Asterisk is too greedy in route matching

[thorn0]

Can't figure out how I should configure states/routes to get what I need.

I need that URLs like folder1/filename, folder1/folder2/filename be matched to one state (say file), and URLs like folder1/filename/EDIT, folder1/folder2/filename/EDIT to another (file.edit). As it might include any number of folders, I use a parameter with asterisk to match the folders and file name:

$stateProvider.state('file', { route: '{*path}' });

But then, I can't configure the file.edit state:

$stateProvider.state('file.edit', { route: '/EDIT' });

It doesn't work as /EDIT becomes part of the path parameter. Can something be done here? Can the asterisk be less greedy?

[jeme]

Unfortunately the routing system doesn't support that, when you add a catch all parameter we eat up the rest of the url, and I can't find a sane way to otherwise deal with that in your specific case where you will end up having a very dynamic url in front of your "/EDIT" part of your path.

There is a way to achieve this though, but it's actually quite ugly. Given this plunker: http://plnkr.co/edit/O6XfQFyUzZHlOzcLRgRZ?p=preview

We can register a converter to deal with this:

    String.prototype.endsWith = function(suffix) {
      return this.indexOf(suffix, this.length - suffix.length) !== -1;
    };

    $routeProvider.convert('isNotEdit', function() {
      return {
        parse: function(param) {
          return !param.endsWith('EDIT');
        }
      };
    });

(it's actually possible that you can use the "regex" converter out of the box to achieve this, but this was just done quickly.)

Now you can use those in your states:

$stateProvider.state('file', { route: '{isNotEdit:*path}' });
$stateProvider.state('file.edit', { route: '/EDIT' });

This isn't ideal as it's really due to a side effect that this works. I will think about how this could be added in a better way.

[thorn0]

I will think about how this could be added in a better way.

Seems that a possible solution is to try matching substates first, before the parent state.

[jeme]

@thorn0 It's designed so the Routing engine is a standalone component, meaning it doesn't have any knowledge of that.

Besides, your also looking for the ability to configure routes as: /{*}/Something/More, which is more complex than just so...