Develop Reference

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 }));
}
}
});
});

invoking an angular route from angular service to load a new view and controller

I'm trying to invoke a route through and angular service and since I am using $http.post I can't get the route to invoke. I may be going at this all wrong so I'm hoping someone can make a suggestion or point me in the right direction. Initally I have a page load with a controller which once the search command is called it passes a json object with the request to an angular service which then calls webAPI to pass the request onto my other business layers. Here is a logical diagram of the workflow. The response in blue is a new data object being returned to the UI with the users search results.
From my app I have the following routes setup
(function () {
app = angular.module('app', ['ui.bootstrap', 'ngRoute', 'ngAnimate']).value('ngToastr', toastr);
function router($routeProvider) {
$routeProvider.
when('/search/query', {
templateUrl: '../../AngularTemplates/searchResults.html',
controller: 'searchResultCtrl'
}).
otherwise({
templateUrl: '../../AngularTemplates/splashPage.html'
});
}
app.config(['$routeProvider', router]);
//added toaster as factory so it can be injected into any controller
angular.module('app').factory('ngNotifier', function (ngToastr) {
return {
notify: function (msg) {
ngToastr.success(msg);
},
notifyError: function (msg) {
ngToastr.error(msg);
},
notifyInfo: function (msg) {
ngToastr.info(msg);
}
}
});
})();
The initial page calls the controller which has a service dependency
app.controller('searchController', ['$scope', '$filter', 'searchService', 'ngNotifier', '$log', '$timeout', 'searchAttributes' , function ($scope, $filter, searchService, ngNotifier, $log, $timeout, searchAttributes) {
var vm = this;
vm.search = search;
vm.updateEntities = updateEntitySelection;
//bootstraped data from MVC
$scope.userOptions = searchAttributes.mvcData;
//scoped variables
$scope.searchTerm = null;
//ui container for search response
$scope.searchResponse;
$scope.entityList = [
'Search All ',
'Search in Departments ',
'Search in Automotive '
]
$scope.selectedEntity = 'Search All';
function buildSearchRequest() {
var searchResponse = {
searchTerm: $scope.searchTerm,
pageSize: 10,//this will be set by configuration from the UI
pagesReturned: 0,
entityFilter: $scope.selectedEntity
};
return searchResponse;
}
function onError(msg) {
$log.error('An error has occured: ' + msg.data);
}
function updateEntitySelection(entityName) {
$scope.selectedEntity = entityName;
}
function search() {
var request = buildSearchRequest();
searchService.search(request);
}
}]);
and the search service
app.factory('searchService', ['$http', function($http) {
var myEsResults;
function getSearchResults(searchRequest) {
return $http.post('search/query', searchRequest, {}).then(function (response) {
myEsResults = response.data});
}
var getResults = function () {
return myEsResults;
};
return{
search: getSearchResults,
getResults: getResults
};
}]);
What I am trying to accomplish is when the document loads a splash screen is displayed (which works). when the search is executed the request is passed to webapi and then the response is returned as an objectback to the view and a new controller so it can render the search results. I have passed data back and forth between controllers in the past however where I am stuck is using an angular service to call route in webapi. Making this call does not update the page URL and therefore the route is not invoked nor is the second controller loaded to display the results. In the past I have invoked angular routes using a url http://#/route however in this instance I am using an input button with ng-click. I would appreciate any suggestions as to how on the return of data get the 'result view' and controller to load. Is routing the correct approach or is there another way to load the view and controller when using an angular service?
Thanks in advance
<button type="button" class="btn btn-primary btn-lg" ng-click="vm.search()"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-search"></span></button>

Should be able to do it using $location.path('/search/query')
function getSearchResults(searchRequest) {
return $http.post('search/query', searchRequest, {}).then(function (response) {
myEsResults = response.data;
$location.path('/search/query');
});
}
however workflow seems like it would make more sense to add either routeParams to the url or a search query param and pass url encoded query term to url and make request based on that. Then the request would be made by the searchResultCtrl controller or a resolve in the router config.
Something like:
$routeProvider.
when('/search/query/:queryterm', {
templateUrl: '../../AngularTemplates/searchResults.html',
controller: 'searchResultCtrl'
}).
And path would be generated by:
$location.path('/search/query/' + encodeURIComponent($scope.searchTerm) );

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 {}; };
}

$http data, TypeError: Cannot call method slice of undefined

I've built a table with a filter, sorting, limit and pagination system.
With normal array of objects from the javascript works as expected.
My problem comes when I try to retrieve data from the server and to use it with my client-side pagination and filter. When the page is load for a few seconds the $scope.data is undefined until $http is resolved. I don't know how to solve it and I hope you can help me.
This is the pagination filter which I think is initialized before $http is resolve.
.filter('pagination', function () {
return function (inputArray, currentPage, pageSize) {
var start = (currentPage - 1) * pageSize;
return inputArray.slice(start, start + pageSize);
};
})
I will leave a fiddle here of my problem so you can see it there better.
Fiddle

