As a newcomer to AngularJS, I aim to develop an application in adherence to John Papa's AngularJS style guide. To familiarize myself with these best practices, I have opted for the HotTowel skeleton.

My application requires consuming an HTTP API endpoint that fetches information about the authenticated user from example.com/api/users/me. Since multiple controllers will use this data, I need a shared data service. A crucial prerequisite is that the API should only be called once. To achieve this, I created a method to initialize the service with a single API call. Drawing inspiration from HotTowel's core/dataservice.js, my service script looks like this:

//File: currentUserDataService.js
(function() {
    'use strict';

    angular
        .module('app.core')
        .factory('currentUserDataService', currentUserDataService);

    currentUserDataService.$inject = ['$http', '$q', 'exception', 'logger', 'config'];
    /* @ngInject */
    function currentUserDataService($http, $q, exception, logger, config) {
        var user = {};

        var service = {
            init: init,
            getData: getData
        };

        return service;

        function getData(){
            return user;
        }

        function init() {
            return $http.get(config.apiBaseUrl + '/users/me')
                .then(success)
                .catch(fail);

            function success(response) {
                console.log(response.data);
                user = response.data.data;
            }

            function fail(e) {
                console.log(e);
                return exception.catcher('XHR Failed for getPeople')(e);
            }
        }
    }
})();

Next, I plan to utilize this service in the existing DashboardController and ShellController. The initial step involves configuring the dashboard route to resolve the promise of my service:

//File: dashboard.route.js
(function() {
    'use strict';

    angular
        .module('app.dashboard')
        .run(appRun);

    appRun.$inject = ['routerHelper','currentUserDataService'];
    /* @ngInject */
    function appRun(routerHelper,currentUserDataService) {
        routerHelper.configureStates(getStates(currentUserDataService));
    }

    function getStates(currentUserDataService) {
        return [
            {
                state: 'dashboard',
                config: {
                    url: '/',
                    templateUrl: 'app/dashboard/dashboard.html',
                    controller: 'DashboardController',
                    controllerAs: 'vm',
                    title: 'dashboard',
                    settings: {
                        nav: 1,
                        content: '<i class="fa fa-dashboard"></i> Dashboard'
                    },
                    resolve: {
                        'currentUserDataService': function(currentUserDataService){
                            return currentUserDataService.init;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        ];
    }
})();

It is my understanding that I can now retrieve data using the getData function of the service within my controller:

//File dashboad.controller.js
(function() {
    'use strict';

    angular
        .module('app.dashboard')
        .controller('DashboardController', DashboardController);

    DashboardController.$inject = ['$q', 'currentUserDataService', 'logger'];
    /* @ngInject */
    function DashboardController($q, currentUserDataService, logger) {
        var vm = this;
        vm.user = {};
        vm.title = 'Dashboard';
        vm.getFullName = getFullName;

        activate();

        function activate() {
            getCurrentUser();
            logger.info('Activated Dashboard View');
        }

        function getCurrentUser() {
            console.log(currentUserDataService);
            //Interestingly I only get the init() function logged on the console
            vm.user = currentUserDataService.getData(); //It fails here
            console.log(vm.user);
            return vm.user;
        }
        function getFullName(){
            return vm.user.name + ' ' + vm.user.lastName;
        }
    }
})();

Upon running the application, I encounter the following error:

Error: currentUserDataService.getData is not a function
getCurrentUser@http://localhost:3000/src/client/app/dashboard/dashboard.controller.js:33:14
activate@http://localhost:3000/src/client/app/dashboard/dashboard.controller.js:24:4
DashboardController@http://localhost:3000/src/client/app/dashboard/dashboard.controller.js:21:3
instantiate@http://localhost:3000/bower_components/angular/angular.js:4640:14
$controller@http://localhost:3000/bower_components/angular/angular.js:10042:18
$ViewDirectiveFill/<.compile/<@http://localhost:3000/bower_components/angular-ui-router/release/angular-ui-router.js:4081:28
invokeLinkFn@http://localhost:3000/bower_components/angular/angular.js:9623:9
nodeLinkFn@http://localhost:3000/bower_components/angular/angular.js:9022:11
compositeLinkFn@http://localhost:3000/bower_components/angular/angular.js:8333:13
publicLinkFn@http://localhost:3000/bower_components/angular/angular.js:8213:30
lazyCompilation@http://localhost:3000/bower_components/angular/angular.js:8551:16
...

From experimenting with @DanEEStar's solution, another error has surfaced:

Error: [ ] currentUserDataService is undefined
getCurrentUser@http://localhost:3000/src/client/app/dashboard/dashboard.controller.js:33:4
...

The returned object from my service seems to lack other methods besides init. What could possibly be wrong with my code?