django-angular-url 0.1.2

Manage Django URLs for AngularJS

==================================================== django-angular-url: Manage Django URLs for AngularJS

You may have noticed, that AngularJS controllers sometimes need a URL pointing to a Django view of your application. Do not enter into temptation to hard code such a URL into the client side controller code. Nor enter into temptation to create Javascript dynamically using a template engine. There is a clean and simple solution to solve this problem.

It is good practice to add configuration directives to applications as constants to the AngularJS module definition. This can safely be done in the template code rendered by Django, where it belongs!

Acknowledgements

This code is based on the django-angular project by Jacob Rief https://github.com/jrief/django-angular

It only includes the url reversing functionality and uses the old strategy of having the routes loaded in a Javascript object on the template.

Installation

It is assumed that your AngularJS application has already been initialized and that you have loaded django-angular tags, {% load django_angular_tags %}:

{% load django_angular_tags %}
<script>
    var my_app = angular.module('MyApp', ['ng.django.urls', /* other dependencies */]);
</script>

Now, you have to include django-angular-url.js and add data about your django url configuration:

<script src="{% static 'django_angular_url/js/django-angular-url.js' %}"></script>
<script>angular.module('ng.django.urls').constant('patterns', {% load_djng_urls %});</script>

The djangoUrl service is then available through dependency injection to all directives and controllers.

Usage

The reversing functionality is provided by djangoUrl.reverse(name, args_or_kwargs) method. It behaves much like the django's url template tag.

Parameters

name The url name you wish to reverse, exactly the same as what you would use in {% url %} template tag. args_or_kwargs (optional) An array of arguments, e.g. ['article', 4] or an object of keyword arguments, such as {'type': 'article', 'id': 4}.

Example

my_app.controller('MyCtrl', ['$scope', '$http', 'djangoUrl',
 function($scope, $http, djangoUrl) {

    $http.post(djangoUrl.reverse('api:articles', [1]), {action: 'get_data'})
        .success(function (out_data) {
            $scope.data = out_data;
    });

    // Or $http.post(djangoUrl.reverse('api:articles', {'id': 1}) ...
    // djangoUrl.reverse('api:article', {'id': 1}) returns something like '/api/article/1/'
}]);

Parametrized URL templates

djangoUrl's reverse() method also provides an option to create parametrized URL templates, which can be used with Angular's $resource. These templates look something like: /api/articles/:id/, parameters prefixed by : are filled by Angular.

You can create parametrized templates by using reverse() method in keyword arguments mode. Parameters not present in keyword arguments object will be replaced by : prefixed name from urlpatterns.

my_app.controller('MyCtrl', ['$scope', '$http', 'djangoUrl',
 function($scope, $http, djangoUrl) {
    // Urlconf
    // ...
    // url(r'^api/(?P<type>\w+)/(?P<id>\d+)/$', api.models, name='api'),
    // ...

    // djangoUrl.reverse('api', {'id': 1, 'type': 'article'}) -> /api/article/1/
    // djangoUrl.reverse('api', {'id': 1}) -> /api/:type/1/
    // djangoUrl.reverse('api', {'type': 'article'}) -> /api/article/:id/
    // djangoUrl.reverse('api', {}) -> /api/:type/:id/
    // djangoUrl.reverse('api') -> /api/:type/:id/
    // When nothing is passed as args_or_kwargs argument, reverse() defaults
    // to keyword arguments mode
}]);

So when building a service with $resource you can use djangoUrl.reverse() method just to make a parametrized URL template, or to partially fill it and have Angular add other arguments.

my_app.controller('MyCtrl', ['$resource', 'djangoUrl', function($resource, djangoUrl) {

    var Article = $resource(djangoUrl.reverse('api'), {'id': '@id', 'type': 'article'});
    // or
    var Article = $resource(djangoUrl.reverse('api', {'type': 'article'}), {id: '@id'});

}]);