Executing a route without a template

[logicbomb]

This has been opened and closed a few times

• Route functions (no templates) #1901
• $RouteProvider should activate controller, even when no templateUrl or template is passed #1838

I may have found a use case where it's a valid to execute a route that doesn't have an associated template. Imagine a page that launches various modal windows with the requirement to be able to deep-link directly to the page with a dialog open.

The only difference between the modals are the title & text, so the $rootScope is responsible for setting up and launching a modal, and the controller simply provides route specific content.

A workaround is to set { controller: 'fooCtl', template: ' ' }, but it'd be nice to leave the template property out altogether.

Here's a fiddle that shows the problem and workaround: http://jsfiddle.net/EGfAX/5/

[joseluisq]

For example when templateUrl is false:

var app = angular.module('myApp.foo', ['ngRoute']);

app.config(['$routeProvider', function($routeProvider) {
  $routeProvider.when('/foo', {
    templateUrl: false,
    controller: 'fooCtrl'
  });
}]);

Angular loads all controllers again and then the console throws this:

Finally the browser tab is frozen.

[caitp]

well that's messed up and worth investigating, but setting templateUrl to false doesn't accomplish what you want, so why are you doing that? It doesn't mean anything as far as angular is concerned

[joseluisq]

Maybe, but sometimes I need angular route doesn't load by default an template. Because I can load manually my custom template and compile it on the fly.

[caitp]

Right, but you could just use template: "" to achieve that.

[caitp]

in particular, setting templateUrl to false will try to resolve the string "false" as a URL, which should be resolved relative to the current location of the frame (which is almost certainly not what you want)

[joseluisq]

In general I think it should exist a validation for templateUrl.
Thanks, I will try this

[Narretz]

The problem with having an empty or false templateUrl is tracked here: #12176
Since you can do template: '', it's very easy to have a route "without" a template