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Angularjs: load data in service then load it to controllers

I've checked several solutions on the web but I don't quite understand how to stop the controllers from loading. So, I've created a plunkr to highlight what I want to do.
Basically: I want to load all data in a service and then pass around that data from that service to each controller. When the app first loads, because it's Async, the controllers are loaded first.
I could have just used the factory in each controller, but I want to hold that data in the "allProducts" property of the service. I don't see the need to call the factory function each time a view loads.
In the example, I've also tried with the $q service, but seems to me it has the same behaviour just like the http from the factory and still needs to call the http request on each view load...
So, could somebody help me with this example and implement an elegant solution?
app.factory('productsFactory', ['$http', '$q',
function($http, $q) {
var cachedData; //here we hold the data after the first api call
function getData(callback) {
if (cachedData) {
callback(cachedData);
} else {
$http.get('http://api.bestbuy.com/v1/products(longDescription=iPhone*|sku=7619002)?show=sku,name&pageSize=15&page=5&apiKey=bqs7a4gwmnuj9tq6bmyysndv&format=json')
.success(function(data) {
cachedData = data; //caching the data in a local variable
callback(data);
});
}
}
return {
getProds: getData
}
}
])
app.service('appService', ['productsFactory', '$q',
function(productsFactory, $q) {
var _this = this;
productsFactory.getProds(function(data) {
_this.allProducts = data; //wait for data to load before loading the controllers
})
}
])
app.controller('productsCtrl', ['$scope', 'appService',
function($scope, appService) {
$scope.myProducts = appService.allProducts;
}
]);
plunkr here: http://plnkr.co/edit/ZvtYwXHSasC3fCAZKkDF?p=preview

I didn't actually test it, but looks like you need to create and return a promise in order to have the data returned when it's available.
app.factory('productsFactory', ['$http', '$q',
function($http, $q) {
var cachedData; //here we hold the data after the first api call
function getData(callback) {
var d = $q.defer();
if (cachedData) {
d.resolve(callback(cachedData));
} else {
$http.get('http://api.bestbuy.com/v1/products(longDescription=iPhone*|sku=7619002)?show=sku,name&pageSize=15&page=5&apiKey=bqs7a4gwmnuj9tq6bmyysndv&format=json')
.success(function(data) {
cachedData = data; //caching the data in a local variable
d.resolve(callback(cachedData));
});
}
return d.promise;
}
return {
getProds: getData
}
}
])
app.service('appService', ['productsFactory', '$q',
function(productsFactory, $q) {
var _this = this;
productsFactory.getProds(function(data) {
_this.allProducts = data; //wait for data to load before loading the controllers
})
}
])
app.controller('productsCtrl', ['$scope', 'appService',
function($scope, appService) {
$scope.myProducts = appService.allProducts;
}
]);

Check this: http://plnkr.co/edit/ey0na3l2lyT0tUdbDyrf?p=preview
Changes:
- a main app controller that wraps all your app.
In this controller we prevent route change if the boot hasn't finished all its jobs. When boot is finished, we change location to the main/default route.
- in our run block we set the bootStatus var to false and wait until products are fetch.
Also, I've stored the result from service to $rootScope so you can use that data in all your controllers without injecting the service over and over again.

FINALLY!!! I Managed to do what I was looking for.
Note, this is not necessarily a best practice, but it was a problem that was bugging me and wanted to know how it's done.
The way I did it was to create a global variable, where I use a main resolve function to wait for the factory to do the http get and then pass it to the service. Then, I use resolve on every state where I need that data and reference that function.
UPDATE: Realized that I was calling the same factory function each time the state was changins, so I decided to go with a variable - a property in the appService which turns to true when the http get was called once: appService.retrieved and changed the main resolve function a bit.
var mainResolve = ['$q', 'appService', 'productsFactory', function($q, appService, productsFactory) {
var defer = $q.defer();
if(appService.retrieved) {
defer.resolve();
} else {
productsFactory.getProds(function(data) {
appService.allProducts = data;
defer.resolve();
})
appService.retrieved = true;
}
return defer.promise;
}]
And in the state
.state('home', {
url: "/home",
templateUrl: "home.html",
controller: 'homeCtrl',
resolve: {
waitingFor: mainResolve
}
})
You can find the plnkr with the working solution, here: http://plnkr.co/edit/ZvtYwXHSasC3fCAZKkDF?p=preview
Again, the factory could be refactored some more and eliminate some code like the caching data. This way, we only go once to the factory function.

