loading initial data in angularjs

When developing a web application that relies on multiple data sources for every page, what is the most effective way to retrieve the initial data? As observed on Twitter, the tweets that are initially visible on page load are included in the HTML source, with additional tweets being fetched via AJAX as the user scrolls down. However, there is no straightforward method to transfer data already within the DOM into the model.

Fetching the initial data immediately after page load may not be the best approach, as it could result in unnecessary roundtrips to the server for fetching CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. Would it be viable to embed the data within a JavaScript tag on the page, allowing a JavaScript function to incorporate the initial data?

While this question pertains to AngularJS specifically, I am open to hearing about any general techniques as well.

Answer №1

When the page loads, you will already be referencing your controller, eliminating the need for an inline script tag.

You have the option of either setting a default model and utilizing the ng-bind attribute for the initial load, or invoking a function to retrieve the data.

Fetching data upon load is a common practice in AngularJS.

Answer №2

Is it most effective to combine Angularjs with an HTTP Client on the backend, such as Zend_Http_Client or Guzzle, to have the server retrieve the data and then send it as json to javascript during rendering?

I am aware that Angularjs is primarily designed for Single Page applications, which is why it is logical for it to lazy load the data.

However, if we want to adopt an approach where we still dynamically render the page but delegate the task of organizing the content to Angularjs, which framework would be suitable for managing the AngularJS views? Currently, project templates like angular-seed are all static.

The concept is to have the server deliver a page with the embedded json object, with Angular taking charge on the client side to fetch additional content as required.

Instead of just a single contact page (e.g: index.html), there would be multiple pages like profiles.html, products.html. Utilizing the backend can be useful, especially for sections that rarely change, like the username displayed in the top right corner of the page. Personally, I believe it is beneficial to have this data preloaded on the page rather than requesting it from the server after the page has loaded.

As observed by bigblind, this appears to be the approach taken by popular sites like Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter. They embed the data on page load and then load additional content via services afterwards.

The concept can be illustrated as follows:

Webservice <---------- Backend------------> Frontend
     <------------------------------------------

The backend hands off the task of querying the webservice to provide initial data in the rendered page to the client. Subsequently, the client can directly communicate with the webservice to retrieve additional content.

Given the above setup, what would be the optimal development stack to use?

Answer №3

To handle initialization before binding occurs, one approach is to create a custom directive for this purpose. For instance:

app.directive('initdata', function() {
    return {
        restrict: 'A',
        link: function($scope, element, attrs) {
            if ( attrs.ngBind !== undefined)
            {
                $scope[attrs.ngBind] = attrs.initdata ? attrs.initdata : element.text();
            }
        }
    };
});

This directive allows you to set the initial value for a bound $scope property using either the attribute value or the text content of the element.

Here's how you can use it:

<div initdata="Foo Bar" ng-bind="test1"></div>
<div initdata ng-bind="test2">Lorem Ipsem</div>

See a working example at http://jsfiddle.net/6PNG8/

There are many ways to expand on this idea, such as parsing initdata as JSON, merging it with the scope, and handling more complex bindings like $root.someprop. However, the core concept remains straightforward.

Answer №4

Based on the responses provided in this particular inquiry, it appears that utilizing a JSON object within a script tag on the webpage is the recommended approach. Should anyone have an alternative suggestion, I am open to considering it as the accepted solution.

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