$resource relations in AngularJS

Question

The usual way of defining an isolated resource in AngularJS is:

angular.service('TheService', function($resource){
  return $resource('api/url');
});

I'm trying to figure out the best way to write a model that relates to other models, such as an Order that has 1 or more OrderItems. My first idea is this:

Create the OrderService and OrderItemService as independent resource models
Write a controller that queries the OrderService and watches the result array
When the result array changes, query the OrderItemService for all of the item IDs and decorate the order object with extended information as it comes in

That seems a bit messy. Is there a more elegant way?

IIRC, I asked this when Angular was pre-1.0. The API has likely changed since then. — Ben Straub, Jun 14 '12 at 18:16
No problem, I created an updated question: http://stackoverflow.com/q/11038425/599991 — zVictor, Jun 14 '12 at 22:42

score 18 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 03 '12 at 19:36

18

angular.service('OrderItem', function($resource) {
  return $resource('api/url/orderItem');
});

angular.service('Order', function($resource, OrderItem) {
  var Order = $resource('api/url/order');

  Order.prototype.items = function(callback) {
    return order.query({orderId: this.id}, callback);
  }
  return Order
});

Would something like above solve your problem? You would then use it as

var order, items;

Order.get({id: 123}, function(o) {
  order = o;
  o.items(function(is) { items = is; });
});

Angular's $resource does not understand relationships. It is something we would like to change in post 1.0.

I don't think you should put the data on the order directly, since it is not part of it, and you will have issues persisting the order since it will now have the items object as well.

edited Apr 03 '12 at 19:36

Vojta

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answered Apr 03 '12 at 18:12

Misko Hevery

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We're doing a kind of CQRS, so the Order data is read-only anyway. Thanks! – Ben Straub Apr 03 '12 at 20:08
4

I think the items function should use `OrderItem` instead of `order`. – psyho Apr 04 '12 at 08:22
1

It seems to be obsolete. How can we use it with factories? – zVictor Jun 13 '12 at 19:20
1

TypeError: angular.service is not a function – zVictor Jun 14 '12 at 17:13
When you change this, will you make it look for rel's in the header? Or in the body? Are we talking about intelligently consuming actual hypermedia APIs? because that would be huge. – Ben Lesh Aug 28 '12 at 14:09

$resource relations in AngularJS

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