Paramaters of $scope.function becomes undefined - angularjs

Question

I have this html
<div ng-controller = "RetrieveCtrl as retrieve" >
<form>
<input ng-model = "retrieve.input1">
<input ng-model = "retrieve.input2">
<button type="submit" ng-click="retrieve.retrieveEntry()">Search</button>
.
.
.
with this controller
app.controller('RetrieveCtrl', ['$scope' , '$http', function($scope, $http) {
$scope.retrieveEntry = function () {
var input1 = $scope.retrieve.input1;
var input2 = $scope.retrieve.input2;
// validate input1 & input2 first...
// input1 & input2 part of URL
$http.get(...
)
};
}
which is working fine, I was able to retrieve my data from the web service. What I want to do is to refactor the function into two:
app.controller('RetrieveCtrl', ['$scope' , '$http', function($scope, $http) {
$scope.clickSearch = function() {
var input1 = $scope.retrieve.input1;
var input2 = $scope.retrieve.input2;
// validate input1 & input2 first...
$scope.retrieveEntry(input1, input2);
};
$scope.retrieveEntry = function (a, b) {
// build a and b in URL
$http.get(...
)
};
}
so that I could reuse $scope.retrieveEntry on other functionalities. However, a and b becomes undefined, after I split the function into two (button's ng-click is updated to "retrieve.clickSearch()"). I suspect it has to do with $scope, which I don't have much clear understanding of what's going on (I'm still quite confused with this and $scope) Could someone explain what's happening behind and how to resolve this?
Thanks.

Answer 1

I am not sure whether this would solve your issue, but you are not making correct use of controller as syntax. You controller implementation should look something like this:
app.controller('RetrieveCtrl', ['$scope' , '$http', function($scope, $http) {
var self=this;
self.clickSearch = function() {
// validate input1 & input2 first...
self.retrieveEntry(self.input1, self.input2);
};
self.retrieveEntry = function (a, b) {
// build a and b in URL
$http.get(...
)
};
}
Once you start using controller as syntax you mostly add functionality to your controller not scope directly.