Question

I have two Angular controllers:

function Ctrl1($scope) {
    $scope.prop1 = "First";
}

function Ctrl2($scope) {
    $scope.prop2 = "Second";
    $scope.both = Ctrl1.prop1 + $scope.prop2; //This is what I would like to do ideally
}

I can’t use Ctrl1 inside Ctrl2 because it is undefined. However if I try to pass it in like so…

function Ctrl2($scope, Ctrl1) {
    $scope.prop2 = "Second";
    $scope.both = Ctrl1.prop1 + $scope.prop2; //This is what I would like to do ideally
}

I get an error. Does anyone know how to do this?

Doing

Ctrl2.prototype = new Ctrl1();

Also fails.

NOTE: These controllers are not nested inside each other.

Answer 1

One way to share variables across multiple controllers is to create a service and inject it in any controller where you want to use it.

Simple service example:

angular.module('myApp', [])
    .service('sharedProperties', function () {
        var property = 'First';

        return {
            getProperty: function () {
                return property;
            },
            setProperty: function(value) {
                property = value;
            }
        };
    });

Using the service in a controller:

function Ctrl2($scope, sharedProperties) {
    $scope.prop2 = "Second";
    $scope.both = sharedProperties.getProperty() + $scope.prop2;
}

This is described very nicely in this blog (Lesson 2 and on in particular).

I’ve found that if you want to bind to these properties across multiple controllers it works better if you bind to an object’s property instead of a primitive type (boolean, string, number) to retain the bound reference.

Example: var property = { Property1: 'First' }; instead of var property = 'First';.

---

UPDATE: To (hopefully) make things more clear here is a fiddle that shows an example of:

• Binding to static copies of the shared value (in myController1)
  • Binding to a primitive (string)
  • Binding to an object’s property (saved to a scope variable)
• Binding to shared values that update the UI as the values are updated (in myController2)
  • Binding to a function that returns a primitive (string)
  • Binding to the object’s property
  • Two way binding to an object’s property