Dynamic loading of controller files based on Backbone.history.fragment - backbone.js

I am building a application with has over 50 modules. Is is good idea to dynamically load controller + router using require function ? Following is my sudo code from app.js file which I am using along with require.js and marionette
app.on("initialize:after", function(){
if(Backbone.history){
Backbone.history.start();
/* For now I am considering the app with have only single
level routing, something like http://localhost#module and
app will always call list method from controller */
var moduleName = Backbone.history.fragment;
var controllerFile = "app/controller/" + moduleName + "controller";
require([controllerFile], function() {
app.trigger( moduleName + ':' + 'list');
}
}
})
My controller file contains router and it will directly call views after initializing the necessary models. The only risk I see using this method that require function might get called before the controller file is full loaded. I have not added any safeguards in the code, which I will do when I understand if this is a good approach.

Your router should contain controller. Not the other way around.
Since you have 50 modules, I suggest you take a look at Marionette.module and its addInitializer () and startWithParent to bootstrap all these modules as and when you need them to load.
You can use both requireJS and Marionette.module without issue.

Related

Multilingual with multiple app and 1 translationService

I'm currently make a html page by using angularjs.
I have 1 html page, with 1 sidebar, 1 navigation bar and 1 content area.
Like this : AdminLTE
I've follow this instruction : this
And successfully, my app works ok.
But I don't know how to apply multilingual function to my every app.
For example : Navigationbar is 1 app, sidebar is 1 app and main content is 1 app.
How can I apply 1 translationService to 'em without downloading json again and again ?
Can anyone help me please ? Thank you.
I still think it would be better to have one application for the whole page, but have separate controllers for the nav, sidebar, and main content. That way they all work separately, but you don't have the awkwardness of dealing with separate apps. The only reason I can think of to have separate apps is if you want to make sure that services are NEVER shared between the different parts. However, in your case, it looks like you WANT to share the translate service, so I think it makes sense to use one app.
If you really want to have multiple apps, it is still possible. You can load the translations asynchronously, then when this is done, you call angular.module() for each app and inject the translations as a constant. Then, when you configure the translate provider, you can inject your translation constant just like you would inject any service.
I have done this in an application before, but I don't have access to the code right now. I did it for a single application, but you can easily extend it to multiple applications. I believe it looked similar to this:
var $http = angular.injector().get('$http');
var $q = angular.injector().get('$q');
var promises = [
$http.get('path/to/translations/en.json'),
$http.get('path/to/translations/fr.json'),
];
$q.all(promises)
.then(function(translations) {
angular.module('app', [])
.constant('translations_en', translations[0])
.constant('translations_fr', translations[1])
.config(['$translateProvider', 'translations_en', 'translations_fr',
function($translateProvider, translations_en, translations_fr) {
$translateProvider.translations('en', translations_en);
$translateProvider.translations('fr', translations_fr);
}]);
angular.bootstrap(element, ['app']);
});
For multiple apps, you would need to run the angular.module block once for each app.
Alternatively, you could define separate modules for each part, then define a parent module that depends on the other mini-modules, i.e.
angular.module('navigation', []);
angular.module('sidebar', []);
angular.module('mainPage', []);
angular.module('app', ['navigation', 'sidebar', 'mainPage']);
angular.bootstrap(element, ['app']);
I believe that all modules would share the same translate service in this case.

How to dynamically add a decorator after angularjs bootstrap

Is there a way in angularjs to dynamically (after angular bootstrap) to enhance a service by proxying it using the decorator pattern.
In the following plunker example I can overload my default search service (google based) but this relies on the declaration/addition of the overloading module (the yahoo one) using the app.requires dependencies of the application before the angular app is bootstrapped. This does not work once the angular application is already bootstrapped, as demoed when clicking on duckduckgo button.
I must do the decoration dynamically by injecting javascript code into the application in a migration scenario where the webapp has to be embed into a java client (using JavaFX webview) and where some actions (the ones introduced dynamically) have to replace standard behavior of the webapp.
I have tried to use some technics described by Ifeanyi Isitor in his blog without success.
One possible method might be to get a hold of the injector of the currently running application (as described at the bottom of the documentation for angular.injector). This is done by using angular.element on an element of the currently running app to get its injector().
To easily get a hold of this element, if you were to give the tag on which you've declared your app the id of mcfoggy-application-search:
<div ng-app="mcfoggy.application.search" id="mcfoggy-application-search">...</div>
... you could .getElementById() and clobber the originally defined service a bit like this (as per your plunkr):
console.info('interpreting duckduckGoService.js');
var appElement = document.getElementById('mcfoggy-application-search');
var injector = angular.element(appElement).injector();
injector.invoke(['SearchService', '$log', function(SearchService, $log) {
// replace search in SearchService
SearchService.search = function(terms) {
var duckduckGoSearch = 'https://duckduckgo.com/?q=' + encodeURI(terms);
$log.info("search called: " + duckduckGoSearch);
// $window.location.href = duckduckGoSearch;
};
}]);
Maybe not as pretty as decoration, but it seems to work!
Updated plnkr

