Keeping state between navigations in Ionic and AngularJS: A guide

Question

Keeping state between navigations in Ionic and AngularJS: A guide

In the process of developing my very first hybrid mobile application using Ionic and AngularJS, I have encountered a challenge that I am currently trying to resolve. The issue at hand involves maintaining the state of the graphical user interface between navigations within the app. To provide context, let's assume that my mobile app features a side menu with various item links:

Search form
All (#/all)
Cats (#/cats)
Dogs (#/dogs)
Err... Cows? (#/cows)
Contact (#/contact)

The items listed from 2 to 5 trigger the retrieval of server data in an infinite loading fashion.

Now, let's consider a scenario where I navigate from Cats to Dogs, and then back to Cats. Due to my understanding that a new Controller instance (and scope) is created upon each route change, the app reloads the list of cats from the server instead of maintaining the previous state. My goal is for the Cats state to persist and be displayed again upon returning to it.

I have conducted research in search of a solution to this common dilemma, but most suggestions involve listening for events such as state change or route change and storing the object array in localStorage. However, I find this approach somewhat cumbersome, particularly due to the necessity of compiling HTML which could potentially slow down performance, especially when dealing with a large number of objects. Additionally, there are concerns about the viewport reverting to the top of the app.

Therefore, I seek insights on how others address this issue. Is there a form of navigation akin to the browser's back and forward buttons? How would you recommend tackling this particular challenge?

javascript angularjs ionic-framework

Answer 1

Answer №1

If you're looking to achieve that, you may want to consider utilizing an AngularJS Service. For detailed insights, I recommend checking out this informative article on data sharing between views in Ionic:

You'll find the solution to your query under the "Sharing Data with Services" section.

Answer 2

If you're looking to achieve that, you may want to consider utilizing an AngularJS Service. For detailed insights, I recommend checking out this informative article on data sharing between views in Ionic:

You'll find the solution to your query under the "Sharing Data with Services" section.

Answer 3

Answer №2

I encountered a different issue where I needed the page to refresh when the user returned to it, but it wasn't happening. Between the time this question was asked and now, which spans about 10 months, Ionic seems to have introduced a page cache feature to enable functionalities like the iOS slide-to-go-back effect. This may have resolved your problem, but just in case...

To address my problem, I included "cache: false" in the options for each state within the .config() section of the module. However, in certain cases, I didn't want certain pages or states to reload, yet I couldn't guarantee their presence in the cache upon the user's return. Hence, I came up with a solution involving setting a flag in $rootScope – essentially creating an object in $rootScope containing a flag variable for each controller. I would then check this flag to determine if the page had already been loaded and avoid running any controller code if that were the case. If you follow the scenario you described, it would look something like this:

app.js (or relevant .js file defining the module):

angular.module('MyApp', ['ionic'])
.config(function($stateProvider, $urlRouterProvider) {
  $stateProvider
    .state('Search'  , { cache: true  , url:'/Search'  , templateUrl:'templates/Search.html'  , controller: 'SearchController'  })
    .state('All'     , { cache: true  , url:'/All'     , templateUrl:'templates/All.html'     , controller: 'AllController'     })
    ...
  $urlRouterProvider.otherwise('/');
});

For the controllers, you could implement it as shown below:

controllers.js

.controller('SearchController', function($scope, $rootScope, $state) {
    // Create $rootScope.flags as an empty object if it doesn't exist already
    $rootScope.flags = $rootScope.flags || {};

    if($rootScope.flags.SearchPageHasBeenOpenedAlready) {
      console.log("Search page was already opened, not performing any actions.");
      return;
    } else {
      $rootScope.flags.SearchPageHasBeenOpenedAlready  = false;
      ...
    }

    /* Include SearchController logic here */

    $rootScope.flags.SearchPageHasBeenOpenedAlready = true;
  }
)

.controller('AllController', function($scope, $rootScope, $state) {
    $rootScope.flags = $rootScope.flags || {};

    if($rootScope.flags.AllPageHasBeenOpenedAlready) {
      console.log("All page was already opened, not performing any actions.");
      return;
    }

    /* Include AllController logic here */

    $rootScope.flags.AllPageHasBeenOpenedAlready = true;
  }
)

/* 
Continue similarly for other controllers...
*/

.controller('ContactController', function($scope, $rootScope, $state) {
    $rootScope.flags = $rootScope.flags || {};

    if($rootScope.flags.ContactPageHasBeenOpenedAlready) {
      console.log("Contact page was already opened, not performing any actions.");
      return;
    }

    /* Include ContactController logic here */

    $rootScope.flags.ContactPageHasBeenOpenedAlready = true;
  }
);

Answer 4

I encountered a different issue where I needed the page to refresh when the user returned to it, but it wasn't happening. Between the time this question was asked and now, which spans about 10 months, Ionic seems to have introduced a page cache feature to enable functionalities like the iOS slide-to-go-back effect. This may have resolved your problem, but just in case...

To address my problem, I included "cache: false" in the options for each state within the .config() section of the module. However, in certain cases, I didn't want certain pages or states to reload, yet I couldn't guarantee their presence in the cache upon the user's return. Hence, I came up with a solution involving setting a flag in $rootScope – essentially creating an object in $rootScope containing a flag variable for each controller. I would then check this flag to determine if the page had already been loaded and avoid running any controller code if that were the case. If you follow the scenario you described, it would look something like this:

app.js (or relevant .js file defining the module):

angular.module('MyApp', ['ionic'])
.config(function($stateProvider, $urlRouterProvider) {
  $stateProvider
    .state('Search'  , { cache: true  , url:'/Search'  , templateUrl:'templates/Search.html'  , controller: 'SearchController'  })
    .state('All'     , { cache: true  , url:'/All'     , templateUrl:'templates/All.html'     , controller: 'AllController'     })
    ...
  $urlRouterProvider.otherwise('/');
});

For the controllers, you could implement it as shown below:

controllers.js

.controller('SearchController', function($scope, $rootScope, $state) {
    // Create $rootScope.flags as an empty object if it doesn't exist already
    $rootScope.flags = $rootScope.flags || {};

    if($rootScope.flags.SearchPageHasBeenOpenedAlready) {
      console.log("Search page was already opened, not performing any actions.");
      return;
    } else {
      $rootScope.flags.SearchPageHasBeenOpenedAlready  = false;
      ...
    }

    /* Include SearchController logic here */

    $rootScope.flags.SearchPageHasBeenOpenedAlready = true;
  }
)

.controller('AllController', function($scope, $rootScope, $state) {
    $rootScope.flags = $rootScope.flags || {};

    if($rootScope.flags.AllPageHasBeenOpenedAlready) {
      console.log("All page was already opened, not performing any actions.");
      return;
    }

    /* Include AllController logic here */

    $rootScope.flags.AllPageHasBeenOpenedAlready = true;
  }
)

/* 
Continue similarly for other controllers...
*/

.controller('ContactController', function($scope, $rootScope, $state) {
    $rootScope.flags = $rootScope.flags || {};

    if($rootScope.flags.ContactPageHasBeenOpenedAlready) {
      console.log("Contact page was already opened, not performing any actions.");
      return;
    }

    /* Include ContactController logic here */

    $rootScope.flags.ContactPageHasBeenOpenedAlready = true;
  }
);

Keeping state between navigations in Ionic and AngularJS: A guide

Answer №1

Answer №2

app.js (or relevant .js file defining the module):

controllers.js

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