Develop Reference

Angularjs ng-controller with resolve

I've ran into problem with ng-controller and 'resolve' functionality:
I have a controller that requires some dependency to be resolved before running, it works fine when I define it via ng-route:
Controller code looks like this:
angular.module('myApp')
.controller('MyController', ['$scope', 'data', function ($scope, data) {
$scope.data = data;
}
]
);
Routing:
...
.when('/someUrl', {
templateUrl : 'some.html',
controller : 'MyController',
resolve : {
data: ['Service', function (Service) {
return Service.getData();
}]
}
})
...
when I go to /someUrl, everything works.
But I need to use this controller in other way(I need both ways in different places):
<div ng-controller="MyController">*some html here*</div>
And, of course, it fails, because 'data' dependency wasn't resolved. Is there any way to inject dependency into controller when I use 'ng-controller' or I should give up and load data inside controller?

In the below, for the route resolve, we're resolving the promise and wrapping the return data in an object with a property. We then duplicate this structure in the wrapper service ('dataService') that we use for the ng-controller form.
The wrapper service also resolves the promise but does so internally, and updates a property on the object we've already returned to be consumed by the controller.
In the controller, you could probably put a watcher on this property if you wanted to delay some additional behaviours until after everything was resolved and the data was available.
Alternatively, I've demonstrated using a controller that 'wraps' another controller; once the promise from Service is resolved, it then passes its own $scope on to the wrapped controller as well as the now-resolved data from Service.
Note that I've used $timeout to provide a 1000ms delay on the promise return, to try and make it a little more clear what's happening and when.
angular.module('myApp', ['ngRoute'])
.config(function($routeProvider) {
$routeProvider
.when('/', {
template: '<h1>{{title}}</h1><p>{{blurb}}</p><div ng-controller="ResolveController">Using ng-controller: <strong>{{data.data}}</strong></div>',
controller: 'HomeController'
})
.when('/byResolve', {
template: '<h1>{{title}}</h1><p>{{blurb}}</p><p>Resolved: <strong>{{data.data}}</strong></p>',
controller: "ResolveController",
resolve: {
dataService: ['Service',
function(Service) {
// Here getData() returns a promise, so we can use .then.
// I'm wrapping the result in an object with property 'data', so we're returning an object
// which can be referenced, rather than a string which would only be by value.
// This mirrors what we return from dataService (which wraps Service), making it interchangeable.
return Service.getData().then(function(result) {
return {
data: result
};
});
}
]
}
})
.when('/byWrapperController', {
template: '<h1>Wrapped: {{title}}</h1><p>{{blurb}}</p><div ng-controller="WrapperController">Resolving and passing to a wrapper controller: <strong>{{data.data ? data.data : "Loading..."}}</strong></div>',
controller: 'WrapperController'
});
})
.controller('HomeController', function($scope) {
$scope.title = "ng-controller";
$scope.blurb = "Click 'By Resolve' above to trigger the next route and resolve.";
})
.controller('ResolveController', ['$scope', 'dataService',
function($scope, dataService) {
$scope.title = "Router and resolve";
$scope.blurb = "Click 'By ng-controller' above to trigger the original route and test ng-controller and the wrapper service, 'dataService'.";
$scope.data = dataService;
}
])
.controller('WrapperController', ['$scope', '$controller', 'Service',
function($scope, $controller, Service) {
$scope.title = "Resolving..."; //this controller could of course not show anything until after the resolve, but demo purposes...
Service.getData().then(function(result) {
$controller('ResolveController', {
$scope: $scope, //passing the same scope on through
dataService: {
data: result
}
});
});
}
])
.service('Service', ['$timeout',
function($timeout) {
return {
getData: function() {
//return a test promise
return $timeout(function() {
return "Data from Service!";
}, 1000);
}
};
}
])
// our wrapper service, that will resolve the promise internally and update a property on an object we can return (by reference)
.service('dataService', function(Service) {
// creating a return object with a data property, matching the structure we return from the router resolve
var _result = {
data: null
};
Service.getData().then(function(result) {
_result.data = result;
return result;
});
return _result;
});
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.2.27/angular.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.2.27/angular-route.min.js"></script>
<div ng-app="myApp">
By ng-controller |
By Resolve |
By Wrapper Controller
<div ng-view />
</div>

Create a new module inside which you have the service to inject like seen below.
var module = angular.module('myservice', []);
module.service('userService', function(Service){
return Service.getData();
});
Inject newly created service module inside your app module
angular.module('myApp')
.controller('MyController', ['$scope', 'myservice', function ($scope, myservice) {
$scope.data = data;
// now you can use new dependent service anywhere here.
}
]
);