Angular - Best practice for retrieving data from a Factory method

I'm looking for some information on the best way to retrieve data from a local JSON file and handle the response. After browsing through Stack Overflow, I have some mixed thoughts as I've seen multiple ways of doing the same thing (although no explanation on why one may or may not be preferred).
Essentially, I have an Angular app that is utilising a factory to retrieve data from a JSON file; I'm then waiting for the response to resolve in my controller before using it in my html file, similar to the below:
Option 1
Factory:
comparison.factory('Info', ['$http', function($http) {
var retrievalFile = 'retrievalFile.json';
return {
retrieveInfo: function() {
return $http.get(retrievalFile);
}
}
}]);
Controller:
comparison.controller('comparisonController', ['$scope', 'Info', function($scope, Info) {
Info.retrieveInfo().then(function(response) {
$scope.info = response.data;
});
}]);
My main point of contention is figuring out when it's best to wait for the response to resolve, or if it even matters. I'm toying with the idea of having the factory return the fulfilled promise, and wait for the controller to retrieve the data also. In my view, it's best to abstract all data retrieval out of the controller and into the factory, but I'm not sure if this extends to waiting for the actual data to be returned within the factory itself. With this in mind, I'm confused about whether to opt for option 1 or option 2 and would really appreciate some feedback from more experienced/qualified developers!
Option 2
Factory:
comparison.factory('Info', ['$http', function($http) {
var retrievalFile = 'retrievalFile.json';
return {
retrieveInfo: function() {
return $http.get(retrievalFile).then(function(response) {
return response.data;
});
}
}
}]);
Controller:
comparison.controller('comparisonController', ['$scope', 'Info', function($scope, Info) {
Info.retrieveInfo().then(function(response) {
$scope.info = response;
});
}]);
Thank you for any input/suggestions in advance!

It depends on what your controller is expecting and how you set up your application. Generally, I always go with the second option. Its because I usually have global error or success handlers in all api requests and I have a shared api service. Something like below.
var app = angular.module('app', []);
app.service('ApiService', ['$http', function($http) {
var get = function(url, params) {
$http.get(url, { params: params })
.then(handleSuccess, handleError);
};
// handle your global errors here
// implementation will vary based upon how you handle error
var handleError = function(response) {
return $q.reject(response);
};
// handle your success here
// you can return response.data or response based upon what you want
var handleSuccess = function(response) {
return response.data;
};
}]);
app.service('InfoService', ['ApiService', function(ApiService) {
var retrieveInfo = function() {
return ApiService.get(retrievalFile);
/**
// or return custom object that your controller is expecting
return ApiService.get.then(function(data) {
return new Person(data);
});
**//
};
// I prefer returning public functions this way
// as I can just scroll down to the bottom of service
// to see all public functions at one place rather than
// to scroll through the large file
return { retrieveInfo: retrieveInfo };
}]);
app.controller('InfoController', ['InfoService', function(InfoService) {
InfoService.retrieveInfo().then(function(info) {
$scope.info = info;
});
}])
Or if you are using router you can resolve the data into the controller. Both ngRouter and uiRouter support resolves:
$stateProvider.state({
name: 'info',
url: '/info',
controller: 'InfoController',
template: 'some template',
resolve: {
// this injects a variable called info in your controller
// with a resolved promise that you return here
info: ['InfoService', function(InfoService) {
return InfoService.retrieveInfo();
}]
}
});
// and your controller will be like
// much cleaner right
app.controller('InfoController', ['info', function(info) {
$scope.info = info;
}]);

It's really just preference. I like to think of it in terms of API. What is the API you want to expose? Do you want your controller to receive the entire response or do you want your controller to just have the data the response wraps? If you're only ever going to use response.data then option 2 works great as you never have to deal with anything but the data you're interested in.
A good example is the app we just wrote where I work. We have two apps: a back-end API and our front-end Angular application. We created an API wrapper service in the front-end application. In the service itself we place a .catch for any of the API endpoints that have documented error codes (we used Swagger to document and define our API). In that .catch we handle those error codes and return a proper error. When our controllers/directives consume the service they get back a much stricter set of data. If an error occurs then the UI is usually safe to just display the error message sent from the wrapper service and won't have to worry about looking at error codes.
Likewise for successful responses we do much of what you're doing in option 2. In many cases we refine the data down to what is minimally useful in the actual app. In this way we keep a lot of the data churning and formatting in the service and the rest of the app has a lot less to do. For instance, if we need to create an object based on that data we'll just do that in return the object to the promise chain so that controllers aren't doing that all over the place.

