What is angular-loader.js for? - angularjs

I saw a similar question on the Google groups and also here on Stackoverflow. Both times the question was not answered. The code in this file doesn't make it very clear about what exactly it does and how it is used. Also it's not clear from the Angular documentation.
Can someone explain how this is used. Also can this be used along with Require.js?

Angular loader allows your angular scripts to be loaded in any order.
As angular-seed project shows us, Angular loader does not have any specific api, you just put it at the top of your index file (so that it's executed first) and then proceed to load your application files anyway you prefer.
But, the most important thing for your use case is that you don't really need angular loader at all. RequireJS also allows your files to be loaded in any order, but it also provides you with many other features that angular loader just isn't made for.
So, yes, you may use it with RequireJS, but you don't need to, because it becomes redundant.

Angular modules solve the problem of removing global state from the application and provide a way of configuring the injector. As opposed to AMD or require.js modules, Angular modules don't try to solve the problem of script load ordering or lazy script fetching. These goals are orthogonal and both module systems can live side by side and fulfil their goals.
http://docs.angularjs.org/tutorial/step_07#anoteaboutdiinjectorandproviders

It allows for you asynchronously load files when bootstrapping your angular application. A good example is the angular-seed project that has an index-async.html file that does this.
index-async.html
This is useful for using other libraries that load in modules asynchronously.

See angular-async-loader:
https://github.com/subchen/angular-async-loader/
To async load following components:
List item
controller
services
filter
directive
value
constant
provider
decorator

Related

How to reference an AngularJS module defined in a single HTML file from spec files

I have an AngularJS module defined in a single HTML file. Unfortunately, I cannot refactor it into separate files.
I need to add unit tests with angular-mocks and jasmine, and I need to run the unit tests with Node.JS (i.e. npm jasmine). I would like to leave karma out of the picture.
I looked at the angular-seed project but all the controllers and views are nicely separated, which is not my case.
How can I reference the AngularJS module in my single HTML files from my spec files?
Unfortunately, unless you roll your own preprocessor to do something like this, it will not be possible.
I also would definitely NOT recommend trying to avoid using Karma to test your angularJS applications, it provides an out of the box solution to test your code in a browser. Otherwise you'll have to do this all on your own and there is really no benefit to that unless you've already done this work.
You can and should separate your JS/HTML files out, it might be work now, but it will create a lot less headaches down the line.

Why do I need to inject the controllers I want in my app?

I am reading the source code for an app which reads as follows:
angular.module('graffio', [
'graffio.signupController',
'graffio.loginController',
'graffio.mainController',
'ui.router'
])
I have quite a few questions! So much confusion...
How is code loading these controllers which are defined later in the
code?
Why do I even need to state which controllers I want in my
app? Why can't I just have all the ones I declare?
Why does the angular documentation use the word 'injectable' so much? Isn't
injectable just the same as require?
With Angular, you can group as much or as little code into a module as you like. And you can compose modules together, like the author of the app you are looking at has done. The final module will have all of the services, config blocks, routes, controllers, directives, filters and so on that are in all of the modules it depends on as well as its own module.
This author has chosen to put each controller into its own module. Which is why the main module needs to depend on each of those modules. In my opinion, this seems like overkill, but it is what has been done, and all you need to do is understand it, not agree with it.
In answer to your other questions:
How is code loading these controllers which are defined later in the code?
When your code first runs, all the modules will be declared, and populated with directives, routes, controllers, services and so on. Nothing gets used yet. So long as when the code you have above is run, the other modules have already been declared then everything is fine (this may be done by a build process such as a Grunt task).
Then, when the document.ready event occurs, Angular looks through your HTML for an ng-app directive that says which module to load as your application. It then does what it calls the "bootstrap" process for that module.
Why do I even need to state which controllers I want in my app? Why can't I just have all the ones I declare?
Because this author has put each controller in their own module. If you put all the controllers you want into one module, then you don't need to declare them like that.
Why does the angular documentation use the word 'injectable' so much? Isn't injectable just the same as require?
Sort of. It is similar in that you are asking for a dependency by name and then using it.
It is different in that with require you can't typically modify what value is retrieved for a given dependency at runtime. With dependency injection, you can swap or modify dependencies at run time if you so choose (before your app starts properly and the dependencies are injected into the code using them).
This is perfect for testing, so that you can use a mock (fake) version of a dependency for testing purposes, instead of using the normal version. Think of a service that makes a call to get some data from the server and returns a promise. You can just create a mock version of that service that doesn't call to the server, just returns some test data immediately. This makes your unit tests fast, and means you don't need to be running your web server for them to work.

