Angular HttpPromise: difference between `success`/`error` methods and `then`'s arguments

Question

According to AngularJS doc, calls to $http return the following:

Returns a promise object with the standard then

Answer 1

NB This answer is factually incorrect; as pointed out by a comment below, success() does return the original promise. I'll not change; and leave it to OP to edit.

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The major difference between the 2 is that .then() call returns a promise (resolved with a value returned from a callback) while .success() is more traditional way of registering callbacks and doesn't return a promise.

Promise-based callbacks (.then()) make it easy to chain promises (do a call, interpret results and then do another call, interpret results, do yet another call etc.).

The .success() method is a streamlined, convenience method when you don't need to chain call nor work with the promise API (for example, in routing).

In short:

• .then() - full power of the promise API but slightly more verbose
• .success() - doesn't return a promise but offeres slightly more convienient syntax