AngularJS regex route for similar url to load different controller and view

Question

I have a similar route that should load a different view and controller based on whether or not the parameter is a number. Example:

• /artists/2 should ArtistsIndexController with a view /www/artists/index.html
• /artists/name should ArtistsProfileController with a view /www/artists/profile.html

Ideally I would use something like:

$routeProvider.when("/artists/:page", {
  templateUrl: "/www/artists/index.html",
  controller: "ArtistsIndexController"
});

$routeProvider.when("/artists/:name", {
  templateUrl: "/www/artists/profile.html",
  controller: "ArtistsProfileController"
});

Where :page is a number and :name is not.

Note I see a related github issue (found from this question) but am wondering if there is a resolution or preferred solution.

Answer 1

Another way is to use the ui-router which supports regular expressions for routes (among a slew of other things) which would allow:

$stateProvider.state("artists-index", {
  url: "/artists/{page:[0-9]*}",
  templateUrl: "/www/artists/index.html",
  controller: "ArtistsIndexController"
});

$stateProvider.state("artists-profile", {
  url: "/artists/{name}",
  templateUrl: "/www/artists/profile.html",
  controller: "ArtistsProfileController"
});

Answer 2

I use a nasty hack, that consist on change the regexp

var $route = $routeProvider.$get[$routeProvider.$get.length-1]({$on:function(){}});


$routeProvider.when("/artists/:page", {
  templateUrl: "/www/artists/index.html",
  controller: "ArtistsIndexController"
});

$routeProvider.when("/artists/:name", {
  templateUrl: "/www/artists/profile.html",
  controller: "ArtistsProfileController"
});

$route.routes['/artist/:page'].regexp = /^\/(?:artist\/(\d+))$/
$route.routes['/artist/:page/'].regexp = /^\/(?:artist\/(\d+))\/$/

It's ugly but it works fine. You can change your routes' regexps to make them match whatever you want.

Answer 3

I'm using this as a solution for now and would be interested in alternatives!

1) Create a generic template that will load in a controller and view dynamically:

<div ng-controller="controller" ng-include src="templateUrl"></div>

In this example I placed this view in /www/shared/dynamic-controller.html

2) Create a controller that checks the route params to determine which controller and view to load:

angular.module('appName').
  controller('ArtistsDynamicRouteController', ['$scope', '$controller', '$routeParams', function($scope, $controller, $routeParams) {
    if(/^\d+$/.test($routeParams.pageOrId)) {
      // when pageOrId is a page (number) we want to load the ArtistsIndexController
      $scope.controller = $controller('ArtistsIndexController', { $scope: $scope }).constructor;
      $scope.templateUrl = '/www/artists/index.html';
    } else {
      // when pageOrId is an id (non-number) we want to load the ArtistsProfileController
      $scope.controller = $controller('ArtistsProfileController', { $scope: $scope }).constructor;
      $scope.templateUrl = '/www/artists/profile.html';
    }
  }]);

3) Use one route regardless of the parameter type:

// handles both /artists/2 and /artists/username
$routeProvider.when("/artists/:pageOrName", {
  templateUrl: "/www/shared/dynamic-controller.html",
  controller: "ArtistsDynamicRouteController"
});