GET route isn't being hit in angular app - angularjs

Question

I am trying to implement a persistent login for an angular application. By persistent I mean I am able to redirect to a new page or refresh without being logged out.
Looking at the debugger it does not appear that my /api/users route is ever being hit. api/sessions is and im not sure why the other one wouldn't be.
my code is:
routes.js
app.post('/api/sessions', function(req, res, next) {
User.findOne({username: req.body.username})
.select('password').select('username')
.exec( function(err, user){
if (err) {return next(err)}
if (!user) {return res.send(401)}
bcrypt.compare(req.body.password, user.password, function (err, valid){
if (err) {return next(err)}
if (!valid) {return res.send(401)}
var token = jwt.encode({username: user.username}, config.secret)
res.send(token)
})
})
})
app.get('/api/users', function(req, res, next) {
if(!req.headers['x-auth']){
return res.send(401)
}
var auth = jwt.decode(req.headers['x-auth'], config.secret)
User.findOne({username: auth.username}, function (err,user){
if (err) {return next(err)}
res.json(user)
})
})
app.post('/api/users', function(req, res, next) {
var user = new User({username: req.body.username})
bcrypt.hash(req.body.password, 10, function (err, hash){
if (err) {return next (err)}
user.password = hash
user.save(function (err){
res.send(201)
})
})
})
angular.js
app.service('UserSvc', function($http, $window){
var svc = this;
svc.getUser = function() {
return $http.get('/api/users',{
headers: { 'X-Auth': this.token }
})
}
svc.login = function(username, password){
return $http.post('/api/sessions', {
username: username, password: password
}).then(function(val){
svc.token = val.data
// window.localStorage.token = val.data
return svc.getUser()
})
}
svc.logout = function() {
$http.post('/api/sessions', {
username: null, password: null
}).then(function(val){
svc.token = null
// window.localStorage.token = val.data
})
}
})
app.controller('LoginCtrl', function($scope, $location, UserSvc){
$scope.login = function(username, password) {
UserSvc.login(username, password)
.then(function(response) {
$scope.$emit('login', response.data)
$location.path('/dashboard');
})
}
$scope.logout = function() {
UserSvc.logout();
$scope.$emit('logout')
}
});
app.controller('ApplicationCtrl', function($scope, UserSvc) {
angular.element(document).ready(function () {
$scope.currentUser = UserSvc.getUser();
})
$scope.modalShown = true;
$scope.$on('login', function (_, user){
$scope.currentUser = user;
})
$scope.$on('logout', function (){
$scope.currentUser = null;
})
});
if anyone has any pointers please let me know! I have spent way to much time on this :(

Answer 1

I believe the problem is rather simple here.
Services need to be instantiated (with new UserSvc).
Factories do not. So if you wanted it to use it the way you are, change UserSvc to be a factory and have it return svc.
Other thing to note would be that Factories/Services are singletons, so returning the svc, along with a variable holding the resultant user object will persist through angular router traversal but not on a page refresh. For that you would want to store the user in sessionStorage on the client (or in localStorage with some sort of timeout).