Angular UI router; how to not match empty parameters - angularjs

Question

My website has 2 main routes:
/home
/:something
Any request to / should go to /home and this is done by using 'otherwise', anything else that does not match home AND is not empty should go to app.lista. The thing is, app.lista matches / because is like :slug is empty, so otherwise is not being called:
$stateProvider
.state('app', {
url: '/',
abstract: true,
templateUrl: '/_/common/templates/main.html',
controller: 'main'
})
.state('app.home', {
url: 'home',
views: {
sectionHolder: {
templateUrl: '/_/home/templates/home.html',
controller: 'home'
}
}
})
.state('app.lista', {
url: ':slug',
views: {
sectionHolder: {
templateUrl: '/_/home/templates/list.html',
controller: 'list'
}
}
});
$urlRouterProvider.otherwise('/home');
How can I tell the stateProvider to not match app.lista if :slug is empty?

Answer 1

Looks like same issue which is logged Here on github and solution seems to be the use ragular expression
I think changing your slug route to
.state('app.lista', {
url: '/{slag:[^\/]+}',
views: {
sectionHolder: {
templateUrl: '/_/home/templates/list.html',
controller: 'list'
}
}
});
Should solve your problem plunker

Answer 2

Make your app route non-abstract and change the template and controller to point to that of app.home. Since it is defined before app.list, '/' will match app route instead.
$stateProvider
.state('app', {
url: '/',
templateUrl: '/_/common/templates/home.html',
controller: 'home'
})
.state('app.home', {
url: 'home',
views: {
sectionHolder: {
templateUrl: '/_/home/templates/home.html',
controller: 'home'
}
}
})
.state('app.lista', {
url: ':slug',
views: {
sectionHolder: {
templateUrl: '/_/home/templates/list.html',
controller: 'list'
}
}
});
$urlRouterProvider.otherwise('/home');

Answer 3

Use UI Routers resolve to check if route params are missing.
//Example of a single route
.state('app.lista', {
url: '/:slug',
templateUrl: '----.html',
controller: 'list',
resolve: function($stateParams, $location){
//Check if url parameter is missing.
if ($stateParams.slug=== undefined) {
//Do something such as navigating to a different page.
$location.path('/somewhere/else');
}
}
})