Why isnt my promise working in angular js?

Question

Below is my angular controller but in it, my promise doesn't seem to work. console.log isn't showing response nor is alert being shown over here.

myapp.controller('contrl6', ['$scope','$q','$localStorage','$http',
  function ($scope,$q,$localStorage,$http) {

    $scope.myXhr = function(){

    var q = $q.defer();

     $http({
        method: 'GET',
         url: '/api/session_data'
        })
        .success(function(response){
            console.log(response);
            q.resolve('request successful');
        })
        .error(function(response){
          console.log("error");
            q.reject('ERROR');
        });


    return q.promise;
}
console.log("hi");

var myPromise = $scope.myXhr();
  myPromise.then(function(resolve){
        alert(resolve);
        console.log(resolve);
        }, function(reject){
        alert(reject);
        console.log(reject);      
    });


  }]);

Answer 1

Inside myxhr nothing is wired together with the result of $http . Don't worry about creating a new promise, because $http already returns one:

$scope.myXhr = function(){

 return $http({
    method: 'GET',
     url: '/api/session_data'
    })
    .then(function(response){
        return response;
    })
    .catch(function(response){
        throw new Error('ERROR');
    });
}

Answer 2

Deprecation Notice

The $http legacy promise methods .success and .error have been deprecated. Use the standard .then method instead. ¹

$scope.myXhrPromise = function(){
    return (
        $http({
            method: 'GET',
            url: '/api/session_data'
        }).then (function onFulfilled (response) {
            console.log(response.data);
            //return data for chaining
            return response.data;
        }).catch (function onRejected (response) {
            console.log(response.status);
            //throw to chain rejection
            throw response;
        })
    );
};

Answer 3

I copy/pasted your code into a Plunkr and it works just fine once I wire it up correctly.

Plunkr example here

As Duncan says, make sure you wire it up correctly, using ng-app and ng-controller. If you can update your question with the HTML markup you're using perhaps we can help further.