Backbone app.navigate control changes to url - backbone.js

I have a backbone application residing at say, http://foo.com. My application behaves different for different region, so say if I navigated to http://foo.com/TX different set of information is loaded, while if I navigate to http://foo.com/OK another set of information is loaded. These necessarily do not form part of the backbone route and are part of the url itself.
I have also modified my backbone route to ignore this second parameter in the url while considering routes in my router initialize function,
routes = [
[/\w+/, 'default', this.default],
[/\w+\/login/, 'login', this.login]
];
_.each(routes, function(route) {
router.route.apply(router,route);
});
But when I do app.navigate("login", true), it changes my URL to http://foo.com/home. What I expect to see is http://foo.com/TX/home, so that it retains the region information. How can I achieve that?

Assuming your app is located at a given location, your router is going to go back to that location, without adding on the extra region code. One option would be to extend your router model and override backbone's navigate function (documentation) to incorporate the region codes, but that could be dangerous and beyond the scope of what you'd like to take on yourself.
Another option is to call the path on your router without updating the URL (documentation). This would run your code and update the page, but would not reset the URL as you desire. with this option, you would want to call the router with the option
router.route.apply("login", {trigger: true, replace: false})

Related

Disable URL change with UI-Router in Angular?

Is it possible to configure ui-router in an Angular 1.5 application to completely ignore the address bar?
Desired behaviour is something like this:
Navigating between states via UI does not change the URL
Changing the URL does not cause navigation between states, only UI or programmatic actions do (clicking the buttons, etc.)
Hitting F5 restarts the application from "default" controller
Original URL (especially query parameters) must still be accessible
UPDATE: I am creating an application with a very specific use case, not a website. Ordinary web browsing practices do not apply here. Please accept the requirements as they are, even if it may seem to contradict common sense.
Agreed that the stated approach is not good if we consider classic web app.
I tried to create a sample application with your requirement in mind.
Here is how my router configuration(router.config.js) file looks like in my fruits app:
.state('start', {
url: '/',
templateUrl: '../app/start/start.html',
controller: 'startCtrl as vm',
})
.state('fruits', {
templateUrl: '../app/fruits/fruitshtml',
controller: 'fruitsCtrl as vm',
})
.state('fruits.details', {
params: {
fruitId: undefined
},
templateUrl: '../app/fruits/fruitdetails.html',
controller: 'fruitDetailsCtrl as vm'
})
Explanation of States:
start:
url / is entry point of my application. If url is /, start state will be loaded.
fruits:
This state shows list of fruits in my app. Note that there is no url defined for this state. So, if we go to this state, url won't change (State will change, but url won't).
fruits.details:
This state should show detail of a fruit with id fruitId. Notice we have passed fruitId in params. params is used to pass parameters without using the url! So, passing of parameters is sorted. I can write ui-sref="fruit.details({ fruitId: my-fruit-id })" to navigate to fruit.details state and show details of my fruit with fruitId my-fruit-id.
As you might have already got it, the main idea is to use states as means of navigation.
Does my app pass your points?
Navigating between states via UI does not change the URL
Changing the URL does not cause navigation between states, only UI or programmatic actions do (clicking the buttons, etc.)
Hitting F5 restarts the application from "default" controller
Original URL (especially query parameters) must still be accessible
->
pass: as we haven't defined url for states
pass: changing url will change to state to start. The app will not take user to any different state, but it does changes state to start or we could say our default state.
pass: refresh will take you to start state
pass: if you write start in your url, you app will got start state.
Possible work around for the 2nd point, which is not passed completely: We can write code to check the url (in startCtrl controller) passed. If url contains extra things appended to /start, go to previous state. If url is 'start' continue loading start page.
Update:
As pointed by OP #Impworks, solution for 2nd point is also passed if we set url of our start state to /. This way, if we append any string to url, the state won't change.

