@ngdoc overview @name Tutorial: Step 2 @description

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Now it's time to make this web page dynamic with angular. We'll also add a test that verifies the code for the controller we are going to add. There are many ways to structure the code for an application. With angular, we encourage the use of {@link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model–View–Controller the MVC design pattern} to decouple the code and separate concerns. With that in mind, let's use a little angular and JavaScript to add Model, View, and Controller components to our app. 1. Reset your workspace to Step 2 using: git checkout --force step-2 or ./goto_step.sh 2 2. Refresh your browser or check the app out on {@link http://angular.github.com/angular-phonecat/step-2/app our server}. The app now contains a list with 3 phones. The most important changes are listed below. You can see the full diff on {@link https://github.com/angular/angular-phonecat/compare/step-1...step-2 GitHub}: ## Template for the View The __View__ component is constructed by angular from this template: __`app/index.html`:__

...


  
    
      {{phone.name}}
      {{phone.snippet}}

We replaced the hard-coded phone list with the {@link angular.widget.@ng:repeat ng:repeat widget} and two {@link guide.expression angular expressions} enclosed in curly braces: `{{phone.name}}` and `{{phone.snippet}}`: * The `ng:repeat="phone in phones"` statement in the `

` tag is an angular repeater. It tells angular to create a `

` element for each phone in the phones list, using the first `

` tag as the template. * The curly braces around `phone.name` and `phone.snippet` are an example of {@link angular.markup angular markup}. The curly braces are shorthand for the angular directive {@link angular.directive.ng:bind ng:bind}. They indicate to angular that these are template binding points. Binding points are locations in the template where angular creates data-binding between the View and the Model. In angular, the View is a projection of the Model through the HTML template. This means that whenever the model changes, angular refreshes the appropriate binding points, which updates the view. ## Model and Controller The data __Model__ (a short list of phones in object literal notation) is instantiated within the __Controller__ function (`PhoneListCtrl`): __`app/js/controllers.js`:__

function PhoneListCtrl() {
  this.phones = [{"name": "Nexus S",
                  "snippet": "Fast just got faster with Nexus S."},
                 {"name": "Motorola XOOM™ with Wi-Fi",
                  "snippet": "The Next, Next Generation tablet."},
                 {"name": "MOTOROLA XOOM™",
                  "snippet": "The Next, Next Generation tablet."}];
}

Although the controller is not yet doing very much controlling, it is playing a crucial role. By providing context for our data model, the controller allows us to establish data-binding between the model and the view. Note in the following how we connected the dots between our presentation, data, and logic components: * The name of our controller function (in the JavaScript file `controllers.js`) matches the {@link angular.directive.ng:controller ng:controller} directive in the `` tag (`PhoneListCtrl`). * We instantiated our data within the scope of our controller function, and our template binding points are located within the block bounded by the ` describe('PhoneCat controllers', function() { describe('PhoneListCtrl', function(){ it('should create "phones" model with 3 phones', function() { var ctrl = new PhoneListCtrl(); expect(ctrl.phones.length).toBe(3); }); }); }); Ease of testing is another cornerstone of angular's design philosophy. All we are doing here is showing how easy it is to create a unit test. The test verifies that we have 3 records in the phones array. Angular developers prefer the syntax of Jasmine's Behavior-driven Development (BDD) framework when writing tests. Although Jasmine is not required by angular, we used it to write all tests in this tutorial. You can learn about Jasmine on the {@link http://pivotal.github.com/jasmine/ Jasmine home page} and on the {@link https://github.com/pivotal/jasmine/wiki Jasmine wiki}. angular-seed project is pre-configured to run all unit tests using {@link http://code.google.com/p/js-test-driver/ JsTestDriver}. To run the test, do the following: 1. In a _separate_ terminal window or tab, go to the `angular-phonecat` directory and run `./scripts/test-server.sh` to start the test web server. 2. Open a new browser tab or window, navigate to http://localhost:9876, and choose "strict mode". At this point, you can leave this tab open and forget about it. JsTestDriver will use it to execute our tests and report the results in the terminal. 3. Execute the test by running `./scripts/test.sh` You should see the following or similar output: Chrome: Runner reset. . Total 1 tests (Passed: 1; Fails: 0; Errors: 0) (2.00 ms) Chrome 11.0.696.57 Mac OS: Run 1 tests (Passed: 1; Fails: 0; Errors 0) (2.00 ms) Yay! The test passed! Now, let's go to Step 3 to learn how to add full text search to the app.

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