Can I make a function available in every controller in angular?

ghz 1years ago ⋅ 7799 views

Question

If I have a utility function foo that I want to be able to call from anywhere inside of my ng-app declaration. Is there someway I can make it globally accessible in my module setup or do I need to add it to the scope in every controller?

Answer

You basically have two options, either define it as a service, or place it on your root scope. I would suggest that you make a service out of it to avoid polluting the root scope. You create a service and make it available in your controller like this:

<!doctype html>
<html ng-app="myApp">
<head>
    <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.9.1.min.js"></script>
    <script src="http://code.angularjs.org/1.1.2/angular.min.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
    var myApp = angular.module('myApp', []);

    myApp.factory('myService', function() {
        return {
            foo: function() {
                alert("I'm foo!");
            }
        };
    });

    myApp.controller('MainCtrl', ['$scope', 'myService', function($scope, myService) {
        $scope.callFoo = function() {
            myService.foo();
        }
    }]);
    </script>
</head>
<body ng-controller="MainCtrl">
    <button ng-click="callFoo()">Call foo</button>
</body>
</html>

If that's not an option for you, you can add it to the root scope like this:

<!doctype html>
<html ng-app="myApp">
<head>
    <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.9.1.min.js"></script>
    <script src="http://code.angularjs.org/1.1.2/angular.min.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
    var myApp = angular.module('myApp', []);

    myApp.run(function($rootScope) {
        $rootScope.globalFoo = function() {
            alert("I'm global foo!");
        };
    });

    myApp.controller('MainCtrl', ['$scope', function($scope){

    }]);
    </script>
</head>
<body ng-controller="MainCtrl">
    <button ng-click="globalFoo()">Call global foo</button>
</body>
</html>

That way, all of your templates can call globalFoo() without having to pass it to the template from the controller.

#angularjs