AngularJS : How to watch service variables?

Question

I have a service, say:

factory(\'aService\', [\'$rootScope\', \'$resource\', function ($rootScope, $resource) {
  var service = {
    foo: []
  };

  return          


        

Answer 1

A wee bit ugly, but I've added registration of scope variables to my service for a toggle:

myApp.service('myService', function() {
    var self = this;
    self.value = false;
    self.c2 = function(){};
    self.callback = function(){
        self.value = !self.value; 
       self.c2();
    };

    self.on = function(){
        return self.value;
    };

    self.register = function(obj, key){ 
        self.c2 = function(){
            obj[key] = self.value; 
            obj.$apply();
        } 
    };

    return this;
});

And then in the controller:

function MyCtrl($scope, myService) {
    $scope.name = 'Superhero';
    $scope.myVar = false;
    myService.register($scope, 'myVar');
}

Answer 2

Without watches or observer callbacks (http://jsfiddle.net/zymotik/853wvv7s/):

JavaScript:

angular.module("Demo", [])
    .factory("DemoService", function($timeout) {

        function DemoService() {
            var self = this;
            self.name = "Demo Service";

            self.count = 0;

            self.counter = function(){
                self.count++;
                $timeout(self.counter, 1000);
            }

            self.addOneHundred = function(){
                self.count+=100;
            }

            self.counter();
        }

        return new DemoService();

    })
    .controller("DemoController", function($scope, DemoService) {

        $scope.service = DemoService;

        $scope.minusOneHundred = function() {
            DemoService.count -= 100;
        }

    });

HTML

<div ng-app="Demo" ng-controller="DemoController">
    <div>
        <h4>{{service.name}}</h4>
        <p>Count: {{service.count}}</p>
    </div>
</div>

This JavaScript works as we are passing an object back from the service rather than a value. When a JavaScript object is returned from a service, Angular adds watches to all of its properties.

Also note that I am using 'var self = this' as I need to keep a reference to the original object when the $timeout executes, otherwise 'this' will refer to the window object.

Answer 3

Building on dtheodor's answer you could use something similar to the below to ensure that you don't forget to unregister the callback... Some may object to passing the $scope to a service though.

factory('aService', function() {
  var observerCallbacks = [];

  /**
   * Registers a function that will be called when
   * any modifications are made.
   *
   * For convenience the callback is called immediately after registering
   * which can be prevented with `preventImmediate` param.
   *
   * Will also automatically unregister the callback upon scope destory.
   */
  this.registerObserver = function($scope, cb, preventImmediate){
    observerCallbacks.push(cb);

    if (preventImmediate !== true) {
      cb();
    }

    $scope.$on('$destroy', function () {
      observerCallbacks.remove(cb);
    });
  };

  function notifyObservers() {
    observerCallbacks.forEach(function (cb) {
      cb();
    });
  };

  this.foo = someNgResource.query().$then(function(){
    notifyObservers();
  });
});

Array.remove is an extension method which looks like this:

/**
 * Removes the given item the current array.
 *
 * @param  {Object}  item   The item to remove.
 * @return {Boolean}        True if the item is removed.
 */
Array.prototype.remove = function (item /*, thisp */) {
    var idx = this.indexOf(item);

    if (idx > -1) {
        this.splice(idx, 1);

        return true;
    }
    return false;
};