Abstract: This AngularJS cheat sheet aims at providing a quick reference to the most commonly used features in AngularJS. This cheat sheet is part 2 and aimed at Developers having Intermediate/Advanced skills.

The AngularJS cheat sheet co-authored by Ravi Kiran and Suprotim Agarwal, aims at providing a quick reference to the most commonly used features in AngularJS. It will also make you quickly productive with Angular.

The cheat sheet is divided into Beginners and Intermediate/Advanced Developer categories. We have already published Part 1 of the Angular CheatSheet for Beginners. This article is Part 2 and covers CheatSheet for Intermediate/Advanced Developers.

Do you want this CheatSheet in a PDF format along with many other cool articles on .NET and JavaScript? Subscribe to our Digital Magazine for free using your email address (no spam policy) and download the November 2014 Edition to access this CheatSheet in a PDF format.

AngularJS Cheat Sheet for Intermediate – Advanced Developers

23. Use a package management tool like Bower (bower.io/) to manage and update third-party web dependencies in your project. It is as simple as installing bower using npm install bower; then listing all the dependent libraries and versions in a Bower package definition file called bowerconfig.json and lastly run bower install or bower update in your project to get the latest versions of any web dependencies in your project.

24. Wherever possible, use AngularJS versions of JavaScript functionality. So instead of setInterval, use the $interval service. Similarly instead of setTimeout use the $timeout service. It becomes easier to mock them or write unit tests . Also make sure to clean it up when you have no use for it. Use the $destroy event to do so:

$scope.$on("$destroy", function (event) { $timeout.cancel(timerobj); });

25. Services: If you need to share state across your application, or need a solution for data storage or cache, think of Services. Services are singletons and can be used by other components such as directives, controllers, filters and even other services. Services do not have a scope of their own, so it is permissible to add eventlisteners in Services using $rootScope.

26. Deferred and Promise - The $q service provides deferred objects/promises.

$q.all([array of promises]) - creates a Deferred object that is resolved when all of the input promises in the specified array are resolved in future

$q.defer() - creates a deferred object with a promise property that can be passed around applications, especially in scenarios where we are integrating with a 3rd-party library

$q.reject(reason) - Creates a promise that is resolved as rejected with the specified reason. The return value ensures that the promise continues to the next error handler instead of a success handler.

deferredObject.resolve - Resolves the derived promise with the value

deferredObject.reject - Rejects the derived promise with the reason and triggers the failure handler in the promise.

27. Do not make changes to the $scope from the View. Instead do it using a Controller. Let’s see an example. The following piece of code controls the state of the dialog property directly from the ng-click directive.

Close Dialog

Instead we can do this in a Controller and let it control the state of the dialog as shown here:

Close Dialog

In dialog-controller.js file, use the following code:

dialog.controller("diagCtrl", function ($scope) { $scope.response = false; $scope.getResponse = function () { $scope.response = false; } });

This reduces the coupling between the view and controller

28. Prototypal Inheritance: Always have a '.' in your ng-models which insures prototypal inheritance. So instead of

use

29. Event Aggregator:

$scope includes support for event aggregation. It is possible to publish and subscribe events inside an AngularJS application without need of a third party library. Following methods are used for event aggregation:

$broadcast(eventName, eventObject): Publishes an event to the current scope and to all children scopes of the current scope

$emit(eventName, eventObject): Publishes an event to the current scope and to all parent scopes of the current scope

$on(eventName, eventHandler): Listens to an event and executes logic inside eventHandler when the event occurs

30. $resource

$resource is a higher level service that wraps $http to interact with RESTful APIs. It returns a class object that can perform a default set of actions (get (GET), save (POST), query (GET), remove(DELETE), delete (DELETE)). We can add more actions to the object obtained.

//A factory using $resource myModule.factory('Student', function($resource){ return $resource('/api/students', null, { change: {method: 'PUT'} }); });

The above operation returns a $resource object that has all default operations and the change method that performs a PUT operation.

31. $timeout and $interval

$timeout is used to execute a piece of code after certain interval of time. The $timeout function takes three parameters: function to execute after time lapse, time to wait in milliseconds, a flag field indicating whether to perform $scope.$apply after the function execution.

$timeout(function () { //Logic to execute }, 1000, true);

$interval is used to keep calling a piece of code repeatedly after certain interval. If count is not passed, it defaults to 0, which causes the call to happen indefinitely.