You can use the mechanism of the prototype.
.when('/someUrl', {
template : '<div ng-controller="MyController" ng-template="some.html"></div>',
controller: function (data) {
var pr = this;
pr.data = data;
},
controllerAs: 'pr',
resolve : {
data: ['Service', function (Service) {
return Service.getData();
}]
}
})
angular.module('myApp')
.controller('MyController', ['$scope', function ($scope) {
$scope.data = $scope.pr.data; //magic
}
]
);
Now wherever you want to use
'<div ng-controller="MyController"></div>'
you need to ensure that there pr.data in the Scope of the calling controller. As an example uib-modal
var modalInstance = $modal.open({
animation: true,
templateUrl: 'modal.html',
resolve: {
data: ['Service', function (Service) {
return Service.getData();
}]
},
controller: function ($scope, $modalInstance, data) {
var pr = this;
pr.data = data;
pr.ok = function () {
$modalInstance.close();
};
},
controllerAs:'pr',
size:'sm'
});
modal.html
<script type="text/ng-template" id="modal.html">
<div class="modal-body">
<div ng-include="some.html" ng-controller="MyController"></div>
</div>
<div class="modal-footer">
<button class="btn btn-primary pull-right" type="button" ng-click="pr.ok()">{{ 'ok' | capitalize:'first'}}</button>
</div>
</script>
And now you can use $scope.data = $scope.pr.data; in MyController
pr.data is my style. You can rewrite the code without PR.
the basic principle of working with ng-controller described in this video https://egghead.io/lessons/angularjs-the-dot

Presuming that Service.getData() returns a promise, MyController can inject that Service as well. The issue is that you want to delay running the controller until the promise resolves. While the router does this for you, using the controller directly means that you have to build that logic.
angular.module('myApp')
.controller('MyController', ['$scope', 'Service', function ($scope, Service) {
$scope.data = {}; // default values for data
Service.getData().then(function(data){
// data is now resolved... do stuff with it
$scope.data = data;
});
}]
);
Now this works great when using the controller directly, but in your routing example, where you want to delay rendering a page until data is resolved, you are going to end up making two calls to Service.getData(). There are a few ways to work around this issue, like having Service.getData() return the same promise for all caller, or something like this might work to avoid the second call entirely:
angular.module('myApp')
.controller('MyController', ['$scope', '$q', 'Service', function ($scope, $q, Service) {
var dataPromise,
// data might be provided from router as an optional, forth param
maybeData = arguments[3]; // have not tried this before
$scope.data = {}; //default values
// if maybeData is available, convert it to a promise, if not,
// get a promise for fetching the data
dataPromise = !!maybeData?$q.when(maybeData):Service.getData();
dataPromise.then(function(data){
// data is now resolved... do stuff with it
$scope.data = data;
});
}]
);

I was trying to solve the problem using ng-init but came across the following warnings on angularjs.org
The only appropriate use of ngInit is for aliasing special properties
of ngRepeat, as seen in the demo below. Besides this case, you should
use controllers rather than ngInit to initialize values on a scope.
So I started searching for something like ng-resolve and came across the following thread:
https://github.com/angular/angular.js/issues/2092
The above link consists of a demo fiddle that have ng-resolve like functionality. I think ng-resolve can become a feature in the future versions of angular 1.x. For now we can work around with the directive mentioned in the above link.

'data' from route resolve will not be available for injection to a controller activated other than route provider. it will be available only to the view configured in the route provider.
if you want the data to the controller activated directly other than routeprovider activation, you need to put a hack for it.
see if this link helps for it:
http://www.johnpapa.net/route-resolve-and-controller-activate-in-angularjs/

Getting data in "resolve" attribute is the functionality of route (routeProvider) , not the functionality of controller.
Key( is your case : 'data') in resolve attribute is injected as service.
That's why we are able fetch data from that service.
But to use same controller in different place , you have fetch data in controller.

Try this
Service:
(function() {
var myService = function($http) {
var getData = function() {
//return your result
};
return {
getData:getData
};
};
var myApp = angular.module("myApp");
myApp.factory("myService", myService);
}());
Controller:
(function () {
var myApp = angular.module("myApp");
myApp.controller('MyController', [
'$scope', 'myService', function($scope, myService) {
$scope.data = myService.getData();
}
]);
//Routing
.when('/someUrl', {
templateUrl : 'some.html',
controller : 'MyController',
resolve : {
data: $scope.data,
}
})
}());

