Reload ionic ng-repeat list when a new item received in angularJS service

Question

I have this html (snippet to see ng-repeat):

  <ion-list show-delete="data.showDelete" id="deleteme">
  <div class="list list-inset searchlist"  >
  <label for="searchText" class="item item-input searchlabel" >
  <i class="icon ion-search placeholder-icon"></i>
    <input type='text'  ng-model='searchText' placeholder="Search"/>
  </label>
  </div>

<ion-item class="item-icon-left item-icon-right" ng-repeat="message in messageList | orderBy:'date':true | filter:searchText track by $id($index)" 
ng-click="openMessage(message.id)" >

<i class="icon ion-record" style="color:#8EBF3F;font-size:15px;height:70%" ng-show='message.mesgRead == false'></i>
<i class="" ng-show='message.mesgRead == true'></i>

     <h2 class="messagecontent"  >{{message.mesgContent}} </h2>

 <p class="messagedate">{{message.displayDate}} </p>
<i class="icon ion-chevron-right icon-accessory"></i>

 <ion-option-button class="button-assertive" style="line-height:73px;" ng-click="deleteMessage(message)">
      Delete
 </ion-option-button>

  </ion-item>
     </ion-list>

This is the controller (snippet of code):

  .controller('MessagesCtrl', function($scope, MessagesService, $timeout, ProfileService, $window, $filter, $sce, $ionicLoading, $ionicPopup) {

        $scope.messageList = "";

        console.log("check for messages...");

        MessagesService.loadFromMessageDB().then(function (dbMessages) {

            $scope.messageList = dbMessages;

        });

So that works well and my ng-repeat is populated.

I am using PushPlugin, so when I receive a Push Notification this callback that sits inside my MessagesService is triggered:

  onNotificationResponse: function(sender, message, msgId, msgType, msgUrl) {
        console.log("myApp.onNotificationResponse:" + message + " msgUrl:" + msgUrl);

        var nowDate = new Date().getTime();
        nowDate = moment(nowDate).format("ddd, Do MMM, H:mm");

        var jsDate = new Date();

        var tmpMessage = new myApp.Message(msgId, nowDate, msgType, sender, jsDate, message, msgUrl, false);

        messages.unshift(tmpMessage);
        messageDB.save(tmpMessage);
  },

My problem is I don't know how to refresh my ng-repeat list. I have tried adding $rootScope.$apply(); to the onNotificationResponse function but that did nothing.

So how do I add this new message to my ng-repeat list?

UPDATE:

By adding this to the onNotificationResponse function:

  $rootScope.$broadcast('newMessage', messages);

And then this to the controller:

  $scope.$on('newMessage', function(event, messages) {
   console.log("WOW, a new message!!! ");

   $scope.messageList = messages;
   $scope.$apply();

});

That works! However - this adds my new message to the bottom of the ng-repeat list. How can I add the message to the top?

Answer 1

What I had to do in the end was change this part:

  var jsDate = new Date();

to this:

  var jsDate = new Date().getTime();

According to one of the angularJS guys, getTime() returns a number which works better when using orderBy/sorting.

Hope this helps someone else in future!