Can AngularJS auto-update a view if a persistent model (server database) is changed by an external app?

Question

I\'m just starting to familiarize with AngularJS, but I would like to build a web app that has a view that gets auto-upated in real-time (no refresh) for the user when somet

Answer 1

So, Andy Joslin has mentioned the best solution in my opnion in his answer, the 3rd option, which is to maintain state bidirectionally via websockets or whatever other async library you're dealing with (this would be the Chrome message API for Chrome Extensions and Apps for instance), and toddg has given an example of how that would be achieved. However, in his example he is implementing an anti-pattern in AngularJS: the service is calling the controller. Instead, the model should be placed inside the service, and then referenced from the controller.

The service socket callbacks will modify the service model, and because it is referenced from the controller, it will update the view. Careful if you're dealing with primitive data types or variables that can be reassigned though, those will need a watch on the controller to make this work.