$interval(function () { //Logic to execute }, 1000, 10, true);

32. jqLite and jQuery

AngularJS uses a lighter version of jQuery called jqLite to perform DOM manipulations. The element we receive in compile and link functions of directive are jqLite objects. It provides most of the necessary operations of jQuery. Following snippet shows obtaining a jqLite object for all divs on a page using selector:

var divJqliteObject = angular.element('div');

But, if jQuery library is referred on the page before referring AngularJS, then Angular uses jQuery and all element objects are created as jQuery objects.

If a jQuery plugin library is referred on the page before referring AngularJS, then the element objects get capabilities of the extended features that the plugins bring in.

33. ngCookie:

ngCookie is a module from the AngularJS team that wraps cookies and provides an easier way to deal with cookies in an AngularJS application. It has two services:

i. $cookieStore: Provides a key-value pair kind of interface to talk to the cookies in the browser. It has methods to get value of a stored cookie, set value to a cookie and remove a cookie. The data is automatically serialized/de-serialized to/from JSON.

ii. $cookies: An object representing the cookies. Can be used directly to get or set values to cookies

34. Unit testing:

AngularJS is built with unit testing in mind. Every component defined in Angular is testable. Dependency injection is the key factor behind it. Take any kind of component in Angular, it can’t be written without getting some of the external components injected in. This gives freedom to programmers to pass any object of their choice instead of the actual component object while writing tests. The only thing to be taken care is to create an object with the same shim as the component.

AngularJS code can be unit tested using any JavaScript Unit Testing framework like QUnit, Jasmine, Mocha or any other framework. Jasmine is the most widely used testing framework with Angular. Tests can be run anywhere, in browser or even in console using Karma test runner.

The main difference between application code and unit tests is, application code is backed by the framework and browser, whereas unit tests are totally under our control. So, wherever we get objects automatically injected or created by AngularJS, these objects are not available in unit tests. They have to be created manually.

35. Bootstrapping a unit test:

Just like the case of Angular application, we need to bootstrap a module in unit tests to load the module. As the module has to be loaded fresh before any test runs, we load module while setting up the tests. In Jasmine tests, setup is doe using beforeEach block.

beforeEach(function(){ module('myModule'); });

36. Creating $scope in unit tests:

$scope is a special injectable in AngularJS. It is unlike other objects as it is not already created to pass into a component when asked. A $scope can be injected only inside controllers and for every request of $scope, a new $scope object is created that is inherited from $rootScope. Framework takes care of creating the scope when the application is executed. We have to do it manually to get a $scope object in tests. Following snippet demonstrates creation of $scope:

var scope; beforeEach(inject(function ($rootScope) { scope = $rootScope.$new(); }));

37. Testing controllers:

In an AngularJS application, we generally don’t need to create an object of a controller manually. It gets created whenever a view loads or the template containing an ng-controller directive loads. To create it manually, we need to use the $controller service. To test the behavior of controller, we need to manually create object of the controller.

inject(function($controller){ var controller = $controller('myController', { $scope: scope, service: serviceMock }); });

As we see, arguments to the controller are passed using a JavaScript object literal. They would be mapped to right objects according to names of the services. After this, the scope would have all properties and methods that are set in the controller. We can invoke them to test their behavior.

it('should return 10', function(){ var val = scope.getValue(); expect(val).toEqual(10); });

38. Testing services:

Getting object of a service is easy as it is directly available to the inject() method.

var serviceObj; beforeEach(inject(function (myService) { serviceObj = service; }));

Now any public method exposed from the service can be called and the result can be tested using assertions.

it('should get some data', function(){ var data = serviceObj.getCustomers(); expect(data).not.toBe(null); expect(data).not.toBe(undefined); });

39. ng-controller outside ng-view:

Though controllers are used with views in general, it doesn’t mean that they can’t be used outside a view. A controller can be made responsible to load menu items, show toast messages, update user when a background task is completed or any such thing that doesn’t depend on the view loaded inside ng-view.

40. Nested Controllers:

To avoid controllers from getting too complicated, you can split the behavior by creating Nested Controllers. This lets you define common functionality in a parent controller and use it one or more child controllers. The child controller inherits all properties of the outside scope and in case of equality, overrides the properties.

