Find duration of a REST call in Angular.js - angularjs

Question

I want to find out the time taken by a REST service to send back the promise object. If a REST service takes more than lets say x seconds, I need to show user a spinner and once the promise object is obtained the normal flow should proceed.
Any ideas?
Thanks

Answer 1

Recording the time of the request seems unnecessary.
Why not just always setup a timeout that will trigger the spinner after x seconds.
In the success callback of the promise you can just destroy the timeout object preventing it from triggering the spinner if it's before x seconds. Then remove the spinner if it exists.
var duration = 1000 * 1; //1 sec
var timeout = setTimeout(releaseTheSpinner, duration);
var releaseTheSpinner = function() {
//Make spinner
}
Something.update(data).
success(function {
clearTimeout(timeout);
//kill spinner
})

Answer 2

Using setTimeout should suffice. For example:
$scope.useHttp = function() {
$http.get('path/to/stuff')
.success(function(data) {
hideSpinner();
//do stuff with data
});
setTimeout(showSpinner,1000); //will show the spinner after a second (1000 milliseconds).
};

Answer 3

Have a look at the ngProgress directive or the angular loading bar directive, which place a progress at the top of the page. This creates a general, uniform method of displaying progress. Even if the service responds quickly (which is when you don't want to show a progress), the bar moves very quickly. This isn't a direct answer to your question, but a suggested alternative to added complexity around timing and showing a spinner.