Angular: How to $broadcast from Factory?

Question

I have a list of items and I need to get a message (saying Item added!) in the navbar whenever a new item is added.

The function addItem() (ng-click on the Add Item

Answer 1

Here is a clean solution for you.

See it working in this plunker

Let me explain how all of this works.

Your message looks like this :

Item added !

It will show only when "alterITemAdded.recenAdd" is true. You'll use this to make the message disapear if you need.

You factory look like this now :

angular.module('MyApp').service('ItemService', function(){

    var service = {};

    //I'll always wrap my data in a sub object.
    service.notification = {};

    service.notification.recentAdd=false;

    service.items = {};

    service.items.list = [
        'Item 1', 
        'Item 2', 
        'Item 3'
    ];

    service.items.addItem = function(item){
          service.items.list.push(item);
          service.notification.recentAdd=true;
          console.log(service);
    }

    service.items.removeItem = function($index){
          service.items.list.splice($index, 1);
    }

    return service;

});

I'm using service instead of factory. But there is almost no difference, it's just a matter of taste.

Here is your controllers

angular.module('MyApp').controller('MainCtrl', function($scope, ItemService){

    $scope.text = "Text from the Main Controller";

});

angular.module('MyApp').controller('NavCtrl', function($scope, ItemService){

    //IMPORTANT POINT : I bind it the sub object. Not to the value. To access the value i'll use $scope.alterItemAdded.recentAdd
    $scope.alertItemAdded = ItemService.notification;
    //I don't have to redeclare the function. I just bind it to the service function.
    $scope.addItem = ItemService.items.addItem;
});

angular.module('MyApp').controller('ContentCtrl', function($scope, ItemService){

    $scope.items = ItemService.items.list;

    $scope.addItem = ItemService.items.addItem;

    $scope.removeItem = function($index){
        ItemService.items.removeItem($index);
    }

});

Important point :

I always bind my vars to a sub object. Why ? In fact if i did $scope.alertItemAdded = ItemService.notifications.recentAdd

When i do something like this in my service

 service.notifications.recentAdd = true;

It will create a new variable and put the reference into service.notifications.recentAdd. The $scope.alertItemAdded was bind to the previous reference and wont see the update.

Doing this :

$scope.alterItemAdded = ItemService.notification

And using the value in the ng-if clause or anything else. I prevent the reference link to break. If i do in the service

service.notification.recentAdd = true

I'll create a new var with a new reference for "recentAdd" but i keep the same reference for "notification". The binding in the controller will be keep and the value recentAdd will be updated in the view.

If you have more question feel free to ask.