I would choose option two, as it your options are really mostly the same. But let see when we add a model structure like a Person suppose.
comparison.factory('Info', ['$http', function($http) {
var retrievalFile = 'retrievalFile.json';
return {
retrieveInfo: function() {
return $http.get(retrievalFile).then(function(response) {
//we will return a Person...
var data = response.data;
return new Person(data.name, data.age, data.gender);
});
}
}
}]);
This is really simple, but if you have to map more complex data into object models (you retrieve a list of people with their own items... etc), that's when things get more complicated, you will probably want to add a service to handle the mapping between data and models. Well you have another service DataMapper(example), if you choose your first option you will have to inject DataMapper into your controller and you will have to make your request through your factory, and map the response with the injected service. And then you probably say, Should I have all this code here? ... Well probably no.
That is an hypothetical case, something that count a lot is how you feel structuring your code, won't architecture it in a way you won't understand. And at the end take a look at this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOLID_(object-oriented_design) and research more information about this principles but focused to javascript.

Good question. A couple of points:
Controllers should be view centric versus data centric therefore you
want remove data logic from the controller and rather have it focus
on business logic.
Models (M in MVC) are a data representation of your application and
will house the data logic. In Angular case this would be a service
or factory class as you rightfully pointed out. Why is that well for
example:
2.1 AccountsController (might have multiple data models injected)
2.1.1 UserModel
2.1.2 AuthModel
2.1.3 SubscriptionModel
2.1.4 SettingsModel
There are numerous ways to approach the data model approach, but I would say your service class should be the data REST model i.e. getting, storing, caching, validating, etc. I've included a basic example, but suggest you investigate JavaScript OOP as that will help point you in the right direction as to how to build data models, collections, etc.
Below is an example of service class to manage your data.Note I have not tested this code but it should give you a start.
EXAMPLE:
(function () {
'use strict';
ArticleController.$inject = ['$scope', 'Article'];
function ArticleController($scope, Article) {
var vm = this,
getArticles = function () {
return Article.getArticles()
.then(function (result) {
if (result) {
return vm.articles = result;
}
});
};
vm.getArticles = getArticles;
vm.articles = {};
// OR replace vm.articles with $scope if you prefer e.g.
$scope.articles = {};
$scope.userNgClickToInit = function () {
vm.getArticles();
};
// OR an init on document ready
// BUT to honest I would put all init logic in service class so all in calling is init in ctrl and model does the rest
function initArticles() {
vm.getArticles();
// OR chain
vm.getArticles()
.then(getCategories); // doesn't here, just an example
}
initArticles();
}
ArticleModel.$inject = ['$scope', '$http', '$q'];
function ArticleModel($scope, $http, $q) {
var model = this,
URLS = {
FETCH: 'data/articles.json'
},
articles;
function extract(result) {
return result.data;
}
function cacheArticles(result) {
articles = extract(result);
return articles;
}
function findArticle(id) {
return _.find(articles, function (article) {
return article.id === parseInt(id, 10);
})
}
model.getArticles = function () {
return (articles) ? $q.when(articles) : $http.get(URLS.FETCH).then(cacheArticles);
};
model.getArticleById = function (id) {
var deferred = $q.defer();
if (articles) {
deferred.resolve(findArticle(id))
} else {
model.getBookmarks().then(function () {
deferred.resolve(findArticle(id))
})
}
return deferred.promise;
};
model.createArticle = function (article) {
article.id = articles.length;
articles.push(article);
};
model.updateArticle = function (bookmark) {
var index = _.findIndex(articles, function (a) {
return a.id == article.id
});
articles[index] = article;
};
model.deleteArticle = function (article) {
_.remove(articles, function (a) {
return a.id == article.id;
});
};
}
angular.module('app.article.model', [])
.controller('ArticleController', ArticleController)
.service('Article', ArticleModel);
})()

