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$injector

service in module AUTO

Description

$injector is used to retrieve object instances as defined by provider, instantiate types, invoke methods, and load modules.

The following always holds true:

  var $injector = angular.injector();
  expect($injector.get('$injector')).toBe($injector);
  expect($injector.invoke(function($injector){
    return $injector;
  }).toBe($injector);

Injection Function Annotation

JavaScript does not have annotations, and annotations are needed for dependency injection. The following are all valid ways of annotating function with injection arguments and are equivalent.

  // inferred (only works if code not minified/obfuscated)
  $injector.invoke(function(serviceA){});
 
  // annotated
  function explicit(serviceA) {};
  explicit.$inject = ['serviceA'];
  $injector.invoke(explicit);
 
  // inline
  $injector.invoke(['serviceA', function(serviceA){}]);

Inference

In JavaScript calling toString() on a function returns the function definition. The definition can then be parsed and the function arguments can be extracted. NOTE: This does not work with minification, and obfuscation tools since these tools change the argument names.

$inject Annotation

By adding a $inject property onto a function the injection parameters can be specified.

Inline

As an array of injection names, where the last item in the array is the function to call.

Methods

• annotate(fn)

Returns an array of service names which the function is requesting for injection. This API is used by the injector to determine which services need to be injected into the function when the function is invoked. There are three ways in which the function can be annotated with the needed dependencies.

Argument names

The simplest form is to extract the dependencies from the arguments of the function. This is done by converting the function into a string using toString() method and extracting the argument names.

  // Given
  function MyController($scope, $route) {
    // ...
  }
 
  // Then
  expect(injector.annotate(MyController)).toEqual(['$scope', '$route']);

This method does not work with code minification / obfuscation. For this reason the following annotation strategies are supported.

The $inject property

If a function has an $inject property and its value is an array of strings, then the strings represent names of services to be injected into the function.

  // Given
  var MyController = function(obfuscatedScope, obfuscatedRoute) {
    // ...
  }
  // Define function dependencies
  MyController.$inject = ['$scope', '$route'];
 
  // Then
  expect(injector.annotate(MyController)).toEqual(['$scope', '$route']);

The array notation

It is often desirable to inline Injected functions and that's when setting the $inject property is very inconvenient. In these situations using the array notation to specify the dependencies in a way that survives minification is a better choice:

  // We wish to write this (not minification / obfuscation safe)
  injector.invoke(function($compile, $rootScope) {
    // ...
  });
 
  // We are forced to write break inlining
  var tmpFn = function(obfuscatedCompile, obfuscatedRootScope) {
    // ...
  };
  tmpFn.$inject = ['$compile', '$rootScope'];
  injector.invoke(tmpFn);
 
  // To better support inline function the inline annotation is supported
  injector.invoke(['$compile', '$rootScope', function(obfCompile, obfRootScope) {
    // ...
  }]);
 
  // Therefore
  expect(injector.annotate(
     ['$compile', '$rootScope', function(obfus_$compile, obfus_$rootScope) {}])
   ).toEqual(['$compile', '$rootScope']);

Parameters

ParamTypeDetailsfnfunctionArray.

Function for which dependent service names need to be retrieved as described above.

Returns

Array.

The names of the services which the function requires.

• get(name)

Return an instance of the service.

Parameters

ParamTypeDetailsnamestring

The name of the instance to retrieve.

Returns

*

The instance.

• has(Name)

Allows the user to query if the particular service exist.

Parameters

ParamTypeDetailsNamestring

of the service to query.

Returns

boolean

returns true if injector has given service.

• instantiate(Type, locals)

Create a new instance of JS type. The method takes a constructor function invokes the new operator and supplies all of the arguments to the constructor function as specified by the constructor annotation.

Parameters

ParamTypeDetailsTypefunction

Annotated constructor function.

locals (optional) Object

Optional object. If preset then any argument names are read from this object first, before the $injector is consulted.

Returns

Object

new instance of Type.

• invoke(fn, self, locals)

Invoke the method and supply the method arguments from the $injector.

Parameters

ParamTypeDetailsfn!function

The function to invoke. Function parameters are injected according to the $inject Annotation rules.

self (optional) Object

The this for the invoked method.

locals (optional) Object

Optional object. If preset then any argument names are read from this object first, before the $injector is consulted.

Returns

*

the value returned by the invoked fn function.