not allow to navigate if any changes on form using $dirty and $pristine

Question

I'm trying to stop navigation on my application if any form made changes and try to navigate without saving changes.

i want to show a dialog to show whether to save navigate or discard or cancel navigation action.

i'm using angular ui.routing

app.config(function($stateProvider, $urlRouterProvider) {
    $urlRouterProvider.otherwise('/dashboard');

    $stateProvider
        .state('dashboard', {
            url: '/dashboard',
            templateUrl: '/application/private/views/dashboard.html'
        })
        .state('websites', {
            url: '/websites',
            templateUrl: '/application/private/views/websites.html'
        })
});

i was planning to have implementation something like using angularjs service singleton

app.service('dirtyCheckService', function ($rootScope, dialogService){


});

and on controller level i can write a submit click like this

app.controller('formSubmitCtrl', function ($scope, dirtyCheckService){
dirtyCheckService.checkForm($scope).then(function(){
   //allow navigation
   },function(){
   //not allowed}
});

i'm not sure is there easy way exist already or not

thanks you

Answer 1

The answer is: It is ok to move that kind of check into service/factory - for some further reuse. Also, here is some example at least to show how to - plunker

A factory:

.factory('CheckStateChangeService', function($rootScope){

  var addCheck = function($scope){ 

    var removeListener = $rootScope.$on('$stateChangeStart'
        , function (event, toState, toParams, fromState, fromParams) {

          if($scope.form.$pristine)
          {
            return;
          }

          var shouldContinue = confirm("The form has changed" +
                 ", do you want to continue without saving");
          if(shouldContinue)
          {
            return;
          }
          event.preventDefault();
    }); 

    $scope.$on("$destroy", removeListener);
  };

  return { checkFormOnStateChange : addCheck };
})

And having a view like this:

<div>
    <form name="form">

      <dl>
        <dt>Name</dt>
        <dd><input type="text" ng-model="person.Name" />
        <dt>Age</dt>
        <dd><input type="number" ng-model="person.Age" />
      </dl>

    </form>
</div>

And the controller:

.controller('MyCtrl', function($scope, CheckStateChangeService) {

  $scope.person = { Name: "name", Age: 18 };

  CheckStateChangeService.checkFormOnStateChange($scope);

})

There is an example

Answer 2

You're right about a service being the way to do this, something like this should do:

$scope.$watch("myForm.$dirty",function(v){
     dirtyCheckService.setDirty(v);
},true)

Then maybe somewhere in your app, such as the run block:

app.run(function($rootScope,dirtyCheckService){
    $rootScope.$on('$locationChangeStart', function (event, next, prev) {
       if(dirtyCheckService.isFormDirty()){
         event.preventDefault();
       }
    }
})

Of course the above will only work given that you set your form to pristine once the user saves their changes.