Angularjs $resource not working with an array returned from a REST API

Question

I am trying to learn angularjs, and have hit a block in trying to databind to an array returned from a Rest API. I have a simple azure api returning an array of person objec

Answer 1

In order to handle arrays with the $resource service, it's suggested that you use the query method. As you can see below, the query method is built to handle arrays.

{ 'get':    {method:'GET'},
  'save':   {method:'POST'},
  'query':  {method:'GET', isArray:true},
  'remove': {method:'DELETE'},
  'delete': {method:'DELETE'} };

The code you should use in order to return this array to your scope is

angular.module("ToDoApp", ["ngResource"]);

function TodoCtrl($scope, $resource) {
    var svc = $resource('http://testv1.cloudapp.net/test.svc/persons');
    $scope.items = svc.query();
    $scope.msg = "Hello World";
}

This assumes that your REST API is working and will return an array.

For further reading head to the docs

http://docs.angularjs.org/api/ngResource.$resource

Answer 2

Not sure if we are having the same problem with json and REST, but this post solved my problem: array of strings not rendered correctly through angular resource

Answer 3

Just wanted to cross-post my adaptation of a solution Aleksander gave on another stackoverflow question: https://stackoverflow.com/a/16387288/626810:

methodName: {method:'GET', url: "/some/location/returning/array", transformResponse: function (data) {return {list: angular.fromJson(data)} }}

So when I call this function:

var tempData = ResourceName.methodName(function(){
  console.log(tempData.list); // list will be the array in the expected format
});

Obviously this a little bulky if you need to GET arrays in multiple methods / resources, but it seems to work.

Answer 4

The array you get back from the server isn't a clean array, but has some extra properties. That makes ng-repeat not show anything when you iterate over it using in.

You need a special iterator to go over the array from the server, which will ignore those extra properties. So extract the array data through forEach first, like this:

$scope.items = []
var response = $scope.svc.get();
angular.forEach(response, function(item) {
  $scope.items.push(item);
});

Then you can do

<tr ng-repeat="item in items">

Answer 5

I had similar problem and non of the answers quite worked for me, heres what i did:

    $resource("/", {}, {
       query: {
            method: 'GET',
            isArray: false,
            transformResponse: function (data, headers) {
                //if no data return so no warnings
                if (data == ''){
                    return;
                }

                return {data: $.extend({}, eval("{" + data + '}'))};
            }
        }
   });

Uses jquery. Basically convert array to object so angularjs resource doesn't poop its pants.

Answer 6

Use isArray param, if you have nested objects:

angular.module('privilegeService', ['ngResource']).
factory('Privilege', function ($resource) {
    return $resource('api/users/:userId/privileges', 
                     {userId: '@id'}, 
                     {'query':  {method:'GET', isArray:false}});
});

Than you can use container.object.property notation to access objects and its properties.