AngularJs location path change without all controllers resetting

Question

Short version of my question is: How do I change the URL without need to trigger route change or without need to run all the controllers on the currently displayed page?

Answer 1

You can use $locationChangeStart event to store the previous value in $rootScope or in a service. When you come back, just initialize all the previously stored values from the $rootScope. Check this quick demo using $rootScope.

var app = angular.module("myApp", ["ngRoute"]);
app.controller("tab1Ctrl", function($scope, $rootScope) {
    if ($rootScope.savedScopes) {
        for (key in $rootScope.savedScopes) {
            $scope[key] = $rootScope.savedScopes[key];
        }
    }
    $scope.$on('$locationChangeStart', function(event, next, current) {
        $rootScope.savedScopes = {
            name: $scope.name,
            age: $scope.age
        };
    });
});
app.controller("tab2Ctrl", function($scope) {
    $scope.language = "English";
});
app.config(function($routeProvider) {
    $routeProvider
        .when("/", {
            template: "
Tab1 content
Name: 

Age: 
Fill the details and click on Tab2
",
            controller: "tab1Ctrl"
        })
        .when("/tab2", {
            template: "
Tab2 content
 My language: {{language}}
Now go back to Tab1
",
            controller: "tab2Ctrl"
        });
});

    Tab1
    Tab2