Managing user auth in a single page app

I've troubles in understanding how to apply my scenario in AngularJS.
My application has some pages that must perform operations similar to those (all operations are client-side):
Authorize the user via an internal API call (say /user/auth). If the user has authorized before with Facebook, it gives me also FB's access_token
Get the FB pages in which the user is admin via Facebook Graph API
Populate a table with those pages
The pages are in some sense all little one-page web apps have all a similar structure (get user auth then fetch data from FB or the internal API and do something in the DOM).
Let's say I've a controller like:
<ul ng-controller='PagesController'>
<li ng-repeat='p in pages'> ... </li>
</ul>
My temporary solution would use jQuery's promises like this:
$(document).ready(function() {
MyApp.FBInit(); // initialize with FB.init
MyApp.authUser().then(getThePages).then(populateTable);
});
This is not elegant, not modular and I must access the PagesController's scope with some Javascript magic:
function getThePages() {
var d = $.Deferred();
// etc etc, make call to graph and resolve the deferred if ok and put
// the result in MyApp.pages
return d.promise();
}
function populateTable() {
MyApp.applyToScope("#pages","pages",MyApp.pages.data);
);
// definition of MyApp.applytoScope()....
function(controllerElement, model, value) {
var scope = Splashmood.angular.getScope(controllerElement);
scope.$apply(function ($scope) {$scope[model] = value;});
}
I just can't figure out how to port this functionality all in AngularJS with the use of services (factory).
My thought was to create something similar to this:
app.factory("UserAuthFactory", function ($http, $q) {
// do something
});
app.controller("MainController", function ($scope, $http, UserAuthFactory) {
// do something
});
app.factory("FbUserPages", function ($http, $q) {
var endpoint = "me/accounts";
var dataFactory = {};
dataFactory.getPages = function() {
return ....; // $http calling Facebook Graph API
}
return dataFactory;
});
app.controller('MyFbPagesController', function ($scope, $http, FbUserPages) {
var handleSuccess = function (data, status) {
$scope.pages = data;
}
$scope.pages = [];
FbUserPages.getPages().success(handleSuccess);
});
but I can't figure out how to make the processes synchronous (run this and other controllers only if user is authorized!).

Accessing Fetched Resources From a Controller?

In my AngularJS controller I'm trying to do something relatively simple: I'm trying to populate a <select> element dynamically in the controller. To do so I need to wait for my localized UI text data to be loaded and data from my server to be loaded and this is causing a problem for me.
What my HTML Looks like:
<select
data-ng-model="group"
data-ng-options="options.value as options.label for options in userGroups">
<option>--</option>
</select>
Then my controller is actually implementing a base controller "class" which allows me to share logic between controllers:
// exampleController.js
myModule.controller('exampleController',
['$scope', '$timeout', '$routeParams', '$controller',
function ($scope, $timeout, $routeParams, $controller) {
// Instantiate the base controller class and set it's scope
// to this controller's scope. This is how the base and child
// controllers will share data and communicate.
var base = $controller('baseController', { $scope: $scope });
}]);
And here is a relevant snippet of the baseController:
// baseController.js
$scope.getDataFromUrl = function (url, cache, successFunction) {
$http.get(url, { cache: cache })
.success(function (data) {
if (!handleErrorInData(data))
{
successFunction(data);
}
});
};
$scope.getDataFromUrl(uiTextResourceUrl, true, function (data) {
$scope.uiText = data;
});
So baseController fetches the text resources when it loads and sets it to the scope when it's finished retrieving the data. exampleController on the other hand will fetch other data from the server via the getDataFromUrl() function defined in baseController like so:
$scope.getDataFromUrl(dataUrl, false, function (data) {
// Do stuff with the returned data...
};
My issue is coming from this part of the exampleController code where I populate the data of the <select> element from earlier:
// exampleController.js (Continued...)
$scope.getDataFromUrl(userGroupsUrl, false, function (data) {
initSelectDropdown(data);
});
var initSelectDropdown = function (data) {
var userGroups = [];
// Parse data retrieved from the server and populate the <select> bound data
// array with it
var index;
for (index = 0; index < data.length; ++index)
{
var newGroup = {
value: data[index],
label: data[index]
};
// One of the data entries will have a value of "", this group needs its
// label to be set to the localized string "No Group"
if (newGroup.value === "")
{
newGroup.label = '<' + $scope.uiText['NoGroup.Text'] + '>';
}
userGroups.push(newGroup);
}
// Set local userGroups to scope
$scope.userGroups = userGroups;
};
The problem I'm having is here in the initSelectDropdown() function. I need to have both the data from the server and the uiText resource data from the server, particularly the line newGroup.label = '<' + $scope.uiText['NoGroup.Text'] + '>'; where the data is being transformed in a way that is dependant on localized resources being loaded. I researched the issue and saw that using $q.all() might be a solution but unfortunately in my case there is no way for me to call $q.all() because the two calls to fetch data are being made from different functions in different controllers (data being requested from child controller and resources being requested from base controller).
In the view it's easy to fix this because if I bind an element to $scope.uiText['SomeText.Text'] then it doesn't care if SomeText.Text is undefined at first and when it is eventually populated the UI will automatically pick up on the change.
How can I make this work? Is it possible to achieve something like how binding works in the view?