AngularJS redirect without pushing a history state

I'm working on an AngularJS app that has a catch all route (eg, .when('/:slug', {...)) which is necessary to support legacy url formats from a previous (non-angular) version of the app. The controller that responds to the catch all tries pulling a related object, and, if not found, redirects to a 404 page using the $location.path method. This works at getting the user to the 404 page, but when the user hits back in their browser it takes them back to the page that forced them to the 404 page in the first place and they end up being unable to escape the cycle.
My question is if there is 1) a better pattern for handling this situation, or 2) if there is a way to reroute the user that doesn't force a history push state in the browser?
You can change the url without adding to the history state, found here under "Replace Method". This is effectively the same as calling HTML5's history.replaceState().
$location.path('/someNewPath').replace();
I haven't found that it's possible to change the view without changing the url. The only method to change the view, that I've found, is to change the location path.
The normal operation of the route system is for the $route service to watch for the $locationChangeSuccess event and then begin loading a route. When it's done loading the template, performing the resolve steps and instantiating the controller it then in turn broadcasts a $routeChangeSuccess event. That $routeChangeSuccess is monitored by the ng-view directive, and that's how it knows to swap out the templates and scopes once the new route is ready.
With all of the above said, it may work to have application code emulate the behavior of the $route service by updating the current route and emitting the route change event to get the view to update:
var errorRoute = $route.routes[null]; // assuming the "otherwise" route is the 404
// a route instance is an object that inherits from the route and adds
// new properties representing the routeParams and locals.
var errorRouteInstance = angular.inherit(
errorRoute,
{
params: {},
pathParams: {},
}
);
// The $route service depends on this being set so it can recover the route
// for a given route instance.
errorRouteInstance.$$route = errorRoute;
var last = $route.current;
$route.current = errorRouteInstance;
// the ng-view code doesn't actually care about the parameters here,
// since it goes straight to $route.current, but we should include
// them anyway since other code might be listening for this event
// and depending on these params to behave as documented.
$rootScope.broadcast('$routeChangeSuccess', errorRoute, last);
The above assumes that your "otherwise" route doesn't have any "resolve" steps. It also assumes that it doesn't expect any $routeParams, which is of course true for the "otherwise" route but might not be true if you use a different route.
It's unclear what of the above is depending on implementation details vs. interface. The $routeChangeSuccess event is certainly documented, but the $$route property of the route instance seems to be an implementation detail of the route system given its double-dollar-sign name. The detail that the "otherwise" route is kept in the route table with the key null is possibly also an implementation detail. So with all of this said, this behavior may not remain functional in future versions of AngularJS.
For more information you could refer to the ng-view code that handles this event, which is ultimately what the above code is trying to please, along with the event emitting code that I used as the basis for the above example. As you could infer from these links, the information in this post is derived from the latest master branch of AngularJS, which at the time of writing is labelled as 1.2.0-snapshot.

