caching images in angularjs - ngRepeat

Question

I wanted to know how to implement a image cache in AngularJS, or a way to load the image once and use it many times in the same application

I have to show a directory listing in ui-select . The drop down may contain folders or files. For folders I want to show a folder icon and for files I want to show a file icon. I am using ng-repeat to iterate the array of files and folders

[ {name: "abc/", folder: true}, {name: "pqr.txt", folder: false}, ......]

Inside the ng-repeat, I have a ng-if which shows a folder icon, if folder-attribute is true else it shows a file-icon. Right now, I am using tag to load the image. The image is in my local directory, will it slow down the performance? Should I use a cache?

Answer 1

If you are not using through an $http service you might use the $cacheFactory service that generates cache objects for all Angular services. Internally, the $cacheFactory creates a default cache object, even if we don’t create one explicitly.

Then you can use the the put method which allows to to put a key (string) of any JavaScript object value into the cache.

cache.put(key, value);

You can access it by

cache.get(key);

Or if you are using through $http service you can enable the cache by setting the cache parameter as true:

$http({
   method: 'GET',
   url: '/api/users.json',
   cache: true
});

Answer 2

For anyone coming here from a Cordova/Phonegap + Angular mix; I was running into the issue where I didn't like any of the solutions available and the seemingly popular solution of the christen/imgcache plugin wasn't worth following due to lack of OS support (Looks like chrome is the only OS supported) https://github.com/chrisben/imgcache.js/

So I decided to write an AngularJS directory that handles the entire process simply by adding a "cacheimg" attribute on any img/element with background image.

The basics of the following are that it downloads and writes the image files into temporary storage on the device using the cordova file + filetransfer plugins (Both are required for this plugin to work!)

var LOG_TAG = 'DIR_IMGCACHE: ';
app.directive('cacheimg', function() {
    return {
        restrict: 'A',
        link: function(scope, elem, attrs) {
            console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Starting Directive.');

            // Watch any value changes
            scope.$watch(function () {
                return elem.css(attrs.style);
            },  function(){

                // Style has been changed so check image hasn't been modified
                findImageURLs(elem, attrs);

            }, true);

            scope.$watch(function () {
                return attrs.src;
            },  function(){

                // Image source has been changed so check image hasn't been modified
                findImageURLs(elem, attrs);

            }, true);


            // Do an initial search for anything pre-set
            findImageURLs(elem, attrs);

        }
    };
});

function findImageURLs(elem, attrs){
    // Check for  background image
    if (elem.css('background-image') !== 'none'){
        console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Background Image');

        var backimgsrc = elem.css('background-image');
        if (backimgsrc.startsWith('url(')){
            backimgsrc = backimgsrc.substring(4, backimgsrc.length -1);
        }

        // Retrieve from the cache (or download if we havent already)
        GetFromCache(backimgsrc, function(imgPath){
            console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Got image - setting now');

            // Got the image, set it now
            elem.css('background-image', 'url(' + imgPath + ')');

        }, function(err){
            console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Failed to get image from cache');

            // SET BROKEN LINK IMAGE HERE
            elem.css('background-image', 'url(../../img/brokenlink.png)');

        });

    }

    // Check for a src tag
    if (attrs.src !== undefined){
        console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Found Src Tag');

        // Retrieve from the cache (or download if we havent already)
        GetFromCache(attrs.src, function(imgPath){
            console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Got image - setting now');

            // Got the image, set it now
            attrs.$set('src', imgPath);

        }, function(err){
            console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Failed to get image from cache');

            // SET BROKEN LINK IMAGE HERE
            attrs.$set('src', '../../img/brokenlink.png');

        });

    }
}


// Build a file key - this will be what the filename is within the cache
function buildFileKey(url){
    console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Building file key for url: ' + url);
    var parts = url.split('.');
    var result = (parts.slice(0,-1).join('') + '.' + parts.slice(-1)).toString().replace(/[\/,:]/g,'_').toLowerCase();
    console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Built file key: ' + result);
    return result;
}

// Either get hold of the file from the cache or if we don't currently have it
// then attempt to download and store in the cache ready for next time
function GetFromCache(sourceUrl, success, fail) {
    console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Getting image from the cache');
    var FOLDER_IMAGE_CACHE = 'IMAGE_CACHE';
    var fileKey = buildFileKey(sourceUrl);
    var cacheExpiry = new Date().getTime() - (86400000 * 3); // 3 days

    // Get the file system for temporary storage
    window.requestFileSystem(window.TEMPORARY, 5 * 1024 * 1024, function(fs){

        console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Opened File System: ' + fs.name);

        // Get hold of the directory (Or create if we haven't already)
        fs.root.getDirectory(FOLDER_IMAGE_CACHE, { create:true }, function(dirEntry){

            var downloadToPath = dirEntry.toURL() + fileKey;

            // Check to see if we have the file
            doesFileExist(dirEntry, fileKey, function(fileEntry){

                // File exists - check if it needs to be renewed
                if (new Date(fileEntry.lastModifiedDate).getTime() < cacheExpiry){
                    console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Image has passed the expiry threshold - re-getting the file');
                    downloadFile(sourceUrl, downloadToPath, success, fail);
                }

                // Return the file path
                console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Passing back the image path ' + fileEntry.toURL());
                return (success(fileEntry.toURL()));

            }, function(){

                // File does not exist so download
                console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Image doesnt exist - getting file');
                downloadFile(sourceUrl, downloadToPath, success, fail);

            });

        }, fail);

    }, fail);

}

// Check to see if the given image already exists in our cache
function doesFileExist(dir, fileKey, existsCallback, notExistsCallback){
    console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Checking if file exists');

    // Check the directory for this file
    dir.getFile(fileKey, { create:false }, function(fileEntry){
        existsCallback(fileEntry);
    }, notExistsCallback);

}

// Download a file into the cache
function downloadFile(url, downloadToPath, success, fail){
    console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Downloading file ' + url);
    var fileTransfer = new FileTransfer();

    // File download function with URL and local path
    fileTransfer.download(encodeURI(url), downloadToPath,
        function (fileEntry) {
            console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Download Complete to path: ' + fileEntry.toURL());
            success(fileEntry.toURL());


        },
        function (error) {
            //Download abort errors or download failed errors
            console.log(LOG_TAG + 'Download Failed: ' + error.source);
            //alert("download error target " + error.target);
            //alert("upload error code" + error.code);
        }
    );

}

So for anyone unsure how to handle the above (and I apologise if this method is not 'very angular' - I'm still fairly new to Angular myself!) simply copy the code, stick it into a new file in your projects js folder, make sure you include this file in the project:

<script type="text/javascript" src="js/directives/dir_imgcache.js"></script>

Change the "app.directive" to be [yourappname].directive, you can then just add the attribute "cacheimg" to your element...

// Handling a background-image source
<div cacheimg style="background-image:url(img/myimage.png);"></div>

// Handling an image element source
<img cacheimg src="img/myimage.png" />

// Handling a AngularJS scoped image background source
<div cacheimg style="background-image:url({{ item.myimagesource }});"></div>

For the purpose of the last example I had to stick in a $watch because the directive gets called prior to the background image being set! If you don't plan on setting an image from a scope variable I strongly recommend removing the $watch!

It is also worth mentioning that currently I haven't put in a delete - it is good practise to not rely on the OS to delete files so I plan on adapting this directory further to remove any image not requested for a while.

Anyway, hope that helps someone! :)

Answer 3

As long as your image is coming from the same URL, your browser will do the caching automatically.