$location.path doesn't change in a factory with AngularJS

Question

My factory looks like:

'use strict';

angular.module('myApp')
  .factory('httpInterceptor',['$q','$location', '$rootScope', function($q, $location, $rootScope){
    return {
      response: function(response) {

        if(response.success === false) {
console.log("Redirecting");
            $location.path('/login');
            return $q.reject(response);
        }

        return response || $q.when(response);
      }
    }
}]);

It spits out the log, but doesn't change the path. What can I do to make this happen?

Answer 1

The documentation for $location says:

Note that the setters don't update window.location immediately. Instead, the $location service is aware of the scope life-cycle and coalesces multiple $location mutations into one "commit" to the window.location object during the scope $digest phase.

Hence, if the rejection of the promise has an effect on $location, then you may not see the intended change.

To force a change outside of the angular life-cycle, you can set the hash using window.location and then force a reload of the page. This will, of course, stop execution of any code which follows and erase the session, but that might be what you want if the user is not logged in.

Answer 2

There are certain cases where $location will not redirect if it is outside angular's apply cycle. Try wrapping the $location inside the $apply.

$rootScope.$apply( function(){$location.path('/somelocatin'); } );