DRY up logic in view as well as $routing

Question

I'm still learning Angular and have started to create a simple website. I have routing and some logic in my view to have an active class on the menu item when the url is on that page. The problem I am starting to see is if I change the url from / to /home I have to update it in the routing and view and also the logic to see if it should be active.

I was wondering is there a better way of doing this to make it DRY?

My app.js file looks like this:

    angular.module('simpleApp', ['ngRoute'])
  .config(['$routeProvider', '$locationProvider', function ($routeProvider, $locationProvider) {
    $routeProvider
      .when('/', {
        templateUrl: 'views/home/index.html'
      })
      .when('/about', {
        templateUrl: 'views/about/index.html',
        controller: 'AboutController',
        controllerAs: 'aboutCtrl'
      })
      .when('/services', {
        templateUrl: 'views/services/index.html',
        controller: 'ServicesController',
        controllerAs: 'servicesCtrl'
      })
      .when('/contact', {
        templateUrl: 'views/contact/index.html',
        controller: 'ContactController',
        controllerAs: 'contactCtrl'
      })
      .otherwise({
        redirectTo: '/'
      });
  }]);

and partial view of my index.html looks like this:

<nav class="navbar navbar-inverse" ng-controller="NavController as navCtrl">
          <div class="container-fluid">
            <!-- Brand and toggle get grouped for better mobile display -->
            <div class="navbar-header">
              <button type="button" class="navbar-toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#bs-example-navbar-collapse-1" aria-expanded="false">
                <span class="sr-only">Toggle navigation</span>
                <span class="icon-bar"></span>
                <span class="icon-bar"></span>
                <span class="icon-bar"></span>
              </button>
              <a class="navbar-brand" href="/#/">SimpleApp</a>
            </div>
            <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="bs-example-navbar-collapse-1">
              <ul class="nav navbar-nav">
                <li ng-class="{ 'active': navCtrl.isActive('/')}">
                  <a href="/#/">Home</a>
                </li>
                <li ng-class="{ 'active': navCtrl.isActive('/about')}">
                  <a href="/#/about">About</a>
                </li>
                <li ng-class="{ 'active': navCtrl.isActive('/services')}">
                  <a href="/#/services">Services</a>
                </li>
                <li ng-class="{ 'active': navCtrl.isActive('/contact')}">
                  <a href="/#/contact">Contact Us</a>
                </li>
              </ul>
            </div>
          </div>
        </nav>

as you can see I call the isActive method on the nav controller but I have to always make sure that url I pass in is correct.

this is my nav controller:

    angular.module('simpleApp')
  .controller('NavController', function($scope, $location) {
    this.isActive = function (url) {
      return url === $location.path();
    };
  });

Answer 1

If you don't want to repeat yourself, why not just use an ng-repeat?

<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
  <li ng-repeat="item in navbarLinks" ng-class="{ 'active': navCtrl.isActive(item.link)}">
     <a href="/#{{item.link}}">{{item.text}}</a>
  </li>
</ul>

I mean, not having to repeat yourself is why it exists. So you don't repeat yourself. ng-repeat actually is really good for those cases when you don't want to repeat yourself. If you want to avoid repeating yourself, I'd suggest you use it. And by "it" I mean ng-repeat. To avoid repitition.