Lazy Loading Techniques

Lazy Loading Techniques

Introduction Nir Kaufman AngularJS infrastructures - lazy loading techniques: 1. Introducing the lazy loading challenges with AngularJS 2. Review a working demo project

overview AngularJS encourage us to break our code into smaller pieces. Modules services directives controllers filters constants

overview Separating your code into multiple files considered a best practice when building large apps with angular. Angular seed project: js/ angular.module('myapp.controllers', []). controllers.js services.js directives.js filters.js partials/ partial1.html partial2.html controller('myctrl1', function() { }).controller('myctrl2', function() { });

overview We can define our modules as dependencies: angular.module('myapp',['ngroute', 'myapp.filters', 'myapp.services', 'myapp.directives', 'myapp.controllers', ngroute, ngresource, ui.bootstrap, ]).

overview but we must load all of our resources ahead: <script src="lib/angular.js"></script> <script src="lib/angular-route.js"></script> <script src="js/app.js"></script> <script src="js/services.js"></script> <script src="js/controllers.js"></script> <script src="js/filters.js"></script> <script src="js/directives.js"></script>.. <script src="lib/angular-resource.js"></script> <script src="lib/angular-bootstrap.js"></script> <script src="lib/underscore.js"></script>

overview All components must register against our module on bootstrap. otherwise we can't use them. Error: Argument mycontroller is not a function, got undefined register Lazy Loading Angular components

solution We need to answer those 3 questions in order to solve this challenge: How to lazy load scripts async? How to register our components against our module after bootstrap? When & where the actual loading occurs?

loading RequireJS provides a clean way to load and manage dependencies for our applications. <script data-main="main" src="require.js"></script> define(function () { // module code }) require([ module ], function (module) { // use this module }) http://requirejs.org/

register Components register against the module in the config phase using providers. For instance, we can register our controller manually using the $controllerprovider : angular.module('modulename', []).config(function($controllerprovider) { $controllerprovider.register('ctrl', function () { // controller code }) });

register All components can be registered with their matching provider methods: // services can register with $provide $provide.service() $provide.factory(), $provide.value(), $provide.constant(), // other components use specific providers $controllerprovider.resgister() $animateprovider.resgister() $filterprovider.resgister() $compileprovider.directive()

register we need to hold a reference to this provider in order to use it later in our code: var app = angular.module('modulename', []).config(function($controllerprovider) { app.loadcontroller = $controllerprovider.register; }) }); app.loadcontroller( somectrl, function ($scope) {})

when to load Where in the application should the actual loading take place? when routing to a view - $routeprovider when loading content - <ng-include> in response to event - like click or hover

routing The route object contain a resolve property that can accept a map of promises and wait for them to resolve before performing the route angular.module('modulename', []).config(function($routeprovider) { $routeprovider.when('/', { templateurl: 'view.html', controller : 'controller.js', resolve : // promise }) }) });

routing If every view managed by a controller we can reflect that in our project structure by packing them together & come up with naming conventions: views view-name view-name.html view-name.js.controller( viewnamectrl,. another-view another-view-name.html another-view-name.js

events We can load our dependencies as a reaction to an event. we can be creative and load our resources depending on the user behaviour: load only when a user start to fill a form load by mouse position load when a response comming back from the server

modules What about module loading? oclazyload is probably the best solution for lazy loading angular modules (for now): Dependencies are automatically loaded Debugger like (no eval code) The ability to mix normal boot and load on demand Load via the service or the directive Use your own async loader (requirejs, script.js...) https://github.com/ocombe/oclazyload

summary Lazy loading in Angular can be achived today with minimum effort. to keep our loading infrastructure flexible: 1. keep the loading logic in separated services this will make our life easier when this feature will be officially supported 2. use naming conventions this way developers can integrate more easily when moving between projects

summary Thank You! Demo project source code: https://github.com/nirkaufman/lazyloadingdemo