How to cancel an $http request in AngularJS?

Question

Given a Ajax request in AngularJS

$http.get("/backend/").success(callback);

what is the most effective way to cancel that request if another request is launched (same backend, different parameters for instance).

Answer 1

For some reason config.timeout doesn't work for me. I used this approach:

let cancelRequest = $q.defer();
let cancelPromise = cancelRequest.promise;

let httpPromise = $http.get(...);

$q.race({ cancelPromise, httpPromise })
    .then(function (result) {
...
});

And cancelRequest.resolve() to cancel. Actually it doesn't not cancel a request but you don't get unnecessary response at least.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Cancelling Angular $http Ajax with the timeout property doesn't work in Angular 1.3.15. For those that cannot wait for this to be fixed I'm sharing a jQuery Ajax solution wrapped in Angular.

The solution involves two services:

• HttpService (a wrapper around the jQuery Ajax function);
• PendingRequestsService (tracks the pending/open Ajax requests)

Here goes the PendingRequestsService service:

    (function (angular) {
    'use strict';
    var app = angular.module('app');
    app.service('PendingRequestsService', ["$log", function ($log) {            
        var $this = this;
        var pending = [];
        $this.add = function (request) {
            pending.push(request);
        };
        $this.remove = function (request) {
            pending = _.filter(pending, function (p) {
                return p.url !== request;
            });
        };
        $this.cancelAll = function () {
            angular.forEach(pending, function (p) {
                p.xhr.abort();
                p.deferred.reject();
            });
            pending.length = 0;
        };
    }]);})(window.angular);

The HttpService service:

     (function (angular) {
        'use strict';
        var app = angular.module('app');
        app.service('HttpService', ['$http', '$q', "$log", 'PendingRequestsService', function ($http, $q, $log, pendingRequests) {
            this.post = function (url, params) {
                var deferred = $q.defer();
                var xhr = $.ASI.callMethod({
                    url: url,
                    data: params,
                    error: function() {
                        $log.log("ajax error");
                    }
                });
                pendingRequests.add({
                    url: url,
                    xhr: xhr,
                    deferred: deferred
                });            
                xhr.done(function (data, textStatus, jqXhr) {                                    
                        deferred.resolve(data);
                    })
                    .fail(function (jqXhr, textStatus, errorThrown) {
                        deferred.reject(errorThrown);
                    }).always(function (dataOrjqXhr, textStatus, jqXhrErrorThrown) {
                        //Once a request has failed or succeeded, remove it from the pending list
                        pendingRequests.remove(url);
                    });
                return deferred.promise;
            }
        }]);
    })(window.angular);

Later in your service when you are loading data you would use the HttpService instead of $http:

(function (angular) {

    angular.module('app').service('dataService', ["HttpService", function (httpService) {

        this.getResources = function (params) {

            return httpService.post('/serverMethod', { param: params });

        };
    }]);

})(window.angular);

Later in your code you would like to load the data:

(function (angular) {

var app = angular.module('app');

app.controller('YourController', ["DataService", "PendingRequestsService", function (httpService, pendingRequestsService) {

    dataService
    .getResources(params)
    .then(function (data) {    
    // do stuff    
    });    

    ...

    // later that day cancel requests    
    pendingRequestsService.cancelAll();
}]);

})(window.angular);