How to use $resource in AngularJS properly for building a client app? - angularjs

Question

I've been following this tutorial http://draptik.github.io/blog/2013/07/28/restful-crud-with-angularjs/. I implemented a Grails backend with it instead of the Java one in the tutorial.
I've got the data coming back and forth, with one issue. If I create/update/delete a user, I don't see the changes reflected on my user list when I am redirected back. I have to refresh the page to see the updates.
Looking at the network traffic for an edit, it looks like it does a PUT and fires off the GET before the PUT is complete. Assuming this is because $resource returns a promise so things can be done asynchronously. So how do I handle this so that when $location redirects me, my list is up to date?
I'm guessing the options are to wait for the PUT to complete before redirecting/querying for the list, or to somehow manually manage the $scope.users to match the request?
Or maybe this tutorial is just a bad example? Maybe there is a better way to do it (still using $resource)?
Note: I've seen Restangular out there, and I've seen $http with success callbacks, but I would like to understand the situation above.

Answer 1

One way to overcome this issue would be to not redirect to the list page, till you get a callback, and then do a redirect. You can show some busy indicator till that time. The resource call looks like this.
resource.update(config,data,function() { //gets called on success},
function(error) { //gets called on failure});
In real life scenario waiting for the response of update makes sense as you want to handle the error and success scenarios on the same page.

Answer 2

I don't see your code anywhere so i'm just assuming (based on what you wrote and your current problem)
You are probably doing a full (or partial) get each time you changed a user and (re)binding the result to your scope. Doing this in the callback of the resource should actually start the digest cycle angular does to update modified objects. If you had been doing the fetching outside $resource - for example with custom/jquery ajax you would need to execute $scope.$apply()
What i really don't understand you would need to wait for the callback. You already know you added/modified a user. Instead of 'detaching' that user from your scope, modify it, post it to your rest server, then wait for callback, and reinserting it into the scope - why not modify it directly in the list/array you put on your scope?
var users = Users.get(function () {
$scope.users = users.record; // bind the resulting records to the scope
});
$scope.updateUser = function (user) {
resource.update(...); //pseudo
};
Then in your html, you will keep a reference to the currentUser and the div-list will update automaticly.
<div ng-repeat="user in users" ng-click="currentUser=user">{{user.Name}}</div>
<input ng-model="currentUser.Name">
<button ng-click="updateUser(currentUser);">Update</button>
If you don't want to see the update in the list while you type, but only once your callback fires or when you hit the button, would would instead use another ng-model for your input like this:
<input ng-model="tempUser.Name">
And you would then copy the value other in either the updateUser method or in the resource callback like this:
$scope.updateUser = function (user) {
user.Name = $scope.tempUser.Name; // should update automaticly
resource.update(...) // pseudo
}
Hope it helped!