AngularJS : angular-ui-router always redirects to $urlRouterProvider.otherwise location

Question

I'm trying to create an SPA where you have to be logged in to access almost everything. So naturally, the default screen you see is the login screen. However, after a user has logged in, no matter what the ui-sref is, ui-router redirects to the login page (even when the user is authenticated). Here is my ui-router code:

(function () {
'use strict';
angular
    .module('app', ['ui.router', 'satellizer'])
    .config(function ($stateProvider, $urlRouterProvider, $authProvider, $httpProvider, $provide) {
  
        $httpProvider.interceptors.push(['$q', '$injector', function($q, $injector){
            return {
                responseError: function (rejection) {
                    var $state = $injector.get('$state');
                    var rejectionReasons = ['token_not_provided', 'token_expired', 'token_absent', 'token_invalid'];
                    angular.forEach(rejectionReasons, function (value, key) {
                        if (rejection.data.error === value) {
                            localStorage.removeItem('user');
                            $state.go('auth');
                        }
                    });

                    return $q.reject(rejection);
                },
                response: function(response) {
                    var authorization = response.headers('authorization');
                    if(authorization !== null) {
                        authorization = authorization.substr(7).trim();
                        //console.log(authorization);
                        var $auth = $injector.get('$auth');
                        $auth.setToken(authorization);
                    }
                    return response;
                }
            }
        }]);

        $authProvider.loginUrl = 'mingdaograder/api/authenticate';

        $stateProvider
            .state('users', {
                url: '/users',
                templateUrl: 'views/userView.html',
                controller: 'UserController as user'
            })
            .state('subjects', {
                url: '/users/:user_id/subjects',
                templateUrl: 'views/subjectsView.html',
                controller: 'SubjectsCtrl as subjectsCtrl'
            })
            .state('subject', {
                url: '/users/:user_id/subjects/:subject_id',
                templateUrl: 'views/subjectView.html',
                controller: 'SubjectCtrl as subjectCtrl'
            })
            .state('auth', {
                url: '/auth',
                templateUrl: 'views/authView.html',
                controller: 'AuthController as auth'
            });
            //.state('otherwise', {
            //    url: '*path',
            //    templateUrl: 'views/authView.html',
            //    controller: 'AuthController as auth'
            //});

            //$urlRouterProvider.otherwise('/auth');
            $urlRouterProvider.otherwise(function($injector, $location) {
                console.log("Could not find " + $location);
                $location.path('/auth');
            });
    })
    .run(function ($rootScope, $state, $log) {
        $rootScope.$on('$stateChangeStart', function (event, toState) {
                console.log(toState.name);
            var user = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('user'));
            if (user) {
                $rootScope.authenticated = true;
                $rootScope.currentUser = user;
            }
        }
        );
    }
);
})();

Anytime I try to use $state.go(any state name here) or even type the address into the address bar, I am always redirected to the auth state. On the console the message is "Could not find http://localhost/#/" for every single route. I can type in http://localhost/#/users/5/subjects and I get the same message.

Here is one of my controllers doing a redirect:

(function () {
    'use strict';

    angular
        .module('app')
        .controller('AuthController', AuthController);

    function AuthController($auth, $state, $http, $rootScope, $log) {
        var vm = this;

        vm.loginError = false;
        vm.loginErrorText;

        vm.login = function () {
            var credentials = {
                username: vm.username,
                password: vm.password
            };

            $auth.login(credentials).then(function () {
                return $http.get('api/authenticate/user');
            }, function (error) {
                vm.loginError = true;
                vm.loginErrorText = error.data.error;
            }).then(function (response) {
                var user = JSON.stringify(response.data.user);
                localStorage.setItem('user', user);
                $rootScope.authenticated = true;
                $rootScope.currentUser = response.data.user;

                //$log.info('From AuthCtrl: ' + $rootScope.currentUser.id);
                $state.go('subjects', {user_id:$rootScope.currentUser.id});
            });
        }
    }
})();

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Thanks a lot for your time.

Update: Ok, I haven't found a way to fix it but I think I may have found a possible cause. It seems to only happen for the routes with parameters. For example, if I go to the users state, whose path is /users, there is no redirect. However, if I go to the subjects state, whose path is /users/:user_id/subjects, it does redirect. It's like the Url matching service can't recognize that /users/5/subjects matches /users/:user_id/subjects, so redirects. Any ideas how to work around this?

Answer 1

I found I didn't have a '/' at the beginning of my initial state url. Every time I navigated to the state, the missing '/' seemed to push it into the stateProvider.otherwise.

state1: 'opportunity'
state1Url : '/opportunity/' <== added initial forward slash to make it work.

state2: 'opportunity.create'
state2Url : 'create/'