For sharing code angular provides services/factory, you don't need to use base controller.
Define a factory class and add two methods, one to fetch your server data and other to fetch uiText data. these methods will return promises.
Now in your controller you can use $q.all() passing the two promises that will be resolved when ajax call is complete.
Hope it makes sense ?

Angular Factory Variables Won't Update - Instance gets old values

I have a resource factory that builds objects for accessing our API. I use an environment variable to determine the base part of the URL - whether or not to include 'account/id' path segments when the admin user is 'engaging' a client account.
The sessionStorage item that holds the 'engagedAsId' doesn't get read, though for instances created after engaging an account. It requires a full reload of the app to pick up that change. Here is the factory code:
myapp.factory('ResourceSvcFactory',
['$rootScope', '$resource',
function ($rootScope, $resource) {
function ResourceSvcFactory (endpoint) {
// vvv problem is here vvv
var accountId = sessionStorage.getItem('engagedAsId');
var apiPath = (accountId != null)
? '/api/account/' + accountId + endpoint
: '/api' + endpoint;
var Resource = $resource(apiPath+':id/',{
// default params
id:''
},{
// custom actions
update: {method: 'PUT'}
});
return Resource;
}
return ResourceSvcFactory;
}]);
myapp.factory('AssetsResource', ['ResourceSvcFactory', function (ResourceSvcFactory) {
var endpoint = '/assets/';
var Resource = ResourceSvcFactory(endpoint);
return Resource;
}]);
I implement this in my Controller like this:
myapp.controller('AssetGroupListCtrl', [ 'AssetgroupsResource', function (AssetgroupsResource) {
var AssetGroups = AssetgroupsResource;
// ... rest of controller
}]);
When i run this it works fine. But, if i change the engaged status in the sessionStorage without a full reload, the instance in the controller does not pick up the new path.
Is there a way to 'refresh' the instance? ...automatically?

After hours of research, it appears that the fundamental flaw in what I'm trying to do in the question is this: I'm trying to use a 'singleton' as a 'class'. from the docs:
Note: All services in Angular are singletons. That means that the injector uses each recipe at most once to create the object. The injector then caches the reference for all future needs.
http://docs.angularjs.org/guide/providers
My work around was to create the $resource inside a method of a returned object. Here is an example:
MyApp.factory('AssetgroupsResource',
['$rootScope', '$resource',
function ($rootScope, $resource) {
return {
init: function () {
var accountId = sessionStorage.getItem('engagedAsId');
var apiPath = (accountId != null)
? '/api/account/' + accountId + endpoint
: '/api' + endpoint;
// default params
id:''
},{
// custom actions
});
return Resource;
}
}
}]);
This made it possible to build the object at the right time in the controller:
MyApp.controller('AssetGroupListCtrl', ['Assetgroups', function (Assetgroups) {
var Assetgroups = AssetgroupsResource.init();
// now I can use angular's $resource interface
}]);
Hope this helps someone. (or you'll tell me how this all could've been done in 3 lines!)

You can always call $scope.$apply(); to force an angular tick.
See a nice tutorial here: http://jimhoskins.com/2012/12/17/angularjs-and-apply.html

I think $resource uses promise which might be an issue depending on how you implement your factory in your controller.
$scope.$apply() can return an error if misused. A better way to make sure angular ticks is $rootScope.$$phase || $rootScope.$apply();.