Updating URL in Angular JS without re-rendering view

I'm building a dashboard system in AngularJS and I'm running into an issue with setting the url via $location.path
In our dashboard, we have a bunch of widgets. Each shows a larger maximized view when you click on it. We are trying to setup deep linking to allow users to link to a dashboard with a widget maximized.
Currently, we have 2 routes that look like /dashboard/:dashboardId and /dashboard/:dashboardId/:maximizedWidgetId
When a user maximizes a widget, we update the url using $location.path, but this is causing the view to re-render. Since we have all of the data, we don't want to reload the whole view, we just want to update the URL. Is there a way to set the url without causing the view to re-render?
HTML5Mode is set to true.
In fact, a view will be rendered everytime you change a url. Thats how $routeProvider works in Angular but you can pass maximizeWidgetId as a querystring which does not re-render a view.
App.config(function($routeProvider) {
$routeProvider.when('/dashboard/:dashboardId', {reloadOnSearch: false});
});
When you click a widget to maximize:
Maximum This Widget
or
$location.search('maximizeWidgetId', 1);
The URL in addressbar would change to http://app.com/dashboard/1?maximizeWidgetId=1
You can even watch when search changes in the URL (from one widget to another)
$scope.$on('$routeUpdate', function(scope, next, current) {
// Minimize the current widget and maximize the new one
});
You can set the reloadOnSearch property of $routeProvider to false.
Possible duplicate question : Can you change a path without reloading the controller in AngularJS?
Regards
For those who need change full path() without controllers reload
Here is plugin: https://github.com/anglibs/angular-location-update
Usage:
$location.update_path('/notes/1');
I realize this is an old question, but since it took me a good day and a half to find the answer, so here goes.
You do not need to convert your path into query strings if you use angular-ui-router.
Currently, due to what may be considered as a bug, setting reloadOnSearch: false on a state will result in being able to change the route without reloading the view. The GitHub user lmessinger was even kind enough to provide a demo of it. You can find the link from his comment linked above.
Basically all you need to do is:
Use ui-router instead of ngRoute
In your states, declare the ones you wish with reloadOnSearch: false
In my app, I have an category listing view, from which you can get to another category using a state like this:
$stateProvider.state('articles.list', {
url: '{categorySlug}',
templateUrl: 'partials/article-list.html',
controller: 'ArticleListCtrl',
reloadOnSearch: false
});
That's it. Hope this helps!
We're using Angular UI Router instead of built-in routes for a similar scenario. It doesn't seem to re-instantiate the controller and re-render the entire view.
How I've implemented it:
(my solution mostly for cases when you need to change whole route, not sub-parts)
I have page with menu (menuPage) and data should not be cleaned on navigation (there is a lot of inputs on each page and user will be very very unhappy if data will disappear accidentally).
turn off $routeProvider
in mainPage controller add two divs with custom directive attribute - each directive contains only 'templateUrl' and 'scope: true'
<div ng-show="tab=='tab_name'" data-tab_name-page></div>
mainPage controller contains lines to simulate routing:
if (!$scope.tab && $location.path()) {
$scope.tab = $location.path().substr(1);
}
$scope.setTab = function(tab) {
$scope.tab = tab;
$location.path('/'+tab);
};
That's all. Little bit ugly to have separate directive for each page, but usage of dynamic templateUrl (as function) in directive provokes re-rendering of page (and loosing data of inputs).
If I understood your question right, you want to,
Maximize the widget when the user is on /dashboard/:dashboardId and he maximizes the widget.
You want the user to have the ability to come back to /dashboard/:dashboardId/:maximizedWidgetId and still see the widget maximized.
You can configure only the first route in the routerConfig and use RouteParams to identify if the maximized widget is passed in the params in the controller of this configured route and maximize the one passed as the param. If the user is maximizing it the first time, share the url to this maximized view with the maximizedWidgetId on the UI.
As long as you use $location(which is just a wrapper over native location object) to update the path it will refresh the view.
I have an idea to use
window.history.replaceState('Object', 'Title', '/new-url');
If you do this and a digest cycle happens it will completely mangle things up. However if you set it back to the correct url that angular expects it's ok. So in theory you could store the correct url that angular expects and reset it just before you know a digest fires.
I've not tested this though.
Below code will let you change url without redirection such as: http://localhost/#/691?foo?bar?blabla
for(var i=0;i<=1000;i++) $routeProvider.when('/'+i, {templateUrl: "tabPages/"+i+".html",reloadOnSearch: false});
But when you change to http://localhost/#/692, you will be redirected.

Whats the Advantage of Marionette AppRouter+Controller over Backbone.Router?

From my understanding, the differences is the callback functions to events on an AppRouter should exist in the Controller, instead of the same Router object. Also there is a one-to-one relationship between such AppRouter & Controllers, all my code from Router now moves to Controller, I don't see too much point of that? So why use them? I must be missing something?
The way I see it is to separate concerns:
the controller actually does the work (assembling the data, instanciating the view, displaying them in regions, etc.), and can update the URL to reflect the application's state (e.g. displayed content)
the router simply triggers the controller action based on the URL that has been entered in the address bar
So basically, if you're on your app's starting page, it should work fine without needing any routers: your actions (e.g. clicking on a menu entry) simply fire the various controller actions.
Then, you add on a router saying "if this URL is called, execute this controller action". And within your controller you update the displayed URL with navigate("my_url_goes_here"). Notice you do NOT pass trigger: true.
For more info, check out Derick's blog post http://lostechies.com/derickbailey/2011/08/28/dont-execute-a-backbone-js-route-handler-from-your-code/ (paragraph "The “AHA!” Moment Regarding Router.Navigate’s Second Argument")
I've also covered the topic in more length in the free preview of my book on Marionette. See pages 32-46 here: http://samples.leanpub.com/marionette-gentle-introduction-sample.pdf
I made some override for the router. And currently use it in this way (like Chaplin):
https://gist.github.com/vermilion1/5525972
appRoutes : {
// route : controller#method
'search' : 'search#search'
'*any' : 'common#notFound'
},
initialize : function () {
this.common = new Common();
this.search = new Search();
}