41. Mocking services:

Mocking is one of the most crucial things in unit testing. It helps in keeping the system under test isolated from any dependency that it has. It is very common to have a component to depend on a service to get a piece of work done. This work has to be suppressed in unit tests and replaced with a mock or stub. Following snippet mocks a service:

Say, we have following service:

app.service('customersSvc', function(){ this.getCustomers = function(){ //get customers and return }; this.getCustomer = function(id){ //get the customer and return }; this.addCustomer = function(customer){ //add the customer }; });

To mock this service, we need to create a simple object with three mocks with the names same as the ones in the service and ask Angular’s injector to return the object whenever the service is requested.

var mockCustomersSvc; beforEach(function(){ mockCustomerService = { getCustomers: jasmine.createSpy('getCustomers'), getCustomer: jasmine.createSpy('getCustomer'), addCustomers: jasmine.createSpy('addCustomer') }; module(function($provide){ $provide.value('customersSvc', mockCustomersSvc); }); });

42.ngMock

The ngMock module provides useful tools for unit testing AngularJS components such as controllers, filters, directives and services.

The module function of ngMock loads the module you want to test and it’s inject method resolves the dependencies on the service to be tested

function of ngMock loads the module you want to test and it’s inject method resolves the dependencies on the service to be tested We can mock the backend and test components depending on the $http service using the $httpBackend service in ngMocks

using the service in ngMocks We can mock timeouts and intervals using $interval and $timeout in ngMocks

and in ngMocks The $log service can be used for test logging

service can be used for test logging The $filter service allows us to test filters

service allows us to test filters Directives are complex to test. Use the $compile service and jqLite to test directives

43. ng-class:

ng-class can be used in multiple ways to dynamically apply one or more CSS classes to an HTML element. One of the very good features is, it supports some simple logical operators too. Following list shows different ways of using ng-class:

i. some text

Assigns value of dynamicClass from scope to the CSS class. It is two-way bound, i.e. if value of dynamicClass changes, the style applied on the div also changes.

ii. some text

All classes mentioned in the array are applied

iii. some text

my-class-1 is applied when value1 is assigned with a truthy value (other than false, empty string, undefined or null)

iv. some text

Value of class applied is based on result of the ternary operator.

v.

Here, applyFirstClass and applySecondClass are data bound variables. The expression applies firstClass if applyFirstClass is true. It applies secondClass only if applySecondClass is true and applyFirstClass is false.

44. Resolve blocks in routing:

Resolve blocks are used to load data before a route is resolved. They can be used to validate authenticity of the user, load initial data to be rendered on the view or to establish a real-time connection (e.g. Web socket connection) as it would be in use by the view. View is rendered only if all the resolve blocks of the view are resolved. Otherwise, the route is cancelled and the user is navigated to the previous view.

$routeProvider.when('/details', { templateUrl: 'detailsView.html', controller: 'detailsController', resolve: { loadData: function (dataSvc, $q) { var deferred = $q.defer; dataSvc.getDetails(10).then( function (data) { deferred.reslve(data); }, function () { deferred.reject(); }); return deferred.promise; } } });

In the above snippet, the route won’t be resolved if the promise is rejected. Resolve block can be injected into the controller and data resolved from the resolve block can be accessed using the injected object.

45. $compile

Used to compile templates after the compilation phase. $compile is generally used in link function of directives or services. But, it should be used with caution as manual compilation is an expensive operation.

myModule.directive('sampleDirective', function(){ return { link: function(scope, elem, attrs){ var compiled = $compile(' {{person.name}} ')(scope); elem.html(compiled); } }; });

46. $parse

$parse is used to transform plain text into expression. The expression can be evaluated against any object context to obtain the value corresponding to the object. Very common usage of parse is inside directives to parse the text received from an attribute and evaluate it against scope. The expression also can be used to add a watcher.

myModule.directive('sampleDirective', function($parse){ return function(scope, elem, attrs){ var expression = $parse(attrs.tempValue); var value = expression(scope); scope.$watch(expression, function(newVal, oldVal){ //Logic to be performed }); }; });

47. Route change events:

When a user navigates from one page to another, AngularJS broadcasts events at different phases. One can listen to these events and take appropriate action like verifying login status, requesting for data needed for the page or even to count the number of hits on a view. Following are the events raised:

$routeChangeStart

$routeChangeSuccess

$routeChangeError

$routeUpdate

48. Decorating

It is possible to modify the behavior or extend the functionality of any object in AngularJS through decoration. Decoration is applied in AngularJS using $provide provider. It has to be done in config block. Following example adds a method to the value:

angular.module('myModule',[]) .config(function($provide) { $provide.decorator('someValue', function($delegate){ $delegate.secondFn = function(){ console.log("Second Function"); }; return $delegate; }); }) .value('someValue',{ firstFn: function(){ console.log("First Function"); } });

