AngularJS - Default view in <ui-view> element - angularjs

Question

Is there any problem putting default code inside of a <ui-view> element. It appears to work, but I can't find anything saying one way or another if it's okay to use or not.
My current usage is I want the "default" view to be a list of items. Upon clicking one of those items, it switches to an "editor" child state, which replaces the <ui-view> content with the editor child.
Are there any gotchas I should be aware of before continuing with this approach?
Here is an example of what I'm looking at:
routes.js:
.config(($stateProvider) => {
$stateProvider
.state('admin', {
url: '/admin',
templateUrl: 'admin.html'
})
.state('admin.items', {
url: '/admin/items',
templateUrl: 'admin.items.html'
})
});
admin.html:
<ui-view>Default Stuff Here</ui-view>
items.html:
<p ng-repeat="item in items">{{item}}</p>
Now, I know I can do:
.state('admin.default', {
url: '',
templateUrl: 'admin.default.html'
});
And then put that would show in ui-view. However, that needlessly adds a new state and template file, when it seems to work just fine putting the would-be contents of admin.default.html directly into the ui-view of admin.html.
In my case, I'm not talking about a completely stateless option using otherwise(), I'm talking about a defined parent state with a default child state.

Answer 1

We generally do not put anything inside <ui-view></ui-view>, instead we create a default state and use that.
routerApp.config(function($stateProvider, $urlRouterProvider) {
$urlRouterProvider.otherwise('/home');
$stateProvider
.state('home', {
url: '/home',
templateUrl: 'home.html'
})
.state('about', {
// we'll get to this in a bit
});
});
Here the default one is /home, like that you can create a default one.

Answer 2

First, As said in the other answer, we never give any data within the ui-view.. But while dealing with the ui-router, you should give all the specific states in .config()
app.config(function($stateProvider,$urlRouterProvider){
$stateProvider
.state('home',{
url : '/home',
controller: 'homeCtrl',
templateUrl : 'home.html'
}).state('login',{
url : '/login',
controller: 'loginCtrl',
templateUrl : 'login.html'
});
//AND HERE YOU PROVIDE THE DEFAULT PLACE WHERE THE USER IS TO BE REDIRECTED
//IN CASE OF IMPROPER URL
$urlRouterProvider.otherwise('/login');
});
Secondly, If you want to use the <ui-view></ui-view> to hold some data, you certainly can put some data within them.. But make sure that from the state you define, It should not supply any template or templateUrl. So the data within the <ui-view></ui-view> stays as it is.
And third.. Why to keep a default state..
in case you are defining a state admin in your config(), and then in your admin.routes.js file you can define a state as follows..
.state('admin.login',{
url:'',
controller:'loginCtrl',
templateUrl:'admin.login.html'
});
So in case the url is YOURURL/admin It will directly open the login page by default.. so there is no chance of redundancy...