Separate nav from ng-view - angularjs

Question

I'm brand new to Angularjs and am trying to set up a new site but I'm confused as to the set up. I have a module and am using $route to successfully navigate but I'm lost as to what to do with my nav. When I load the module I want to read my database for a list of links that the user is allowed to access then spit them out in the nav. I don't want to repeat this in every view because I don't need to. So I'm trying to figure out how to run the ajax call once and then keep changing the view (I'd also like to add a class .selected to whatever view they're on). How would I go about doing that, with a directive?
(function () {
var app = angular.module('manage', ['ngRoute', 'manageControllers']);
/*
I've tried this but obviously $http isn't injected. Can I even do that?
var thisApp = this;
$http.get('/test/angular/php/angular.php', {params: {'function': 'nav'}}).then(function successCallback(response) {
});
*/
app.config(['$routeProvider',
function($routeProvider) {
$routeProvider.
when('/', {
templateUrl: 'templates/dash.html',
controller: 'DashCtrl'
}).
when('/inventory/', {
templateUrl: 'templates/inventory.html',
controller: 'InventoryCtrl'
}).
when('/inventory/:mvKey', {
templateUrl: 'templates/inventory.html',
controller: 'InventoryCtrl'
}).
when('/inventory/:mvKey/:tab', {
templateUrl: 'templates/inventory.html',
controller: 'InventoryCtrl'
}).
/* etc...*/
}
]);
})();
EDIT:
My attempt at getting the nav to run once
controllers.js
var manageControllers = angular.module('manageControllers', []);
var thisApp = this;
nav = null;
navSelected = '/';
manageControllers.controller('NavCtrl', ['$scope', '$http', function($scope, $http) {
if (thisApp.nav === null) {
$http.get('php/angular.php', {params: {'function': 'nav'}}).then(function successCallback(response) {
console.log(response.data);
thisApp.nav = response.data;
$scope.nav = thisApp.nav;
$scope.select = thisApp.navSelected;
});
} else {
$scope.nav = thisApp.nav;
$scope.select = thisApp.navSelected;
}
}]);
manageControllers.controller('DashCtrl', ['$scope', function($scope) {
thisApp.navSelected = '/';
}]);

Answer 1

I would swith to UI Router (https://github.com/angular-ui/ui-router) instead of $route. It allows you being much more flexible with your routing.
A Small example:
app.config(['$stateProvider',
function($stateProvider) {
$stateProvider.
state('/', {
url: '/',
views: {
'': {
templateUrl: 'templates/dash.html',
controller: 'DashCtrl'
},
'nav#': {
templateUrl: 'path/to/nav.html',
controller: 'NavCtrl'
},
}
}).
state('/inventory/', {
url: '/',
views: {
'': {
templateUrl: 'templates/dash.html',
controller: 'DashCtrl'
},
'nav#': {
templateUrl: 'path/to/nav.html',
controller: 'NavCtrl'
},
}
}).
// ...
and in your index.html
<div ui-view="nav"></div>
<div ui-view ></div>
Take a closer look at UI Router's doc, there's much more you can do with it!