multiple matching routes

I've got a backbone.js application that defines two controllers, and the controllers both define route patterns which match the location.hash. I'm having trouble getting both of them to fire - e.g.
ManagerController = Backbone.Controller.extend({
routes: {
":name": "doStuff"
},
doStuff : function(name) {
console.log("doStuff called...");
}
});
Component1Controller = Backbone.Controller.extend({
routes: {
"xyz123": "doMoreStuff"
},
doMoreStuff : function() {
console.log("doMoreStuff called...");
}
});
so if the url is "http://mysite.com/#xyz123", then I am seeing 'doStuff()' called, or if I comment out that route, then 'doMoreStuff()' is called. But not both.
I'm using this architecture because my page is highly component oriented, and each component defines its own Controller. A 'component manager' also defines a Controller which does some house keeping on all routes.
Should I be able to configure two controllers that both respond to the same route? Cheers,
Colin
Short answer: No, you can't do that. One Controller per page.
Long answer: When you instantiate a new Controller, it adds its routes to the History singleton. The History singleton is monitoring the hash component of the URL, and when the hash changes, it scans the routes for the first expression that matches its needs. It then fires the function associated with that route (that function has been bound to the controller in which it was declared). It will only fire once, and if there is a conflict the order in which it fires is formally indeterminate. (In practice it's probably deterministic.)
Philosophical answer: The controller is a "view" object which affects the presentation of the whole page based on the hash component of the URL. Its purpose is to provide bookmark-capable URLs that the user can reach in the future, so that when he goes to a URL he can start from a pre-selected view among many. From your description, it sounds like you're manipulating this publicly exposed, manually addressable item to manipulate different parts of your viewport, while leaving others alone. That's not how it works.
One of the nice things about Backbone is that if you pass it a route that's already a regular expression, it will use it as-is. So if you're trying to use the controller to create a bookmarkable description of the layout (component 1 in the upper right hand corner in display mode "A", component 2 in the upper left corner in display mode "B", etc) I can suggest a number of alternatives-- allocate each one a namespace in the hash part of the URL, and create routes that ignore the rest, i.e.
routes: {
new RegExp('^([^\/]*)/.*$'): 'doComponent1stuff',
new RegExp('^[^\/]*/([^\/]*)\/.*$': 'doComponent2stuff',
}
See how the first uses only items after the first slash, the second after the second slash, etc. You can encode your magic entirely how you want.
I suggest, though, that if you're going to be doing something with the look and feel of the components, and you want that to be reasonably persistent, that you look into the views getting and setting their cookies from some local store; if they're small enough, cookies will be enough.
I have a very similar issue. At present, backbone stops after the first matching route. I have a dirty workaround where I am overriding the loadUrl method of Backbone History. Here I am iterating through all of the registered routes and triggering callback for all of the matching routes .
_.extend(Backbone.History.prototype, {
loadUrl : function() {
var fragment = this.fragment = this.getFragment();
var matched = false;
_.each(this.handlers, function(handler) {
if (handler.route.test(fragment)) {
handler.callback(fragment);
matched = true;
}
});
return matched;
}
})
Philosophically, I am fine with having single controller per page. However, in a component based view framework, it will be nice to have multiple views per route rendering different parts of a view state.
Comments are welcome.
I've used namespacing to deal with a similar problem. Each module comes with it's own module controller, but is restricted to handle routes that start with /moduleName/ this way modules can be developed independently.
I haven't fully tested this yet, if you take a look at the Backbone.js source, you can see this at line 1449:
// Attempt to load the current URL fragment. If a route succeeds with a
// match, returns `true`. If no defined routes matches the fragment,
// returns `false`.
loadUrl: function(fragment) {
fragment = this.fragment = this.getFragment(fragment);
return _.any(this.handlers, function(handler) {
if (handler.route.test(fragment)) {
handler.callback(fragment);
return true;
}
});
}
The any method will stop as soon as it matches a handler route (with the "return true"), just comment the return and the short-circuit will never happend, and all the handlers will be tested. Tested this with a marionette app with two modules, each one having it's own router and controller, listening same routes anb both fired up.
I think this is the simplest way of resolving it
routes: {
'': 'userGrid',
'users': 'userGrid',
}

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