@ngdoc overview
@name Tutorial: 7 - Routing & Multiple Views
@description
In this step, you will learn how to create a layout template and how to build an app that has
multiple views by adding routing.
Note that you are redirected to `app/index.html#/phones` and the same phone list appears in the
browser. When you click on a phone link the stub of a phone detail page is displayed.
The most important changes are listed below. You can see the full diff on {@link
https://github.com/angular/angular-phonecat/compare/step-6...step-7
GitHub}:
## Multiple Views, Routing and Layout Template
Our app is slowly growing and becoming more complex. Before step 7, the app provided our users with
a single view (the list of all phones), and all of the template code was located in the
`index.html` file. The next step in building the app is to add a view that will show detailed
information about each of the devices in our list.
To add the detailed view, we could expand the `index.html` file to contain template code for both
views, but that would get messy very quickly. Instead, we are going to turn the `index.html`
template into what we call a "layout template". This is a template that is common for all views in
our application. Other "partial templates" are then included into this layout template depending on
the current "route" — the view that is currently displayed to the user.
Application routes in angular are declared via the {@link api/angular.service.$route $route}
service. This service makes it easy to wire together controllers, view templates, and the current
URL location in the browser. Using this feature we can implement {@link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_linking deep linking}, which lets us utilize the browser's
history (back and forward navigation) and bookmarks.
## Controllers
__`app/js/controller.js`:__
function PhoneCatCtrl($route) {
var self = this;
$route.when('/phones',
{template: 'partials/phone-list.html', controller: PhoneListCtrl});
$route.when('/phones/:phoneId',
{template: 'partials/phone-detail.html', controller: PhoneDetailCtrl});
$route.otherwise({redirectTo: '/phones'});
$route.onChange(function() {
self.params = $route.current.params;
});
$route.parent(this);
}
//PhoneCatCtrl.$inject = ['$route'];
...
We created a new controller called `PhoneCatCtrl`. We declared its dependency on the `$route`
service and used this service to declare that our application consists of two different views:
* The phone list view will be shown when the URL hash fragment is `/phone`. To construct this view,
angular will use the `phone-list.html` template and the `PhoneListCtrl` controller.
* The phone details view will be shown when the URL hash fragment matches '/phone/:phoneId', where
`:phoneId` is a variable part of the URL. To construct the phone details view, angular will use the
`phone-detail.html` template and the `PhoneDetailCtrl` controller.
We reused the `PhoneListCtrl` controller that we constructed in previous steps and we added a new,
empty `PhoneDetailCtrl` controller to the `app/js/controllers.js` file for the phone details view.
The statement `$route.otherwise({redirectTo: '/phones'})` triggers a redirection to `/phones` when
the browser address doesn't match either of our routes.
Thanks to the `$route.parent(this);` statement and `ng:controller="PhoneCatCtrl"` declaration in
the `index.html` template, the `PhoneCatCtrl` controller has a special role in our app. It is the
"root" controller and the parent controller for the other two sub-controllers (`PhoneListCtrl` and
`PhoneDetailCtrl`). The sub-controllers inherit the model properties and behavior from the root
controller.
Note the use of the `:phoneId` parameter in the second route declaration. The `$route` service uses
the route declaration — `'/phones/:phoneId'` — as a template that is matched against the current
URL. All variables defined with the `:` notation are extracted into the `$route.current.params` map.
The `params` alias created in the {@link api/angular.service.$route `$route.onChange`} callback
allows us to use the `phoneId` property of this map in the `phone-details.html` template.
## Template
The `$route` service is usually used in conjunction with the {@link api/angular.widget.ng:view
ng:view} widget. The role of the `ng:view` widget is to include the view template for the current
route into the layout template, which makes it a perfect fit for our `index.html` template.
__`app/index.html`:__
...