[angularjs] Injecting $scope into an angular service function()

I have a Service:

angular.module('cfd')
  .service('StudentService', [ '$http',
    function ($http) {
    // get some data via the $http
    var path = 'data/people/students.json';
    var students = $http.get(path).then(function (resp) {
      return resp.data;
    });     
    //save method create a new student if not already exists
    //else update the existing object
    this.save = function (student) {
      if (student.id == null) {
        //if this is new student, add it in students array
        $scope.students.push(student);
      } else {
        //for existing student, find this student using id
        //and update it.
        for (i in students) {
          if (students[i].id == student.id) {
            students[i] = student;
          }
        }
      }
    };

But when I call save(), I don't have access to the $scope, and get ReferenceError: $scope is not defined. So the logical step (for me), is to provide save() with the $scope, and thus I must also provide/inject it to the service. So if I do that like so:

  .service('StudentService', [ '$http', '$scope',
                      function ($http, $scope) {

I get the following error:

Error: [$injector:unpr] Unknown provider: $scopeProvider <- $scope <- StudentService

The link in the error (wow that is neat!) lets me know it is injector related, and might have to do with order of declaration of the js files. I have tried reordering them in the index.html, but I think it is something more simple, such as the way I am injecting them.

Using Angular-UI and Angular-UI-Router

Well (a long one) ... if you insist to have $scope access inside a service, you can:

Create a getter/setter service

ngapp.factory('Scopes', function (){
  var mem = {};
  return {
    store: function (key, value) { mem[key] = value; },
    get: function (key) { return mem[key]; }
  };
});

Inject it and store the controller scope in it

ngapp.controller('myCtrl', ['$scope', 'Scopes', function($scope, Scopes) {
  Scopes.store('myCtrl', $scope);
}]);

Now, get the scope inside another service

ngapp.factory('getRoute', ['Scopes', '$http', function(Scopes, $http){
  // there you are
  var $scope = Scopes.get('myCtrl');
}]);

You could make your service completely unaware of the scope, but in your controller allow the scope to be updated asynchronously.

The problem you're having is because you're unaware that http calls are made asynchronously, which means you don't get a value immediately as you might. For instance,

var students = $http.get(path).then(function (resp) {
  return resp.data;
}); // then() returns a promise object, not resp.data

There's a simple way to get around this and it's to supply a callback function.

.service('StudentService', [ '$http',
    function ($http) {
    // get some data via the $http
    var path = '/students';

    //save method create a new student if not already exists
    //else update the existing object
    this.save = function (student, doneCallback) {
      $http.post(
        path, 
        {
          params: {
            student: student
          }
        }
      )
      .then(function (resp) {
        doneCallback(resp.data); // when the async http call is done, execute the callback
      });  
    }
.controller('StudentSaveController', ['$scope', 'StudentService', function ($scope, StudentService) {
  $scope.saveUser = function (user) {
    StudentService.save(user, function (data) {
      $scope.message = data; // I'm assuming data is a string error returned from your REST API
    })
  }
}]);

The form:

<div class="form-message">{{message}}</div>

<div ng-controller="StudentSaveController">
  <form novalidate class="simple-form">
    Name: <input type="text" ng-model="user.name" /><br />
    E-mail: <input type="email" ng-model="user.email" /><br />
    Gender: <input type="radio" ng-model="user.gender" value="male" />male
    <input type="radio" ng-model="user.gender" value="female" />female<br />
    <input type="button" ng-click="reset()" value="Reset" />
    <input type="submit" ng-click="saveUser(user)" value="Save" />
  </form>
</div>

This removed some of your business logic for brevity and I haven't actually tested the code, but something like this would work. The main concept is passing a callback from the controller to the service which gets called later in the future. If you're familiar with NodeJS this is the same concept.

Code for dealing with scope variables should go in controller, and service calls go to the service.

You can inject $rootScope for the purpose of using $rootScope.$broadcast and $rootScope.$on.

Otherwise avoid injecting $rootScope. See

• Common Pitfalls: $rootScope exists, but it can be used for evil.

Got into the same predicament. I ended up with the following. So here I am not injecting the scope object into the factory, but setting the $scope in the controller itself using the concept of promise returned by $http service.

(function () {
    getDataFactory = function ($http)
    {
        return {
            callWebApi: function (reqData)
            {
                var dataTemp = {
                    Page: 1, Take: 10,
                    PropName: 'Id', SortOrder: 'Asc'
                };

                return $http({
                    method: 'GET',
                    url: '/api/PatientCategoryApi/PatCat',
                    params: dataTemp, // Parameters to pass to external service
                    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/Json' }
                })                
            }
        }
    }
    patientCategoryController = function ($scope, getDataFactory) {
        alert('Hare');
        var promise = getDataFactory.callWebApi('someDataToPass');
        promise.then(
            function successCallback(response) {
                alert(JSON.stringify(response.data));
                // Set this response data to scope to use it in UI
                $scope.gridOptions.data = response.data.Collection;
            }, function errorCallback(response) {
                alert('Some problem while fetching data!!');
            });
    }
    patientCategoryController.$inject = ['$scope', 'getDataFactory'];
    getDataFactory.$inject = ['$http'];
    angular.module('demoApp', []);
    angular.module('demoApp').controller('patientCategoryController', patientCategoryController);
    angular.module('demoApp').factory('getDataFactory', getDataFactory);    
}());

Services are singletons, and it is not logical for a scope to be injected in service (which is case indeed, you cannot inject scope in service). You can pass scope as a parameter, but that is also a bad design choice, because you would have scope being edited in multiple places, making it hard for debugging. Code for dealing with scope variables should go in controller, and service calls go to the service.

Instead of trying to modify the $scope within the service, you can implement a $watch within your controller to watch a property on your service for changes and then update a property on the $scope. Here is an example you might try in a controller:

angular.module('cfd')
    .controller('MyController', ['$scope', 'StudentService', function ($scope, StudentService) {

        $scope.students = null;

        (function () {
            $scope.$watch(function () {
                return StudentService.students;
            }, function (newVal, oldVal) {
                if ( newValue !== oldValue ) {
                    $scope.students = newVal;
                }
            });
        }());
    }]);

One thing to note is that within your service, in order for the students property to be visible, it needs to be on the Service object or this like so:

this.students = $http.get(path).then(function (resp) {
  return resp.data;
});