Reuse data from $http in factory - angularjs

Question

I understand that the appropriate method to share data between controllers in Angular.js is by using Factories or Services.
app.controller('Controller1', function($scope, DataService) {
DataService.getValues().then(
function(results) {
// on success
console.log('getValues onsuccess');
});
});
app.controller('Controller2', function($scope, DataService) {
DataService.getValues().then(
function(results) {
// on success
console.log('getValues onsuccess');
});
});
app.factory('DataService', function($http) {
var getValues = function() {
console.log('making http request');
return $http.get("/api/getValues");
};
return {
getValues: getValues
}
});
I have two controllers calling the same method in a factory twice
and this is perfectly fine and everything is working as it should. My only concer is that it seems a bit unecessary to make the same request twice? Would the use of $broadcast be a better approach?
Or could i structure my code differenty so that the service is called only once?

Answer 1

You could store the results of the request in the factory and retrieve those instead.
app.factory('DataService', function($http) {
var values;
var requestValues = function() {
console.log('making http request');
$http.get("/api/getValues").then(
function(results){
values = results;
});
};
var getValues = function() {
return values;
};
return {
requestValues : requestValues,
getValues: getValues
}
});

Answer 2

If your data is somekind of static and may not change very often over time you could do something like:
app.factory('DataService', function($http) {
self = this;
this.isLoaded = false;
this.results;
this.getValues = function() {
console.log('making http request');
$http.get("/api/getValues").then(
function(results) {
// on success
console.log('getValues onsuccess');
self.isLoaded = true
this.results = results;
return results;
})
);
};
})
And in the controller:
app.controller('Controller2', function($scope, DataService) {
if(!DataService.isLoaded){
results = DataService.getValues()
}else{
results = DataService.results;
}
});

Answer 3

You should consider caching in your DataService. Add a variable to hold the result from the http service and a time-stamp variable to store the time it was retrieved.
If a second call to the service is within a preset time period (lets say, 5 seconds), then http call is not made and data from the cache is returned.
app.factory('DataService', function($http) {
var cachedValue = null;
var lastGet = null;
var getValues = function() {
var timeNow = new Date();
if (cachedValue == null || ((timeNow - lastGet) < 5000)) {
console.log('making http request');
lastGet = timeNow;
cachedValue = $http.get("/api/getValues");
} else console.log('returning cached value');
return cachedValue;
};
return {
getValues: getValues
}
});