AngularJS initialize controller variables

Question

I'm using an initialization function init() within most of my controllers to setup controller specific variables. I'm finding I'm doing it in most controllers so I assuming this is common but I cannot find any documentation. As I see the options are as follows:

1. leave as is

2. use run or provider service

   (function () {
   'use strict';
   CompanyController.$inject = ['CompanyFactory','LocationService'];
   function CompanyController(CompanyFactory,LocationService) {
    let vm = this;
    // Initialize function 
    function init() {
    vm.company = {
    solutions: CompanyFactory.getSolutions(),
    };
    // set $location 
    LocationService.setLocation('company-page');
    }
    init();
   }
   angular.module('app.company', [])
    .controller('CompanyController', CompanyController)
   })(); 
   

• bipin patel: What do you want?please explain more
• Nikhil Mohanan: There is no options. I believe.You have to make init() calls in each controller.

Answer 1

Controller lifecycle hooks were introduced in AngularJS 1.5. $onInit hook is supposed to play exactly this role:

this.$onInit = function () { ... }

$onInit hook is a replacement for pre-link function. It is executed by the compiler. It may not be executed if a controller doesn't belong to a directive (ng-controller is a directive, too) but is instantiated directly with $controller, like route controller. In this case this.$onInit() should be called explicitly in constructor.

It should be noticed that in original snippet function init() {...} doesn't play significant role. It isn't exposed as a method, so it cannot help a controller to be more testable or extensible.

• Slava Utesinov: It is related to components not to controllers.
• Estus Flask: @SlavaUtesinov Lifecycle hooks were introduced as a step towards A2. It is specific to compiler, not components. Lifecycle hooks are documented in components section because components benefited most from them.
• Nolan: @estus thank you! btw, I only placed the function it in the controller for brevity sake