I have the following situation:
I have my app (module "zmApp") which has a directive, "myDirective"
I am also using a 3rd party angular directive, lets call it "thirdPartyDirective", which is defined under "thirdPartyModule" by that author.
What I now want to do is share some data between 'myDirective' which is part of "zmApp" and "thirdPartyDirective" which is defined under "thirdPartyModule"
I tried creating a factory in zmApp and injecting it into "thirdPartyDirective", but that throws an error "Reference not found". I suspect its because they are two different modules.
I know directives can also have controllers, but my guess is if factories did not work nor will controllers.
How do I solve this predicament?
Many thanks
Related
This is a question about AngularJS modules and services, and how to define them.
An app can be composed of multiple modules
A service allows commonly-used code to be factored out and used by multiple modules
A service is (commonly) defined with:
angular.module('module1').factory('serviceA', function() { ... } );
If the above are all true, then why does the definition of serviceA include a reference to module1? Shouldn't it be ignorant of any modules that want to use it?
If I was building a module2 and I referenced serviceA.js in order to access the above service, it would tell me that module1 is not defined.
I guess my question is how do I create a set of independent modules and have them all access a global service? In all the examples I've seen the service is tightly-coupled to a specific module.
The factory() method is a method on module, so you need a module instance to be able to call it. Essentially, that statement says that you want that factory to be defined on that specific module.
If you need module1 in something used in module2, then module2 should declare a dependency on module1:
angular.module('module2', ['module1']);
One thing that writing unit tests will teach you really quickly is that the more places something is used, the more important it is to put it in a module. If you try to treat it as "global" because it's used in a lot of places, that means you have to bootstrap the entire app just to use those services that are basically used everywhere.
I'm trying to clean up my Angular app a little bit and when I came to my app.js.coffee file I ran into some things I have little knowledge of because I copy/pasted it from another source and it seemed to work.
To my knowledge every controller, service, filter etc. needs a ,
angular.module('nameOfModule')
But 2 (or more) controllers can't have the same module name because then Angular outputs an error,
Error: [ng:areq] Argument 'nameOfModule' is not a function, got undefined
But it seems the module name that you give a controller such as nameOfModule can be used on multiple services,
addMovieService.js
angular.module('addMovieseat')
.factory('movieAdd',
movieSearchService.js
angular.module('addMovieseat')
.factory('MovieSearch',
So I'm starting to wonder what the module names are for.
Add dependency for your angular module and if not then put it blank like this
angular.module('nameOfModule',[])
Error is occured because you don't add dependency for your module.
But 2 (or more) controllers can't have the same module name
This assumption is incorrect! Modules almost always have more than one controllers. In fact it is the highest level in an angular app and the module, along with all other entities (controllers, services, factories) comprise of a self sustaining AngularJS app.
For using another app inside another app, you just include the module as a dependancy like this:
angular.module('secondApp', ['firstApp'])
I would like to have more theoretical understanding how angular modules work.
When I would create one module 'clientApp' and I 'register' controller, services, factories, scope etc..., inject other services, factories, scope into the controllers. What objects are known to the 'clientApp' module?
Angular Modules
An efficient, production-ready controllers by encapsulating our functionality in a single core unit called a module.
In Angular, a module is the main way to define an AngularJS app. The module of an app is where
we’ll contain all of our application code. An app can contain several modules, each one containing
code that pertains to specific functionality.
Using modules gives us a lot of advantages, such as:
• Keeping our global namespace clean
• Making tests easier to write and keeping them clean so as to more easily target isolated
functionality
• Making it easy to share code between applications
• Allowing our app to load different parts of the code in any order
The Angular module API allows us to declare a module using the angular.module() API method.
When declaring a module, we need to pass two parameters to the method. The first is the name of
the module we are creating. The second is the list of dependencies, otherwise known as injectables.
angular.module('myApp', []);
When writing large applications, we’ll create several different modules to contain our logic. Creating a module for each piece of functionality gives us the advantage of isolation in which to write and test large features.
Properties
Angular modules have properties that we can use to inspect the module.
name (string)
The name property on the modules gives us the name of the module as a string.
requires (array of strings)
The requires property contains a list of modules (as strings) that the injector loads before the
module itself is loaded.
Better Read
ng-book -
The Complete Book on AngularJS
Ari Lerner
Download ng-book
Thanks to the great article from Dan Wahlin, I managed to implement lazy loading of Angular's controllers and services. However, there does not seem to be a clean way to lazy load independent modules.
To better explain my question, assume that I have an app would be structure as below without RequireJS:
// Create independent module 'dataServices' module with 'Pictures' object
angular.module("dataServices", []).factory("Pictures", function (...) {...});
// Create 'webapp' ng-app, with dependency to 'dataServices', defining controllers
angular.module("webapp", ['dataServices'])
.controller("View1Controller", function (...) {...})
.controller("View2Controller", function (...) {...});
Here is the sample app with RequireJS in Plunker:
http://plnkr.co/aiarzVpMJchYPjFRrkwn
The core of the problem is that Angular does not allow adding dependency to ng-app post instantiation. As result, my solution is to use angular.injector to retrieve the instance of Picture object to be used in my View2Controller. See js/scripts/controllers/ctrl2.js file.
This creates 2 problems for me:
The injected services runs outside of angular and therefore all async call must end with $scope.$apply()
Messy code where some object can be injected using standard angular syntax while others require the explicit use of injector.
Have any of you figured out how to lazy load independent module using RequireJS and somehow hook this module in angular so normal angular dependency injection syntax can be used?
Note:
The question is on lazy loading of independent module. One simple solution to this specific example is to create "Pictures" object using cached $providers during ng-app.config but that is not what I am looking for. I am looking for solution that works with 3rd party module such as angular-resource.
