astalker/angularjs-style-guide: Community-driven set of best practices for AngularJS application development · GitHub

#Introduction

The goal of this style guide is to present a set of best practices and style guidelines for one AngularJS application. These best practices are collected from:

0. AngularJS source code
1. Source code or articles I've read
2. My own experience

Note: this is still a draft of the style guide, its main goal is to be community-driven so filling the gaps will be greatly appreciated by the whole community.

In this style guide you won't find common guidelines for JavaScript development. Such can be found at:

0. Google's JavaScript style guide
1. Mozilla's JavaScript style guide
2. GitHub's JavaScript style guide
3. Douglas Crockford's JavaScript style guide

For AngularJS development recommended is the Google's JavaScript style guide.

In AngularJS's GitHub wiki there is a similar section by ProLoser, you can check it here.

#Table of content

• General
  • Directory structure
  • Optimize the digest cycle
  • Others
• Modules
• Controllers
• Directives
• Filters
• Services
• Templates
• Routing

#General

Since a large AngularJS application has many components it's best to structure them in a directory hierarchy. There are two main approaches:

• Creating high level division by component types and lower level division by functionality.

In this way the directory structure will look like:

.
├── app
│   ├── app.js
│   ├── controllers
│   │   ├── page1
│   │   │   ├── FirstCtrl.js
│   │   │   └── SecondCtrl.js
│   │   └── page2
│   │       └── ThirdCtrl.js
│   ├── directives
│   │   ├── page1
│   │   │   └── directive1.js
│   │   └── page2
│   │       ├── directive2.js
│   │       └── directive3.js
│   ├── filters
│   │   ├── page1
│   │   └── page2
│   └── services
│       ├── CommonService.js
│       ├── cache
│       │   ├── Cache1.js
│       │   └── Cache2.js
│       └── models
│           ├── Model1.js
│           └── Model2.js
├── lib
└── test

• Creating high level division by functionality and lower level division by component types.

Here is its layout:

.
├── app
│   ├── app.js
│   ├── common
│   │   ├── controllers
│   │   ├── directives
│   │   ├── filters
│   │   └── services
│   ├── page1
│   │   ├── controllers
│   │   │   ├── FirstCtrl.js
│   │   │   └── SecondCtrl.js
│   │   ├── directives
│   │   │   └── directive1.js
│   │   ├── filters
│   │   │   ├── filter1.js
│   │   │   └── filter2.js
│   │   └── services
│   │       ├── service1.js
│   │       └── service2.js
│   └── page2
│       ├── controllers
│       │   └── ThirdCtrl.js
│       ├── directives
│       │   ├── directive2.js
│       │   └── directive3.js
│       ├── filters
│       │   └── filter3.js
│       └── services
│           └── service3.js
├── lib
└── test

• When creating directive it might be useful to put all the associated to the given directive files (i.e. templates, CSS/SASS files, JavaScript) in a single folder. If you choose to use this style be consistent and use it everywhere along your project.

    app
    └── directives
        ├── directive1
        │   ├── directive1.html
        │   ├── directive1.js
        │   └── directive1.sass
        └── directive2
            ├── directive2.html
            ├── directive2.js
            └── directive2.sass
  

This approach can be combined with both directory structures above.

• One more slight variation of both directory structures is the one used in ng-boilerplate. In it the unit tests for given component are hold in the folder the component is located. This way when you make changes in given components it is easier to find their tests, the tests also act as documentation and show uses cases.

    services
    ├── cache
    │   ├── cache1.js
    │   └── cache1.spec.js
    └── models
        ├── model1.js
        └── model1.spec.js
  

• The app.js file contains routes definition, configuration and/or manual bootstrap (if required).

• Each JavaScript file should only hold a single component. The file should be named with the component's name.

• Use Angular project structure template like Yeoman, ng-boilerplate.

I prefer the first structure because it makes the common components easier to find.

Conventions about components naming can be found in each component section.

• Watch only the most vital variables (for example: when using real-time communication, don't cause a digest loop in each received message).
• Make computations in $watch as simple as possible. Making heavy and slow computations in a single $watch will slow down the whole application (the $digest loop is done in a single thread because of the single-threaded nature of JavaScript).

• Use:
  • $timeout instead of setTimeout
  • $window instead of window
  • $document instead of document
  • $http instead of $.ajax

This will make your testing easier and in some cases prevent unexpected behaviour (for example, if you missed $scope.$apply in setTimeout).

