Access AngularJS service from a service inside a different frame

Question

In an AngularJS application (main) I have an iframe inside which there is another AngularJS application (iframe) also under my control. I would like to share data between two services, one in the main application and one in the iframe application. They both need to read and write to the same object.

// main
// ... routes ...
views: { main: {
  controller: function ($scope, serviceA) {
    $scope.serviceA = serviceA;
  },
  templateUrl: 'iframe.html'
}
// ...
function ServiceA () {
  this.sharedData; // exposed to controllers in main app
}
// ...

// iframe
// ...
function ServiceB () {
  this.sharedData; // exposed to controllers in iframe app
}
// ...

When inside a controller in iframe application I managed to reference serviceA.sharedData like this:

var self = this;
var parentScope = $window.parent.angular.element($window.frameElement).scope();
parentScope.$watch('serviceA.sharedData', function (newValue, oldValue) {
  self.sharedData = newValue;
}

Can this be achieved and how?

I have read the following, but could not turn it into a solution, yet:

• Bind angular cross iframes, possible?
• Angularjs: call other scope which in iframe

Answer 1

I managed to do something that works, and could be useful for you. It's not perfect but is a good start. Here is the code:

Parent page:

<div ng-controller="ParentController">
    <h1>Hello, parent page!</h1>

    <p><strong>Parent model:</strong></p>
    <p>
        <input type="text"
           ng-model="data.foo"
           placeholder="Enter the thing you want to share"/>
    </p>

    <p><strong>Parent result:</strong></p>
    <p>{{ data.foo }}</p>

    <iframe src="child-page.html" frameborder="0"></iframe>
</div>

Child page:

<div ng-controller="ChildController">
    <h1>Hello, child page!</h1>

    <p><strong>Child result:</strong></p>
    <p>{{ data.foo }}</p>
</div>

app.js

var app = ng.module('myApp', []);

app.factory('DataService', ['$rootScope', '$window', function ($rootScope, $window) {
    var // Variables
        dataScope,

        // Functions
        getScope;

    dataScope = $rootScope.$new(true);

    getScope = function () {
        return dataScope;
    };

    $window.DataService = {
        getScope: getScope
    };

    return {
        getScope: getScope
    };
}]);

app.controller('ParentController', ['$scope', 'DataService', function ($scope, DataService) {
    $scope.data = DataService.getScope();
}]);

app.controller('ChildController', ['$scope', '$window', '$interval', function (
    $scope,
    $window,
    $interval
) {
    $scope.data = $window.parent.DataService.getScope();

    // makes a $scope.$apply() every 500ms. Without it, data doesn't change
    $interval(ng.noop, 500);
}]);

All of this code leads to this:

The important part is $scope.data = $window.parent.DataService.getScope(); in the child controller. That's where it fetches the shared $scope.

Of course, all this works only if the parent & the iframe are under the same domain. Else, it becomes a whole other complicated story...

Hope this will help you.