Angular chat client - 2 views with one controller - angularjs

Question

I build chat function in my web app and i am about to create chat functionality between logged clients. Here is my screen from application to show exactly what i want to solve
Screen of my app
As you can see i got list of online users stored in scope in sidebar. Its created as partial view in my Asp.Net with .cshtml and i render content in "white box" using angular routing.
Problem is i use same controller twice and it creates new scope for each html so i got data in my sidebar, but in my content view i dont have any data. I am thinking about passing my data to rootscope, but i dont know if its good idea.
So my question is. Is there anything how i can clone my data from one controller to another or how i can solve this without changing functionality and if i can keep my views controlled with one controller.
Here is my PrivateChatController.js
(function () {
'use strict';
app.controller('PrivateChatController', ['$rootScope', '$scope', 'SignalRService', '$location', 'PrivateChatService', PrivateChatController]);
function PrivateChatController($rootScope, $scope, SignalRService, $location, PrivateChatService) {
//angular stuff
$scope.online_users = [];
$scope.isChatHidden = false;
$scope.openPrivateChatWindow = function (index) {
// $scope.isChatHidden = true;
angular.forEach($scope.online_users, function (value, key) {
if (index == key) {
$rootScope.currentPrivateChatUser = ({
UserName: value.UserName,
ConnectionId: value.connectionId,
});
$location.path("/details/" + value.UserName);
}
});
};
$scope.closePrivateChatWindow = function (index) {
$scope.isChatHidden = false
};
//signalR stuff
var chatHub = $.connection.chatHub;
$.connection.hub.logging = true;
chatHub.client.foo = function () { };
registerClientMethods(chatHub);
$.connection.hub.start()
.done(function(){ console.log('Now connected, connection ID=' + $.connection.hub.id); })
.fail(function () { console.log('Could not Connect!'); });
function registerClientMethods(chatHub) {
//user object
chatHub.client.newOnlineUser = function (user) {
var newUser = ({
connectionId: user.ConnectionId,
UserName: user.UserName
});
$scope.online_users.push(newUser);
$scope.$apply();
};
//compare scope online users with server list of online users
chatHub.client.getOnlineUsers = function (onlineUsers) {
//loop through scope
angular.forEach($scope.online_users, function (scopeValue, scopeKey) {
//loop through received list of online users from server
angular.forEach(onlineUsers, function (serverListValue, serverListKey) {
if (!(serverListValue.ConnectionId == scopeValue.connectionId)) {
var newUser = ({
connectionId: serverListValue.ConnectionId,
UserName: serverListValue.UserName
});
$scope.online_users.push(newUser);
$scope.$apply();
}
})
})
};
chatHub.client.onUserDisconnected = function (id, user) {
var index = 0;
//find out index of user
angular.forEach($scope.online_users, function (value, key) {
if (value.connectionId == id) {
index = key;
}
})
$scope.online_users.splice(index, 1);
$scope.$apply();
};
}};})();

Answer 1

Consider using services as a layer for data sharing. It should also contain chat related logic, in my opinion controllers should be as thin as possible.
Move chatHub.client.getOnlineUsers function to the service and create getter for users.
Further read