I finalized my own implementation called angularAMD and here is the sample site that uses it:
http://marcoslin.github.io/angularAMD/
It handles config functions and out of order module definitions.
Hopefully this can help other looking for something to help them with RequireJS and AngularJS integration.
Take a look at my project in GitHub: angular-require-lazy
This project is intended to demonstrate an idea and motivate discussions. But is does what you want (check expenses-view.js, it loads ng-grid lazily).
I am very interested in comments, ideas etc.
(EDIT) The ng-grid Angular module is lazy loaded as follows:
expenses-view.js is loaded lazily, when the /expenses route is activated
expenses-view.js specifies ng-grid as a dependency, so RequireJs loads ng-grid first
ng-grid is the one that calls angular.module(...)
In order to accomplish this, I replaced (proxied actually) the real angular.module method with my own, that supports laziness. See bootstrap.js and route-config.js (the functions initLazyModules() and callRunBlocks()).
This implementation has its drawbacks that you should be aware of:
Config functions are not implemented (yet). I do not know if it is possible to lazily provide config-time dependencies.
Order matters in definitions. If service A depends on B but A is defined after B in your module, DI wil fail. This is because the lazyAngular proxy executes definitions immediately, unlike real Angular that makes sure dependencies are resolved before executing the definitions.
It looks like the Node.js module ocLazyLoad defines a way of doing this lazy-loading, though I'm not sure how it fares, performance-wise, compared to the methods in the other answers or hard-coding the dependencies. Any info on this would be appreciated. One interesting thing is that the other answers need RequireJS to operate, while ocLazyLoad doesn't.
It looks like ocLazyLoad defines another provider that injects the dependency after the containing module has already been instantiated. It seems to do this by essentially replicating some low-level Angular behavior, like module loading and providing, hence why it looks so complicated. It looks like it adds just about every core Angular module as a dependency: $compileProvider, $q, $injector, ng, and so many more.
I have been reading a lot of docs, and I'm getting more and more confused.
I basically can't figure out the difference between a
service
directive
module
I see a lot of custom components. Sometimes they're using directives, sometimes services. It always starts with a module. Can someone explain with an example what the difference is between these three types?
From my own personal notes (mostly snippets from the docs, google group posts, and SO posts):
Modules
provide a way to namespace/group services, directives, filters, configuration information and initialization code
help avoid global variables
are used to configure the $injector, allowing the things defined by the module (or the whole module itself) to be injected elsewhere (Dependency Injection stuff)
Angular modules are not related to CommonJS or Require.js. As opposed to AMD or Require.js modules, Angular modules don't try to solve the problem of script load ordering or lazy script fetching. These goals are orthogonal and both module systems can live side by side and fulfill their goals (so the docs claim).
Services
are singletons, so there is only one instance of each service you define. As singletons, they are not affected by scopes, and hence can be accessed by (shared with) multiple views/controllers/directives/other services
You can (and probably should) create custom services when
two or more things need access to the same data (don't use root scope) or you just want to neatly encapsulate your data
you want to encapsulate interactions with, say, a web server (extend $resource or $http in your service)
Built-in services start with '$'.
To use a service, dependency injection is required on the dependent (e.g., on the controller, or another service, or a directive).
Directives (some of the items below say essentially the same thing, but I've found that sometimes a slightly different wording helps a lot)
are responsible for updating the DOM when the state of the model changes
extend HTML vocabulary = teach HTML new tricks. Angular comes with a built in set of directives (e.g., ng-* stuff) which are useful for building web applications but you can add your own such that HTML can be turned into a declarative Domain Specific Language (DSL). E.g., the <tabs> and <pane> elements on the Angular home page demo "Creating Components".
Non-obvious built-in directives (because they don't start with "ng"): a, form, input, script, select, textarea. Under Angular, these all do more than normal!
Directives allow you to "componentize HTML". Directives are often better than ng-include. E.g., when you start writing lots of HTML with mainly data-binding, refactor that HTML into (reusable) directives.
The Angular compiler allows you to attach behavior to any HTML element or attribute and even create new HTML elements or attributes with custom behavior. Angular calls these behavior extensions directives.
When you boil it all down, a directive is just a function which executes when the Angular compiler encounters it in the DOM.
A directive is a behavior or DOM transformation which is triggered by a presence of an attribute, an element name, a class name, or a name in a comment. Directive is a behavior which should be triggered when specific HTML constructs are encountered in the (HTML) compilation process. The directives can be placed in element names, attributes, class names, as well as comments.
Most directives are restricted to attribute only. E.g., DoubleClick only uses custom attribute directives.
see also What is an angularjs directive?
Define and group Angular things (dependency injection stuff) in modules.
Share data and wrap web server interaction in services.
Extend HTML and do DOM manipulation in directives.
And make Controllers as "thin" as possible.
Think of a module as being a place to wire up a number of other things, such as directives, services, constants etc. Modules can be injected into other modules giving you a high level of reuse.
When writing an angular app, you would have a top-level module which is your application code (without templates).
Services are mainly a way to communicate between controllers, but you can inject one service into another. Services are often used as a way to get to your data stores and people will wrap the angular APIs, such as ngResource. This technique is useful since it makes testing (particularly mocking) quite easy. You can have services for doing other things like authentication, logging etc.
Directives are used for creating widgets or wrapping existing things like jquery plugins. Wrapping existing plugins can be a challenge and the reason you would do this is to establish a two-way data binding between the plugins and angular. If you don't need two-way data binding then you don't need to wrap them.
A directive is also a place for doing DOM manipulation, catching DOM-events etc. You should not be doing DOM-related stuff in controllers or services. Creating directives can get pretty complex. IMHO, I recommend first looking at API for something that can do what you are looking for OR ask Angular's Google Group for advice.