Restangular response and ng-repeat

Question

I have recently started to learn angularjs using restangular to talk to my restfull API (sails). The problem I have stumbled upon is that the ng-repeat does not update after I change the list in the scope.

Controller:

app.controller('UsersCtrl', ['UsersSvc', '$scope', function(UsersSvc, s) {
    UsersSvc.getList().then(function (new_users) {
        s.users = new_users;
    })
    s.destroy = function (user) {
        user.remove().then(function () {
        s.users = _.without(s.users, user);
    });
}
}]);

Service:

app.factory('UsersSvc', function(Restangular) {
    return Restangular.all('users');
});

Template:

<div ng-controller="UsersCtrl">
    ...
    <tr ng-repeat"user in users">  
          <td>{{user.firstName}}</td>  
          <td>{{user.lastName}} </td>  
          <td>{{user.emailAddress}}</td>  
          <td>{{user.age}}</td>  
    </tr> 
    ...
</div>

When I inspect the scope the array of restangular objects is correctly assigned to the scope of the users controller but the template refuses to update.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

AngularJS (and javascript) care about references vs. overwrites. So to be safe I always set my scope variables initially, and then update using angular.copy() or Restangular.copy() (if it's a Restangular object being set).

Below is how I'd refactor your controller to ensure bindings + digest cycles stay connected.

(Please note I renamed s to the "traditional" $scope for easier reading for everyone else)

app.controller('UsersCtrl', ['$scope', 'UsersSvc', 'Restangular', function($scope, UsersSvc, Restangular) {

    // we're expecting a list, so default as array
    $scope.users = [];

    UsersSvc.getList().then(function (new_users) {
        // In normal $resource/ng projects use: angular.copy(src, dst) but
        // Restangular has an issue when using angular.copy():
        // https://github.com/mgonto/restangular/issues/55
        // so use their version of copy():
        Restangular.copy(new_users, $scope.users);
    });

    $scope.destroy = function (user) {
        user.remove().then(function () {
        $scope.users = _.without($scope.users, user);
    });
}
}]);