AngularJS - Loading icon whilst waiting for data/data calculation

Question

I have a simple Angular http.get:

app.factory('countriesService', function($http) {
return {
    getCountryData: function(done) {
        $http.get('/resources/json/countries.json')
        .success(function(data) { done(data);})
        .error(function(error) {
            alert('An error occured');
        });
    }
}
});

Example .JSON:

{
"NoCities": 66,
"Balance": 2103,
"Population":  63705000,
"CityInfo": [
    {
        "CityName": "London",
        "CityPopulation": "7825200",
        "Facts": {
            "SubFact1": "xzy",
            "SubFact2": "xzy",
            "SubFact3": "xzy",
            "SubFact4": "xzy",
            "SubFact5": "xzy"
        },
    },
    {
        "CityName": "Manchester",
        "CityPopulation": "2584241",
        "Facts": {
            "SubFact1": "abc",
            "SubFact2": "abc",
            "SubFact3": "abc",
            "SubFact4": "abc"
        },
    }

],
"SubmitInfo": null,
"FormAction": null,
"FormController": null,
}

I've noticed when my page is performing a .length, sometimes it can take a while for the data to load, for example:

<div>
    <a>Countries</a> : {{Countries.length}}
</div>

Does Angular have some form of waiting/loading icon that i could show whilst the data in the DIV is being populated?

Ideally something lightweight and that doesnt require a library to be loaded (my application is using jQuery too)

Thanks

Solution 1

This is my usual approach. To OZ_'s point, this requires Font Awesome. The <i>'s classes fa fa-spinner fa-spin are a reference to that library.

Although, you could also opt to show/hide a .gif that indicates loading.

Markup

Using ng-hide and ng-show to control visibility of the spinner and element that will contain your populated data.

<p class="text-center" ng-hide="dataLoaded">
    <i class="fa fa-spinner fa-spin"></i>
</p>
<div ng-show="dataLoaded">
    <a>Countries</a> : {{Countries.length}}
</div>

JS

Before your call, set $scope.dataLoaded to false. Then, within your success block, set it to true. Also worth noting you'll need to pass $scope to your factory.

app.factory('countriesService', function($http, $scope) {
    return {
        getCountryData: function(done) {
            $scope.dataLoaded = false;
            $http.get('/resources/json/countries.json')
            .success(function(data) { 
                done(data); 
                $scope.dataLoaded = true;
             })
            .error(function(error) {
                alert('An error occured');
            });
        }
    }
});

Solution 2

AngularJS is not a CSS-framework. You can find loading icons in TWBS of FontAwesome: http://fortawesome.github.io/Font-Awesome/examples/#spinning

Comments

[Oam Psy]

thanks, however i am seeing this error: Error: [$injector:unpr] errors.angularjs.org/1.2.8/$injector/…

[couzzi]

Aye, how about $rootScope instead of $scope?