Why doesn't $location.path fire the $routeProvider function? - angularjs

Question

I'm trying to build my first AngularJS single page application. I copied part of the code below and modified it some. I have a menu bar which calls the Navigate method that I added to the mainController.
When I click on the menu button the expected alert message appears in Navigate, but the alert message in the $routeProvider function only fires when the application starts and it never fires again. I can't find a good explanation of this, but logic says the $routeProvider function should fire when a new $location.path is set in Navigate. Is that wrong? How is this supposed to wire up? Is my nested single page controller causing the menu command to fail?
Also, are there really supposed to be two semicolons at the end or should one of them come after the app.config section?
var app = angular.module('myApp', ['ngRoute']);
app.config(['$routeProvider', function ($routeProvider)
{
alert("$routeProvider " + $routeProvider.path);
$routeProvider
.when('/', {
templateUrl: 'App/Views/Home.html',
controller: 'homeController'
})
.when('/about', {
templateUrl: 'App/Views/About.html',
controller: 'aboutController'
})
.otherwise({
redirectTo: '/'
});
}])
app.controller('mainController', function ($scope)
{
$scope.Title = "Default Title";
$scope.Message = "Default Message";
$scope.Navigate = function (myPath)
{
alert("Navigate " + myPath);
$location.path(myPath);
};
});;
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.2.23/angular.min.js"></script>
<ul class="MenuBar">
<li class="MenuButton FloatLeft" ng-click="Navigate('/home');">Home</li>
<li class="MenuButton FloatLeft" ng-click="Navigate('/about');">About</li>
<li class="MenuButton FloatLeft" ng-click="Navigate('/about');">Log In</li>
</ul>

Answer 1

You're trying to run an alert whenever the $routeProvider function runs but it doesn't quite work that way. The $routeProvider function just tells Angular "Whenever the location path changes, refer to this JSON object to know what to do next." Then your code providers some JSON attributes to Angular such as templateUrl and controller. Your alert function will only run once because the $routeProvider is just setup code to configure Angular's routes.
To run code after going to another "page", just add the code to the controller.
Code Example:
app.controller('homeController', function($scope, $http) {
alert("I'm running the homeController() function now");
});
Also, I noticed that you didn't inject $location into your controller. Without this, $location will just be an undefined object. Change your controller definition like this:
app.controller('mainController', function ($scope, $location)
{
$scope.Title = "Default Title";
$scope.Message = "Default Message";
$scope.Navigate = function (myPath)
{
alert("Navigate " + myPath);
$location.path(myPath);
};
});
Remember that any Angular object starting with the $ dollar sign ($timeout, $http, $routeProvider, etc) must be injected into your controller.

Answer 2

You have a few issues with the code you're showing. Not enough details to know for sure but here's what's wrong.
First:
A module's config block will only be executed once, at the start. You're not seeing the alert within your config beyond once because it's only ever called once during the bootstrap of your module.
Second:
You need to inject services that your controller depends on.
app.controller('mainController', function ($scope) { });
Note that you're missing the $location service here.
app.controller('mainController', function ($scope, $location) { });
Third:
We can't see some missing pieces to your code to help you out. You're not showing us how mainController is actually hooked up to anything. How myPath is being sent to the Navigation function on your controller, etc.

Answer 3

I found a nested controller that I wasn't using. When I took that out part of the menu worked. I say part because on some links instead of calling the Navigate function I was setting the window.location. That seems to fire the $routeProvider and the view changes like it should. When I change the Navigate function as shown below it works. I think setting $location.path() in the Navigate function should do the same thing, but it's not working for me.
$scope.Navigate = function (myPath)
{
alert("Navigate " + myPath);
//$location.path(myPath);
window.location = '#' + myPath;
};