Separate controller per tab in angular-material w/ ui-router

Question

I'm trying to implement my md-tabs so each md-tab is a separate state using angular-material. My current markup looks like this:

  md-tabs.is-flex.auto-flex(selected="selectedIndex",layout="vertical")
     md-tab(on-select="selectTab(0)",label="Player",ui-sref="state1")
        div.tab(ui-view)

     md-tab(on-select="selectTab(1)",label="Map",ui-sref="state2")
        div.tab(ui-view)

I don't think this is valid markup for ui-router, though. Is it possible to do this with the current version of angular-material and ui-router?

Answer 1

If you name your ui-view elements (e.g. <div ui-view="player"></div>) then you can target them in your $stateProvider config.

So, given the following markup in template.html:

<md-tabs md-selected="currentTab">
    <md-tab label="Player" ui-sref="tabs.player">
        <div ui-view="player"></div>
    </md-tab>
    <md-tab label="Map" ui-sref="tabs.map">
        <div ui-view="map"></div>
    </md-tab>
</md-tabs>

You could target each ui-view element (and update the currentTab index) with the following $stateProvider config:

.state('tabs', {
    abstract: true,
    url: '/tabs',
    templateUrl: 'template.html',
    controller: function($scope) {
      $scope.$on('$stateChangeSuccess', function(event, toState, toParams, fromState, fromParams) {
        $scope.currentTab = toState.data.selectedTab;
      });
    }
  })
.state('tabs.player', {
    url: '/player',
    data: {
      'selectedTab': 0
    },
    views: {
      'player': {
        controller: playerController
      }
    }
  })
.state('tabs.map', {
    url: '/map',
    data: {
      'selectedTab': 1
    },
    views: {
      'map': {
        controller: mapController
      }
    }
  })

All you need to do now is define playerController and mapController. You can still load partial templates etc. into the ui-view, see the section on Multiple Named Views.

Answer 2

I was able to get this going by just doing

index.html

<md-toolbar ng-controller="NavigationController as vm"
            ng-include="'app/components/navbar/navbar.html'"
            class="md-default-theme" >
</md-toolbar>

<md-content ui-view
            md-scroll-y
            class="md-default-theme"
            role="main"
            flex>
</md-content>

navbar.html

<md-tabs md-selected="vm.currentTab" md-stretch-tabs="always" class="main-toolbar">
    <md-tab label="Home" ui-sref="home"></md-tab>
    <md-tab label="Portfolio" ui-sref="portfolio"></md-tab>
    <md-tab label="Contact" ui-sref="contact"></md-tab>
</md-tabs>

app.js

$stateProvider
    .state('home', {
        url: '/',
        data: {
            'selectedTab' : 0
        },
        templateUrl: 'app/components/main/main.html',
        controller: 'MainController as vm'
    })
    .state('portfolio', {
        url: '/portfolio',
        data: {
            'selectedTab' : 1
        },
        templateUrl: 'app/components/portfolio/portfolio.html',
        controller: 'PortfolioController as vm'
    })
    .state('contact', {
        url: '/contact',
        data: {
            'selectedTab' : 2
        },
        templateUrl: 'app/components/contact/contact.html',
        controller: 'ContactController as vm'
    });

navigation.controller.js

function NavigationController($scope) {

    var vm = this;

    $scope.$on('$stateChangeSuccess', function(event, toState) {
        vm.currentTab = toState.data.selectedTab;
    });

}

Answer 3

For anyone coming from google and not using ui-router, you can do the same thing with the default ng-router: In your index file place the tabs code:

<md-tabs md-selected="0" ng-controller="TabCtrl">
    <md-tab ng-repeat="tab in tabs" md-on-select="switchTab($index)" label="{{tab}}">
        <div ng-view></div>
     </md-tab>
</md-tabs>

Then create TabCtrl:

// Define the titles of your tabs
$scope.tabs = ["Player", "Map"];

// Change the tab
$scope.switchTab = function(index) {
    switch(index) {
        case 0: $location.path('/player');break;
        case 1: $location.path('/map');break;
    }
}

Finally define your routes in your config:

.when( '/player', {
    templateUrl: 'partials/player.html',
    controller: 'PlayerCtrl'
})
.when( '/map', {
    templateUrl: 'partials/map.html',
    controller: 'MapCtrl'
});