You can think about the VM as a interface (glue) between your view and controller.
Here is a picture of the interactions between view model, controller, view and services.

AngularJS DI for custom functions

I've been working a lot lately with AngularJS and I really like the dependency injection stuff. I'm using it all over the place, but just in Angular components, like controllers and the like.
This always calls on the angular object:
angular.module('app').controller(/**/);
Now I have this function:
var custom = function(MyService) {
// do stuff
};
I've declared the Service this way:
angular.module('app').factory('MyService', function($rootScope) {
return {
show: function() {
// do stuff
};
},
hide: function() {
// do stuff
}
};
});
I now want to use this service in my custom function. Is there a way of manually calling the angular DI container? (I couldn't find anything in the docs...)
I know that this works for controllers not defined with the angular.module()... thing:
function Controller(MyService) {
MyService.hide(); // works
}
But how to use it outside of AngularJS components, in completely independent functions?
Or do I have to take a completely different path to achieve my goal?
Cheers and thanks in advanced,
Christian
angularjs is pretty neat in the fact that it exposes its own internal services to the user. The service you're looking for is $injector
What you want to use to call your custom function is $injector.invoke(myCustomFunction,thisForCustomFunction,{named:locals});
If you are by chance wanting to invoke this function outside of angular you'll have to get the applications injector.
var injector = angular.element(elementWithNgApp).injector();
Note:
The invocation time may be reduced though. As the injector must annotate (find what services you need) using several regular expressions. The reason this is not an issue throughout angular is because it is done once. Because services,factories,providers, are all instantiated (newed) singletons that provide closure with the services and whatever uses the services inside your providers
To prevent this extra step you can provide a $inject property on your function.. Something like this:
myfunction.$inject = ['ServiceA','ServiceB'];
function myfunction(a,b){
//a is ServiceA
//b is ServiceB
};

Angular JS - How to safely retain global value "extracted" using a service

I need an object to be globally accessible all throughout my Angular application, and I've gladly put this object in a value service.
Unfortunately, this object is computed by another service, and I've not been able to inject myService into same value service.
ATM, I've acheived my goal with something like this:
global service code
app.service('myService', function() {
this.foo = function() {
// some code that returns an object
return computedObject
}
})
app.run(function ($rootScope, myService) {
$rootScope.global = {dbObject: myService.foo()}
})
And which I can use in any controller that pleases me by simply injecting $rootScope in it
However, I don't like the need of injecting the whole $rootScope wherever I need that damn object, and I trust is not much safe (or efficient?) either, since the team specifies
Of course, global state sucks and you should use $rootScope sparingly, like you would (hopefully) use with global variables in any language. In particular, don't use it for code, only data. If you're tempted to put a function on $rootScope, it's almost always better to put it in a service that can be injected where it's needed, and more easily tested.
Conversely, don't create a service whose only purpose in life is to store and return bits of data.
Do you, perchance, happens to know any way I can inject a service into a service value?
Or maybe any other Angular best practice which I could exploit?
I forgot one very important notice
The computation of the object could be quite computational intense, so I absolutely don't want it to be recomputed everytime I move from page to page, or anything else really.
Ideally Using $rootScope for storing a few globally required values is totally ok. But if you are still adamant on using a module, I suggest you use a provider.
Make your 'myService' a provider and that will let you configure the variables in the service.
More info here
AngularJS: Service vs provider vs factory
You could use $broadcast to send the value from the value service to myService.
You would still need to inject $rootscope into each of the services, but from then on you could just inject myService around the rest of the app.
Reference here.
I need an object to be globally accessible all throughout my Angular application
I would use service. Since Service is singleton you can register the service to all your controllers and share any data over service.
Unfortunately, this object is computed by another service, and I've not been able to inject myService into same value service.
Just create one main service (Parent) and child service that will inherit the parent. (like abstract service in Java world).
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;
}]);
Now, we can add some logic into AbstractObject and continue use DerivedObject
Here is example Plunker

Categories

Resources