• Automate your workflow using tools like:

  • Yeoman
  • Grunt
  • Bower

• Use promises ($q) instead of callbacks. It will make your code look more elegant and clean, and save you from callback hell.

• Use $resource instead of $http when possible. Higher level of abstraction saves you from redundancy.

• Use an AngularJS pre-minifier (like ngmin or ng-annotate) for preventing problems after minification.

• Don't use globals. Resolve all dependencies using Dependency Injection.

• Do not pollute your $scope. Only add functions and variables that are being used in the templates.

• Prefer the usage of controllers instead of ngInit. The only appropriate use of ngInit is for aliasing special properties of ngRepeat. Besides this case, you should use controllers rather than ngInit to initialize values on a scope.

#Modules

There are two common ways for structuring the modules:

0. By functionality
1. By component type

Currently there's not a big difference, but the first way looks cleaner. Also, if lazy-loading modules is implemented (currently not in the AngularJS roadmap), it will improve the app's performance.

#Controllers

• Do not manipulate DOM in your controllers. Use directives instead.

• The naming of the controller is done using the controller's functionality (for example shopping cart, homepage, admin panel) and the substring Ctrl in the end. The controllers are named UpperCamelCase (HomePageCtrl, ShoppingCartCtrl, AdminPanelCtrl, etc.).

• The controllers should not be defined as globals (no matter AngularJS allows this, it is a bad practice to pollute the global namespace).

• Use array syntax for controller definitions:

    module.controller('MyCtrl', ['dependency1', 'dependency2', ..., 'dependencyn', function (dependency1, dependency2, ..., dependencyn) {
      //...body
    }]);
  

Using this type of definition avoids problems with minification. You can automatically generate the array definition from standard one using tools like ng-annotate (and grunt task grunt-ng-annotate).

• Use the original names of the controller's dependencies. This will help you produce more readable code:

    module.controller('MyCtrl', ['$scope', function (s) {
      //...body
    }]);
  

is less readable than:

    module.controller('MyCtrl', ['$scope', function ($scope) {
      //...body
    }]);

This especially applies to a file that has so much code that you'd need to scroll through. This would possibly cause you to forget which variable is tied to which dependency.

• Make the controllers as lean as possible. Abstract commonly used functions into a service.

• Communicate within different controllers using method invocation (possible when children wants to communicate with parent) or $emit, $broadcast and $on methods. The emitted and broadcasted messages should be kept to a minimum.

• Make a list of all messages which are passed using $emit, $broadcast and manage it carefully because of name collisions and possible bugs.

• When you need to format data encapsulate the formatting logic into a filter and declare it as dependency:

    module.controller('myFormat', function () {
      return function () {
        //body...
      };
    });
  
    module.controller('MyCtrl', ['$scope', 'myFormatFilter', function ($scope, myFormatFilter) {
      //body...
    }]);
  

#Directives

• Name your directives with lowerCamelCase
• Use scope instead of $scope in your link function. In the compile, post/pre link functions you have already defined arguments which will be passed when the function is invoked, you won't be able to change them using DI. This style is also used in AngularJS's source code.
• Use custom prefixes for your directives to prevent name collisions with third-party libraries.
• Do not use ng or ui prefixes since they are reserved for AngularJS and AngularJS UI usage.
• DOM manipulations must be done only through directives.
• Create an isolated scope when you develop reusable components.

#Filters

• Name your filters with lowerCamelCase
• Make your filters as light as possible. They are called often during the $digest loop so creating a slow filter will slow down your app.

#Services

• Use camelCase (lower or upper) to name your services.
• Encapsulate business logic in services.
• Services encapsulating business logic are preferably a service instead of a factory
• For session-level cache you can use $cacheFactory. This should be used to cache results from requests or heavy computations.

#Templates

• Use ng-bind or ng-cloak instead of simple {{ }} to prevent flashing content.

• Avoid writing complex code in the template.

• When you need to set the src of an image dynamically use ng-src instead of src with {{}} template.

• Instead of using scope variable as string and using it with style attribute with {{ }}, use the directive ng-style with object-like parameters and scope variables as values:

    ...
    $scope.divStyle = {
      width: 200,
      position: relative
    };
    ...
  
    <div ng-style="divStyle">my beautifully styled div which will work in IE</div>;
  

#Routing

• Use resolve to resolve dependencies before the view is shown.