Note: Constants cannot be decorated

49. Exception handling

All unhandled exceptions in an AngularJS application are passed to a service $exceptionHandler, which logs the error message in the browser’s console. In large business applications, you may want to log the error details on the server by calling an API. This can be done by decorating the $exceptionHandler service.

myApp.config(function ($provide) { $provide.decorator('$exceptionHandler', ['$log', '$http', '$delegate', function ($log, $http, $delegate) { return function (exception, cause) { $log.debug('Modified exception handler'); $http.post('/api/clientExceptionLogger', exception); $delegate(exception, cause); }; } ]); });

50. HTTP Interceptors

Any HTTP request sent through $http service can be intercepted to perform certain operation at a given state. The state may be one of: before sending request, on request error, after receiving response and on response error. Interceptors are generally used to check authenticity of the request before sending to the server or to displaying some kind of wait indicator to the user when the user has to wait for the data to arrive. The intercepting methods may return either plain data or a promise.

myModule.config(function ($provide) { $provide.factory('myHttpInterceptor', function () { return { request: function (req) { //logic before sending request }, response: function (res) { //logic after receiving response }, requestError: function () { //logic on request error }, responseError: function () { //logic on response error } }; }); });

51. HTTP Transforms

Transforms allow us to tweak the data before sending to an HTTP request or after receiving response at the end of a request. It can be applied either globally using a config block or on a specific request using the $http config object.

Setting transform in config block:

myModule.config(function ($httpProvider) { $httpProvider.defaults.transformRequest.push(function (data) { //Operate on data }); });

In the individual request:

$http({ url: '/api/values', method: 'GET', transformRequest: function (data) { //Operate on data } });

Some useful AngularJS Tools and Libraries

Visual Studio Express (free), Sublime (paid), NetBeans (free) or WebStorm (paid) for AngularJS Development

Batarang Chrome Development Plugin (bit.ly/dncm15-batarang) for debugging and profiling AngularJS applications

AngularUI (angular-ui.github.io/ ) and ngModules (ngmodules.org ) are a good place to look out for commonly used modules

Angular Seed (bit.ly/dncm15-angularseed ), ngBoilerplate (github.com/ngbp/ngbp) and Yeoman (yeoman.io/) can be used for workflow and project structure management

The Iconic Framework (http://ionicframework.com) is an Angular wrapper around PhoneGap; can be used to build hybrid mobile apps with Angular

Some useful companion libraries in AngularJS

AngularUI-Bootstrap (github.com/angular-ui/bootstrap) provides native AngularJS directives for Bootstrap (No need of jQuery)

AngularUI-Utils (github.com/angular-ui/ui-utils) contains a bunch of essential utilities (included with ng-boilerplate)

AngularUI (angular-ui.github.io/) ports off many jQueryUI components to Angular

Angular translate (angular-translate.github.io) makes it easier to apply internationalization to Angular projects

Restangular (github.com/mgonto/restangular) A clean, promise-based, feature rich 3 rd -party library that provides some useful abstractions, especially for complex operations on the client-side­

-party library that provides some useful abstractions, especially for complex operations on the client-side­ AngularFire (firebase.com/docs/web/libraries/angular/): An abstraction to interact with Firebase realtime database

Breeze.js (breezejs.com/): A library for rich data operations in AngularJS apps. Also contains directives for data validations

Subscribe to our .NET Digital Magazine for free and access many similar articles in a nice PDF format.

This article has been editorially reviewed by Suprotim Agarwal.

C# and .NET have been around for a very long time, but their constant growth means there’s always more to learn. We at DotNetCurry are very excited to announce The Absolutely Awesome Book on C# and .NET. This is a 500 pages concise technical eBook available in PDF, ePub (iPad), and Mobi (Kindle). Organized around concepts, this Book aims to provide a concise, yet solid foundation in C# and .NET, covering C# 6.0, C# 7.0 and .NET Core, with chapters on the latest .NET Core 3.0, .NET Standard and C# 8.0 (final release) too. Use these concepts to deepen your existing knowledge of C# and .NET, to have a solid grasp of the latest in C# and .NET OR to crack your next .NET Interview. Click here to Explore the Table of Contents or Download Sample Chapters!