I don't know if I should edit my post or I do it correctly posting an answer but I came up with a solution and I want to share it.
My problem was that the $scope.data (request from the server) was undefined when controller was initialized so what I did is to set up a route and wait for the promise to resolve before initializing the controller.
One problem I came up with is the fact that it's not possible to inject a .factory directly into the .config so I had to inject $provide to my .config and provide it with my service.
This is the a part of the code I'm talking about :
.config(['$routeProvider','$provide', function($routeProvider, $provide) {
$provide.factory('select', ['$http','$q', function($http, $q) {
return {
getItems : function () {
var deferred = $q.defer();
$http.get('php/select_diarios.php', {cache : true}).success(function (data) {
//Passing data to deferred's resolve function on successful completion
deferred.resolve(data);
}).error(function () {
//Sending an error message in case of failure
deferred.reject("An error occured while fetching items");
});
//Returning the promise object
return deferred.promise;
}
}
}]);
$routeProvider
.when('/', {
templateUrl: 'modulos/home/home.html',
controller: 'AppController',
resolve: {
**data**: function (select) {
return select.getItems();
}
}
}).
when('/genericos', {
controller: 'genericosController'
})
.otherwise({ redirectTo: '/' });
}])
Finally I only had to inject the data parameter of the resolve into my controller like so:
.controller('AppController', ['$scope', '$location','filterFilter','**data**', function ($scope, $location, searchFilter, **data**)
... more code
}]);
Also because of the otherwise redirect you must set a <a href="#/></a> in the pagination cause if not, each time you click to switch a page it doesn't know where to go and redirects to the first one and never changes the page.
this is how the pagination look like.
<ul class="pagination pull-right">
<li>«</li>
<li ng-repeat="n in range" ng-class="{active: n === (currentPage -1)}" ng-click="setPage(n+1)">{{n+1}}</li>
<li>»</li>
</ul>

AngularJS $location.path(path) not updating at first

I have a piece of code where I call $location.path(name) and nothing seems to happens (at first). I can call console.log($location.path()) and it does show the new path -- but the view doesn't change.
Chain of events (some asynchronous):
I have two controllers (and matching views), MainCtrl and CpugraphCtrl, and a Service GetDataService and one external data API (Google).
button in Main view calls
function in MainCtrl that calls
function in GetDataService that calls
google client API gapi.client.load() with a callback to
function in GetDataService, which uses $rootScope.$broadcast('GraphUpdate',..);
in MainCtrl, $scope.$on('GraphUpdate',function() {..}) calls
$location.path('cpuGraph');
I can verify (mentioned above) that all the pieces go -- but the view doesn't re-render. If I click the button a second time, it does chnage views and re-render using my CpugraphCtrl. If I call $scope.$apply() right after $location.path() it also re-renders (sometimes) but also sometimes reports (on the console) an error in angular.js....
Should I be calling $scope.$apply() somewhere else?
--- edit -- adding route config --
angular.module('analytics2App', [
'ngResource', 'googlechart'
])
.config(function ($routeProvider) {
$routeProvider
.when('/', {
templateUrl: 'views/main.html',
controller: 'MainCtrl'
})
.when('/cpuGraph', {
templateUrl: 'views/cpuGraph.html',
controller: 'CpugraphCtrl'
})
.otherwise({
redirectTo: '/'
});
});

Okay, at last I got this to work. As I suspected, it's a matter of getting $scope.$apply() in the right place.
Google Analytics calls have a callback inside a callback and the inner callback has parameters. So in the end I do this inside my AngularJS service:
// this function will be an Angular service (see last line)
var Graphdata = function($rootScope) {
var gAPIResult;
// called by apiQuery
var handle_results = function(results) {
gAPIResult = results;
$rootScope.$apply(function() {
/* ...
use "gAPIResult" instead of "results" and call
$rootScope.$broadcast('GraphUpdate', 1);
on success
... */
});
};
var compare_mobile_cpus = function() {
var queryParams, apiQuery;
queryParams = { /* could be anything */
'ids': 'ga:78752930',
'start-date': '2013-11-07',
'end-date': '2013-11-09',
'metrics': 'ga:visits',
'dimensions': 'ga:EventLabel,ga:date' ,
'filters': 'ga:eventAction==cputype'
};
try {
apiQuery = gapi.client.analytics.data.ga.get(queryParams);
apiQuery.execute(handle_results);
} catch (e) {
return false;
}
return true;
};
return {
init_n_load: function() { // called from the controller
gapi.client.setApiKey('AIzaSyCGcXFQzom1vE5-s'); // API KEY
gapi.client.load('analytics', 'v3', compare_mobile_cpus);
},
};
};
angular.module('analytics2App').service('Graphdata', Graphdata);
that is, init_n_load() has callback compare_mobile_cpus() which has callback handle_results() which contains $rootScope.$apply()... and because that last callback has a results parameter, I have to stash it on the service before launching $apply()
This does work... but is it an optimal pattern? Saving "results" feels a little dirty.