Rationale for todo.js ?

[davisford]

Hi, thanks for the bootstrap; I was wondering what your rationale is for creating the todo.js file in the sample app with the todo sub-section? In it, you just create the module ... i.e.

angular.module('app.todo', []);

But curious why not just put that in with the controller, todo-controller.js ?

angular.module('app.todo', [])
  .controller('TodoCtrl', function () { ...

I suppose if a sub-section had multiple controllers in it, then it would be necessary because you only want to define the module one time, but I am just now porting a sizable app over to this new structure, and wanted to make sure I understood what the point of that file was -- i.e. why not merge the module creation with the controller ?

[scmx]

controllers is just a part of a module todo.js should be used to declare module dependencies It could also contain config-blocks, run-blocks, perhaps also routes and small services. I sometimes use it to initialize a service in the module, example:

// todo.js
angular.module('app.todo', []);
  .run(function (ping) {
    $rootScope.ping = ping;
  })
  .config(function ($routeProvider) {
    'use strict';
    $routeProvider
      .when('/todo', {
        controller: 'TodoCtrl',
        templateUrl: '/app/todo/todo.html'
      })
      .otherwise({
        redirectTo: '/todo'
      });

// todo-service.js
angular.module('app.todo');
  .factory('ping', function () {
    'use strict';
    return { pong: function () { console.log('pong'); } }
  });

// todo-ctrl.js
angular.module('app.todo');
  .controller('TodoCtrl', function (ping) {
    $rootScope.ping.pong();
    ...
  });

[davisford]

Thanks for the response. Splitting out the $routeProvider configuration into separate module files is indeed a nicer way to do that, as opposed to dumping them all in app.js. Good tip. I'll close this out.

[joakimbeng]

@davisford having a separate file for the module definition is good for possible future scalability, I also like the consistency of always having an entry point file for each module/folder with the same name as the module/folder - which gives you the benefit of easy navigation in your editor :)