path: root/docs/content/guide/services.ngdoc

@ngdoc overview
@name  Services
@description

# Services

Angular services are substitutable objects that are wired together using {@link di dependency
injection (DI)}. You can use services to organize and share code across your app.

Angular services are:

* Lazily instantiated – Angular only instantiates a service when an application component depends
  on it.
* Singletons – Each component dependent on a service gets a reference to the single instance
  generated by the service factory.

Angular offers several useful services (like {@link ng.$http `$http`}), but for most applications
you'll also want to {@link services#creating-services create your own}.

<div class="alert alert-info">
**Note:** Like other core Angular identifiers built-in services always start with `$`
(e.g. `$http`).
</div>


## Using a Service

To use an Angular service, you add it as a dependency for the component (controller, service,
filter or directive) that depends on the service. Angular's {@link di dependency injection}
subsystem takes care of the rest.

<example module="myServiceModule">
  <file name="index.html">
    <div id="simple" ng-controller="MyController">
      <p>Let's try this simple notify service, injected into the controller...</p>
      <input ng-init="message='test'" ng-model="message" >
      <button ng-click="callNotify(message);">NOTIFY</button>
      <p>(you have to click 3 times to see an alert)</p>
    </div>
  </file>

  <file name="script.js">
    angular.
     module('myServiceModule', []).
      controller('MyController', ['$scope','notify', function ($scope, notify) {
        $scope.callNotify = function(msg) {
          notify(msg);
        };
      }]).
     factory('notify', ['$window', function(win) {
        var msgs = [];
        return function(msg) {
          msgs.push(msg);
          if (msgs.length == 3) {
            win.alert(msgs.join("\n"));
            msgs = [];
          }
        };
      }]);
  </file>

  <file name="protractor.js" type="protractor">
    it('should test service', function() {
      expect(element(by.id('simple')).element(by.model('message')).getAttribute('value'))
          .toEqual('test');
    });
  </file>
</example>

<div class="alert alert-info">
**Note:** Angular uses
[**constructor injection**](http://misko.hevery.com/2009/02/19/constructor-injection-vs-setter-injection/).
</div>

### Explicit Dependency Injection

A component should explicitly define its dependencies using one of the {@link di injection
annotation} methods:

1. Inline array injection annotation (preferred):
  ```js
  myModule.controller('MyController', ['$location', function($location) { ... }]);
  ```

2. `$inject` property:
  ```js
  var MyController = function($location) { ... };
  MyController.$inject = ['$location'];
  myModule.controller('MyController', MyController);
  ```

<div class="alert alert-success">
**Best Practice:** Use the array annotation shown above.
</div>

### Implicit Dependency Injection

Even if you don't annotate your dependencies, Angular's DI can determine the dependency from the
name of the parameter. Let's rewrite the above example to show the use of this implicit dependency
injection of `$window`, `$scope`, and our `notify` service:

<example module="myServiceModuleDI">
  <file name="index.html">
    <div id="implicit" ng-controller="MyController">
      <p>Let's try the notify service, that is implicitly injected into the controller...</p>
      <input ng-init="message='test'" ng-model="message">
      <button ng-click="callNotify(message);">NOTIFY</button>
      <p>(you have to click 3 times to see an alert)</p>
    </div>
  </file>

  <file name="script.js">
    angular.module('myServiceModuleDI', []).
      factory('notify', function($window) {
        var msgs = [];
        return function(msg) {
          msgs.push(msg);
          if (msgs.length == 3) {
            $window.alert(msgs.join("\n"));
            msgs = [];
          }
        };
      }).
      controller('MyController', function($scope, notify) {
        $scope.callNotify = function(msg) {
          notify(msg);
        };
      });
  </file>
</example>

<div class="alert alert-danger">
**Careful:** If you plan to [minify](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minification_(programming) your code,
your variable names will get renamed unless you use one of the annotation techniques above.
</div>


## Creating Services

Application developers are free to define their own services by registering the service's name and
**service factory function**, with an Angular module.