Can I NOT use requirejs in marionette/backbone?

People mention requirejs together with marionette, backbonejs and the like.
requirejs seems an asset loader -- executing your rules on when to load what.
I know the first 'page' of my single-page-app already needs most of the files. If I don't mind loading all files in one go, can I simply ignore requirejs?
Technically yes. Only dependencies for marionette-backbone are
jQuery v1.8+
Underscore v1.4.4 - 1.6.0
Backbone v1.0.0 - 1.1.2 are preferred
Backbone.Wreqr (Comes automatically with the bundled build)
Backbone.BabySitter(Comes automatically with the bundled build)
Further require.js can manage use code structure in a manner which give your code much resource efficient code at the end. From my point of view for simple application which you need simple set of views,models and collection with manageable amount of code it ok to proceed without require.js.
But if your application have complex logic and higher number of resources it's good to go require.js. Because it not good to send 15+ like individual resource requests server at very beginning of your application load. Require can make any number of your resource in to one server resource. That's the advantage.
What I prefer is one request of all css, one for all js, one for sprite image for graphic if things are big to handle which allow to create fast performing application.
Take you decision looking at the amount of resources of the project. It's not essential have require.js form the beginning of your application development.

Angular seed with services and directives

I am using angular seed project
https://github.com/angular/angular-seed
where should I put the services and directives ?
This is really totally up to you but there are some good recommendations on project structure here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XXMvReO8-Awi1EZXAXS4PzDzdNvV6pGcuaF4Q9821Es/pub
Typically my structure looks something like
app\scripts\user.js
app\scripts\todo.js
Where User.js would have a service and possibly multiple controllers in it... if the file gets too large then I break it up into parts.
The problem with grouping all services together and all controllers is that the services and controllers typically have a relationship (functionally). When you want to re-use the service/controller you are typically going to use them together, when editing one you usually need a reference to the other. This makes it easiest to find things and not have 1000 js files to include and manage in the dependencies and script inclusions.
Also when it comes time and you want to make a bower component out of one of the sections it's easier to see which parts need to be pulled out.
You can make a folder for each under app, so your project tree will look like this:
app/directives
app/services

Internationalization with angularjs

I'm thinking of moving my site to angularjs, and I want to start very small, by moving all my static server-side plain-text templating from django to angular (otherwise there will be syntax trouble with the '{{}}').
It seems that the best way to do that will be one of two options:
To have an ajax call that returns a JSON with all the texts of my site. The texts will be stored in a variable which is binded to my HTML elements so angular will update everything.
To store a static js file with the dictionary and include it in my HTML and bind the dictionary with angularjs.
Both options will allow me to switch between languages without reloading the page.
Which one is better? In general, is this a good approach or is there a more correct way?
I tried out a few different options, including Angular Translate, but I liked Angular-gettext the best so far.
One thing that helped tremendously is that there's a working demo for it where they i18n TodoMVC, called angular-gettext-example.
The workflow is simple:
Add the "translate" directive to your templates
Run grunt to extract .pot template(s)
Hand off the .pot to your translation vendor or DIY with POEdit or similar software
Drop the .po translation files back into your project
Run grunt to compile the .po files
Set the default language in your scope
Watch the magic!
I'm sure the other solutions posted here are good as well but I haven't seen an end-to-end example so nicely organized as angular-gettext-example.
Cheers,
JD
First of all, there is a way to change angular's delimiters to other symbols as answered here: Angular JS custom delimiter
The 2. option is easier. You include it once and you have all translations on page load. No async calls, no promises, nice and easy.
And yet i'd go with the first one. Services like $translate would really make your life easier following option 1. Plus it has many options for loading and storing loaded data in LocalStorage and cookies, so there's plenty of space for extension and customization. You can then translate your content with $translate service, directive or filter.
And don't forget that 2 option disables any options of cached requests. On each request to your start page the server has to read static file and include it in the html. With first option the user's browser can cache .json for as long as you like.
AngularJS supports il8n/L10n for currency, date and numbers filters only. According to this book:
(sorry for the low quality! cell phone camera)
I would say follow the first approach and load the translation dynamically. It would involve a lot of work but there's no other way around
Have a look at angular-translate :)
It solves both scenarios!

Resources