Loading angular directives at runtime

I have a service that I call during app.run() and for some reason when I load the files async at that point they don't seem to take.
Here's the service i'm using:
angular.module('nav').service('SubmoduleService', ['submodules_config',
function(config){
this.autoload = function(){
for(var key in config.modules){
for(var i=0; i<config.modules[key].length; i++){
var src = config.modules[key][i].replace(':path', config.path).replace(':name', key);
console.log(src);
var js = document.createElement("script");
js.type = "text/javascript";
js.src = src;
document.body.appendChild(js);
}
}
return true;
};
}]);
Here's the config file:
angular.module('nav').constant('submodules_config', {
path: "scripts/submodules/:name",
modules: {
gallery: [':path/config.js', ':path/directive.js']
}
});
So basically the config defines a module and all the files that need to get loaded for that module.
I see the files get loaded into the DOM, but for some reason when I load the controller that uses that directive, it doesn't work.
NOTE: The directive works when loading the files explicitly.
Any help is appreciated.
E
By default, angular bootstraps the application on the DOM Ready event. When you load scripts asynchronously, this event can be fired before the scripts load, so angular won't know about the directives contained in them when the DOM is $compiled().
There are quite a few ways to work around this, but they all revolve around deferring compilation of the DOM until the required modules are loaded.
On simple (but not the only) way to defer compilation for a fragment of your application is to simply use ng-if. In pseudo code, it would look something like this:
<div ng-if="moduleWithMyDirectiveLoaded" my-directive></div>
This leaves you with the task of figuring out how to determine if a particular script has been loaded and getting that information into your angular application.
Unfortunately, this isn't trivial. You can write this yourself, but others have already done it for you and you'd probably be better off using one of those tested, cross-browser solutions.
require.js comes to mind as an option, but there are many others that would also work.

How can I dynamically set templates without messy query parameters in angular ui-router?

I'm building an artist portfolio web app where the artist can create a 'project' which consists of a series of content pieces (mostly images at this point) which can then be put in an order and the artist can choose between different preset layouts. I'm using angular and node + express. I'm struggling to find a good way to dynamically set templates. The only functional scheme i've devised so far is to put the template name in a query parameter in the url like this.
ui-sref="webapp/project/photo?template=vertical"
then in ui-router it's relatively simple to set the template using state params
templateUrl : function (stateparams) {
return 'templates/' + stateparams.template + '.html';
},
Although it's functional I don't like this mostly because it creates messy urls and allows anyone to change templates with query params or more likely load something without a real template because the url was typed incorrectly or correctly without the query parameter.
I can't make an api call from the templateUrl function because it's not injectable so I can't use the $http service. I've tried to use template provider but haven't made anything functional out of that yet. It does allow for an injectable function but that function must return an entire template instead of a url. If I can get a template url for it how can a load the template with that? I assume I'm not the first person to want dynamic templates (templates set in the database) from angular. What are my best options?
I have found a functional solution to my problem using ui-router, $stateParams, and $http. I'll be looking for a better architecture scheme as this necessitates 3 server requests every time a project is requested. One to get the template name and another to load the template file and another to load the project data. I suppose I only added one request to the norm. Anyways.. This solution is working for me but next I will be moving the logic to get template by the project name to an angular service to keep everything clean.
.state('projects/:project_url', {
url : '/projects/:project_url',
templateProvider : function ($stateParams, $http) {
return $http.get('/api/projects/' + $stateParams.project_url)
.then(function (data) {
// get template name
var templateName = data.data[0].template;
// return template by name
return $http.get('/pages/' + templateName + '.html')
.then(function (data) {
return data.data;
});
});
},
controller : 'projectCtrl'
});
http://dotjem.github.io/angular-routing/ supports your scenario with inject-able template functions. Note however that you must provide the raw template in the return statement, but that is easily done using the $template service...
It is very similar to UIRouter, so it should be a fairly easy transition if you find it worth it.
http://plnkr.co/edit/dkPIWMW236ixifETohNW?p=preview
If you take the latest stable release rather than the head you must add a "get" call to that service as: $template.get('template.html') rather than the newer: $template('template.html')

Preload AngularJS partials used in routes?

Question: What is the best way and the best time to pre-load .ng files that are used in routing templates?
In researching this thus far, I've found the following answers:
Use Angular's script directive.
Problem: My content cannot be loaded as a literal string but needs to be fetched from the server. In other words, I have an .ng file as my partial so I cannot do
my content must remain in a .ng file on the server and be fetched
Use $templateCache.put to put a template literal in the cache. Same problem as above.
Use $http to load the .ng file. This works in that it is not a string literal but I am struggling to find the best time to perform this so that it is not blocking (realize its async but still)
To save you from suggesting resources I've already seen, I've read the following:
Is there a way to make AngularJS load partials in the beginning and not at when needed?
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/angular/6aW6gWlsCjU
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/angular/okG3LFcLkd0
https://medium.com/p/f8ae57e2cec3
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.javascript.angularjs/15975
Maybe use a combination of 2 and 3.
Like you said, $http is async, so why not just put each partial into the templateCache after the app has loaded.
For example:
var myApp = angular.module('myApp', []);
myApp.run(function($http, $templateCache) {
var templates = ['template1.ng', 'template2.ng'];
angular.forEach(templates, function(templateUrl) {
$http({method: 'GET', url: templateUrl}).success(function(data) {
$templateCache.put(templateUrl, data);
});
});
});
I've never had the need for this and definitely haven't tested it, but the idea is there.

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