Using callbacks in a Restangular service

Question

I have a project built with AngularJS and using Restangular in my services to handle API requests. The problem is I haven't found a good way to test the services which I think has turned into a bit of a code smell for me. I'm using callbacks in the promise to handle pushing the data back to the controller instead of just returning the result.

Here is a simple controller and service:

myApp.controller('CustomerController', ['$scope', 'Teams', function($scope, Teams) {
 Teams.getList(function(results) {
 $scope.teams = result;
 });
}]);
myApp.factory('Teams', ['Restangular', function(Restangular) {
 var Teams = {};
 Teams.getList = function(callback) {
 Restangular.all('teams').getList().then(function(results) {
 callback(results);
 });
 };
 return Teams;
}]);

Is that really the best way to get the data back to the controller? I'm starting to feel like this isn't the correct way to do it but I haven't found another way that works.

Answer 1

Well, when you're already using promises you also just return that instead of using a callback. Then you can also chain more promises at the end and add error handling. Other than that it looks fine; I don't see what you'd really change there.

myApp.controller('CustomerController', ['$scope', 'Teams', function($scope, Teams) {
 Teams.getList().then(function(results) {
 $scope.teams = result;
 }, function(error) {
 ...
 });
}]);
myApp.factory('Teams', ['Restangular', function(Restangular) {
 var Teams = {};
 Teams.getList = function() {
 return Restangular.all('teams').getList();
 };
 return Teams;
}]);

If you want to get rid of Teams, I've seen this variant as well:

myApp.factory('Teams', ['Restangular', function(Restangular) {
 var getList = function() {
 return Restangular.all('teams').getList();
 };
 return {
 getList: getList
 };
}]);

• Matthew Green: So you don't see an issue with the way the service is setup? The fact that Teams doesn't really seem to return anything has been bugging me but I wasn't sure why since there doesn't seem to be any advantage to changing. Also, the point about error handling is good.
• ferada: No, not really. I mean you won't get around the async call, so there are only so many ways to do this. I'm adding a slight rewrite, but that's just stylistic.