The **service factory function** generates the single object or function that represents the
service to the rest of the application. The object or function returned by the service is
injected into any component (controller, service, filter or directive) that specifies a dependency
on the service.

### Registering Services

Services are registered to modules via the {@link angular.Module Module API}.
Typically you use the {@link angular.module Module#factory} API to register a service:

```javascript
var myModule = angular.module('myModule', []);
myModule.factory('serviceId', function() {
  var shinyNewServiceInstance;
  //factory function body that constructs shinyNewServiceInstance
  return shinyNewServiceInstance;
});
```

Note that you are not registering a **service instance**, but rather a **factory function** that
will create this instance when called.

### Dependencies

Services can have their own dependencies. Just like declaring dependencies in a controller, you
declare dependencies by specifying them in the service's factory function signature.

The example module below has two services, each with various dependencies:

```js
var batchModule = angular.module('batchModule', []);

/**
 * The `batchLog` service allows for messages to be queued in memory and flushed
 * to the console.log every 50 seconds.
 *
 * @param {*} message Message to be logged.
 */
batchModule.factory('batchLog', ['$interval', '$log', function($interval, $log) {
  var messageQueue = [];

  function log() {
    if (messageQueue.length) {
      $log.log('batchLog messages: ', messageQueue);
      messageQueue = [];
    }
  }

  // start periodic checking
  $interval(log, 50000);

  return function(message) {
    messageQueue.push(message);
  }
}]);

/**
 * `routeTemplateMonitor` monitors each `$route` change and logs the current
 * template via the `batchLog` service.
 */
batchModule.factory('routeTemplateMonitor', ['$route', 'batchLog', '$rootScope',
  function($route, batchLog, $rootScope) {
    $rootScope.$on('$routeChangeSuccess', function() {
      batchLog($route.current ? $route.current.template : null);
    });
  }]);

```

In the example, note that:

* The `batchLog` service depends on the built-in {@link ng.$interval `$interval`} and
  {@link ng.$log `$log`} services.
* The `routeTemplateMonitor` service depends on the built-in {@link ngRoute.$route `$route`}
  service and our custom `batchLog` service.
* Both services use the array notation to declare their dependencies.
* The order of identifiers in the array is the same as the order of argument
  names in the factory function.

### Registering a Service with `$provide`

You can also register services via the {@link auto.$provide `$provide`} service inside of a
module's `config` function:

```javascript
angular.module('myModule', []).config(function($provide) {
  $provide.factory('serviceId', function() {
    var shinyNewServiceInstance;
    //factory function body that constructs shinyNewServiceInstance
    return shinyNewServiceInstance;
  });
});
```

This technique is often used in unit tests to mock out a service's dependencies.


## Unit Testing

The following is a unit test for the `notify` service from the {@link services#creating-services
Creating Angular Services} example above. The unit test example uses a Jasmine spy (mock) instead
of a real browser alert.

```js
var mock, notify;

beforeEach(function() {
  mock = {alert: jasmine.createSpy()};

  module(function($provide) {
    $provide.value('$window', mock);
  });

  inject(function($injector) {
    notify = $injector.get('notify');
  });
});

it('should not alert first two notifications', function() {
  notify('one');
  notify('two');

  expect(mock.alert).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
});

it('should alert all after third notification', function() {
  notify('one');
  notify('two');
  notify('three');

  expect(mock.alert).toHaveBeenCalledWith("one\ntwo\nthree");
});

it('should clear messages after alert', function() {
  notify('one');
  notify('two');
  notify('third');
  notify('more');
  notify('two');
  notify('third');

  expect(mock.alert.callCount).toEqual(2);
  expect(mock.alert.mostRecentCall.args).toEqual(["more\ntwo\nthird"]);
});
```


## Related Topics

* {@link guide/di Dependency Injection in AngularJS}

## Related API

* {@link ./ng Angular Service API}
* {@link angular.injector Injector API}