AngularjS Services/Factories loaded on startup and not on use

Question

I have a problem with my AngularJS app. I have some factories defined which are injected into some controllers (where needed). My Problem is that these factories get initialized when I first startup the application.

One of the services which is causing problems:

PlanningPoker.factory('PokerTable', function ($http) {
var baseURL = "/api/pokertable/";

return {
    list: function list(playerId) {
        return $http.get(baseURL, {params: {playerid : playerId}});
    },
    save: function save(pokertable) {
        return $http.post(baseURL, pokertable, {});
    }
};

});

This service is used like this in a controller:

PlanningPoker.controller('PokerTableListController', function ($rootScope, $scope, $route, PokerTable, SocketEvent) {
PokerTable.list($rootScope.playerId).
    success(function (data, status, headers, config) {
        $scope.pokertables = data;
    });

});

Also when I remove the PokerTable Service from the controllers callback the Service gets called. I tried this by adding a console.log into the service and it was called no matter if the service was used in any controller or not.

Any ideas on that? I thought services are loaded lazily only if they are needed?

Greets Marc

Answer 1

Services are constructed or retrieved when they are injected by the injector to ensure dependencies work out. You can read about it here

Alternatively you can use the $injector service to grab services as needed. Here is an example:

    .controller('test', function($scope, $injector) {
      $scope.func = function() {
        var factory = $injector.get('factory');
      };
    });

http://jsfiddle.net/NaYmd/

You'll notice the alerts in the service are not called until you click the span, since that's when the injector causes the construction of the factory.