Displaying data with AngularJS loaded by NodeJS

I'm building my first MEAN twitter like application and currently try to display a list of posts to the gui. what I currently do is:
The angular.js part:
in my main.js:
angular.module('MyApp')
.controller('MainCtrl', ['$scope', 'Feed', function($scope, Feed) {
$scope.feeds = Feed.showFeeds();
// ...
}
in my feed.js:
angular.module('MyApp')
.factory('Feed', ['$http', '$location', '$rootScope', '$cookieStore', '$alert', '$resource',
function ($http, $location, $rootScope, $cookieStore, $alert, $resource) {
return {
// other functions like addFeed: function(f) {...},
showFeeds: function() {
return $http.get('/api/feeds');
}
The node.js part:
app.get('/api/feeds', function (req, res, next) {
var query = Feed.find();
query.limit(8);
query.exec(function (err, feeds) {
if (err) return next(err);
res.send(feeds)
// feeds is a corret JSON with all my data at this point
});
});
and my home.html:
<p>{{ feeds }}</p> <!-- for testing - this just returns {} -->
<div ng-repeat="feed in feeds">
<div>
{{feed.feedMessage}}
</div>
So my problem is: Everything loads fine, but nothing renders out on the page, I don't get any errors, just my $scope.feeds object is empty. I'm pretty new to this, so maybe it's an obvious bug, but if someone could point me in the right direction, that would be great!

Right now you are returning a promise, and you need to be accessing the data.:
Feed.showFeeds().success( function(data) {
$scope.feeds = data.feeds;
});

The '$http' service provided by angular return always an instance of '$q', another angular service which allows us to use the Promise syntax for all async commands.
When you assign the return of Feed.showFeeds() to your scope variable, you bind a promise to your view and Angular can't display it.
You should use the success method provide by $http in order to get the server data and bind them to your scope variable like bencripps said.
Note: The success method (and error) are specific methods of $http and call the $digest method of angular which triggers a refresh of the view automatically.
angular.module('MyApp')
.controller('MainCtrl', ['$scope', 'Feed', function($scope, Feed) {
$scope.feeds = [];
Feed.showFeeds().success(function(data) {
//depends of the json return
//try a console.log(data)
$scope.feeds = data.feeds
});
// ...
}

Syncing data between controllers through a service

From this stackoverflow question, my understanding is that I should be using services to pass data between controllers.
However, as seen in my example JSFiddle, I am having trouble listening to changes to my service when it is modified across controllers.
angular.module('myApp', [])
.controller('Ctrl1', function ($scope, App) {
$scope.status = App.data.status;
$scope.$watch('App.data.status', function() {
$scope.status = App.data.status;
});
})
.controller('Ctrl2', function ($scope, App) {
$scope.status = App.data.status;
$scope.$watch('status', function() {
App.data.status = $scope.status;
});
})
.service('App', function () {
this.data = {};
this.data.status = 'Good';
});
In my example, I am trying to subscribe to App.data.status in Ctrl1, and I am trying to publish data from Ctrl1 to App. However, if you try to change the input box in the div associated with Ctrl2, the text does not change across the controller boundary across to Ctrl1.

http://jsfiddle.net/VP4d5/2/
Here's an updated fiddle. Basically if you're going to share the same data object between two controllers from a service you just need to use an object of some sort aside from a string or javascript primitive. In this case I'm just using a regular Object {} to share the data between the two controllers.
The JS
angular.module('myApp', [])
.controller('Ctrl1', function ($scope, App) {
$scope.localData1 = App.data;
})
.controller('Ctrl2', function ($scope, App) {
$scope.localData2 = App.data;
})
.service('App', function () {
this.data = {status:'Good'};
});
The HTML
<div ng-controller="Ctrl1">
<div> Ctrl1 Status is: {{status}}
</div>
<div>
<input type="text" ng-model="localData1.status" />
</div>
<div ng-controller="Ctrl2">Ctrl2 Status is: {{status}}
<div>
<input type="text" ng-model="localData2.status" />
</div>
</div>
Nothing wrong with using a service here but if the only purpose is to have a shared object across the app then I think using .value makes a bit more sense. If this service will have functions for interacting with endpoints and the data be sure to use angular.copy to update the object properties instead of using = which will replace the service's local reference but won't be reflected in the controllers.
http://jsfiddle.net/VP4d5/3/
The modified JS using .value
angular.module('myApp', [])
.controller('Ctrl1', function ($scope, sharedObject) {
$scope.localData1 = sharedObject;
})
.controller('Ctrl2', function ($scope, sharedObject) {
$scope.localData2 = sharedObject;
})
.value("sharedObject", {status:'Awesome'});

I agree with #shaunhusain, but I think that you would be better off using a factory instead of a service:
angular.module('myApp', [])
.controller('Ctrl1', function ($scope, App) {
$scope.localData1 = App.data;
})
.controller('Ctrl2', function ($scope, App) {
$scope.localData2 = App.data;
})
.factory('App', function () {
var sharedObj = {
data : {
status: 'Good'
}
};
return sharedObj;
});
Here are some information that might help you understand the differences between a factory and a service: When creating service method what's the difference between module.service and module.factory

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