AngularUI Router

Note: this is the Angular 1.x source for UI-Router version 1.0 alpha. If you are looking for the source for UI-Router version 0.2.x, it can be found here

The de-facto solution to flexible routing in angular

Angular UI-Router is a client-side Single Page Application routing framework for AngularJS.

Routing frameworks for SPAs update the browser's URL as the user nagivates through the app. Conversely, this allows changes to the browser's URL to drive navigation through the app, thus allowing the user to create a bookmark to a location deep within the SPA.

UI-Router applications are modeled as a hierarchical tree of states. UI-Router provides a state machine to manage the transitions between those application states in a transaction-like manner.

Get Started

(1) Get UI-Router in one of the following ways:

clone & build this repository
download the release (or minified)
link to cdn
via jspm: by running $ jspm install angular-ui-router from your console
or via npm: by running $ npm install angular-ui-router from your console
or via Bower: by running $ bower install angular-ui-router from your console
or via Component: by running $ component install angular-ui/ui-router from your console

(2) Include angular-ui-router.js (or angular-ui-router.min.js) in your index.html, after including Angular itself (For Component users: ignore this step)

(3) Add 'ui.router' to your main module's list of dependencies (For Component users: replace 'ui.router' with require('angular-ui-router'))

When you're done, your setup should look similar to the following:

<!doctype html>
<html ng-app="myApp">
<head>
    <script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.1.5/angular.min.js"></script>
    <script src="js/angular-ui-router.min.js"></script>
    <script>
        var myApp = angular.module('myApp', ['ui.router']);
        // For Component users, it should look like this:
        // var myApp = angular.module('myApp', [require('angular-ui-router')]);
    </script>
    ...
</head>
<body>
    ...
</body>
</html>

Nested States & Views

The majority of UI-Router's power is in its ability to nest states & views.

(1) First, follow the setup instructions detailed above.

(2) Then, add a ui-view directive to the <body /> of your app.

<!-- index.html -->
<body>
    <div ui-view></div>
    <!-- We'll also add some navigation: -->
    <a ui-sref="state1">State 1</a>
    <a ui-sref="state2">State 2</a>
</body>

(3) You'll notice we also added some links with ui-sref directives. In addition to managing state transitions, this directive auto-generates the href attribute of the <a /> element it's attached to, if the corresponding state has a URL. Next we'll add some templates. These will plug into the ui-view within index.html. Notice that they have their own ui-view as well! That is the key to nesting states and views.

<!-- partials/state1.html -->
<h1>State 1</h1>
<hr/>
<a ui-sref="state1.list">Show List</a>
<div ui-view></div>

<!-- partials/state2.html -->
<h1>State 2</h1>
<hr/>
<a ui-sref="state2.list">Show List</a>
<div ui-view></div>

(4) Next, we'll add some child templates. These will get plugged into the ui-view of their parent state templates.

<!-- partials/state1.list.html -->
<h3>List of State 1 Items</h3>
<ul>
  <li ng-repeat="item in items">{{ item }}</li>
</ul>

<!-- partials/state2.list.html -->
<h3>List of State 2 Things</h3>
<ul>
  <li ng-repeat="thing in things">{{ thing }}</li>
</ul>

(5) Finally, we'll wire it all up with $stateProvider. Set up your states in the module config, as in the following:

myApp.config(function($stateProvider, $urlRouterProvider) {
  //
  // For any unmatched url, redirect to /state1
  $urlRouterProvider.otherwise("/state1");
  //
  // Now set up the states
  $stateProvider
    .state('state1', {
      url: "/state1",
      templateUrl: "partials/state1.html"
    })
    .state('state1.list', {
      url: "/list",
      templateUrl: "partials/state1.list.html",
      controller: function($scope) {
        $scope.items = ["A", "List", "Of", "Items"];
      }
    })
    .state('state2', {
      url: "/state2",
      templateUrl: "partials/state2.html"
    })
    .state('state2.list', {
      url: "/list",
      templateUrl: "partials/state2.list.html",
      controller: function($scope) {
        $scope.things = ["A", "Set", "Of", "Things"];
      }
    });
});

(6) See this quick start example in action.

Go to Quick Start Plunker for Nested States & Views

(7) This only scratches the surface

Dive Deeper!

Multiple & Named Views

Another great feature is the ability to have multiple ui-views view per template.

Pro Tip: While multiple parallel views are a powerful feature, you'll often be able to manage your interfaces more effectively by nesting your views, and pairing those views with nested states.

(1) Follow the setup instructions detailed above.

(2) Add one or more ui-view to your app, give them names.

<!-- index.html -->
<body>
    <div ui-view="viewA"></div>
    <div ui-view="viewB"></div>
    <!-- Also a way to navigate -->
    <a ui-sref="route1">Route 1</a>
    <a ui-sref="route2">Route 2</a>
</body>

(3) Set up your states in the module config:

myApp.config(function($stateProvider) {
  $stateProvider
    .state('index', {
      url: "",
      views: {
        "viewA": { template: "index.viewA" },
        "viewB": { template: "index.viewB" }
      }
    })
    .state('route1', {
      url: "/route1",
      views: {
        "viewA": { template: "route1.viewA" },
        "viewB": { template: "route1.viewB" }
      }
    })
    .state('route2', {
      url: "/route2",
      views: {
        "viewA": { template: "route2.viewA" },
        "viewB": { template: "route2.viewB" }
      }
    })
});

(4) See this quick start example in action.

Go to Quick Start Plunker for Multiple & Named Views

Resources

In-Depth Guide
API Reference
Sample App (Source)
FAQ
Slides comparing ngRoute to ui-router
UI-Router Extras / Addons (@christopherthielen)

Videos

Introduction Video (egghead.io)
Tim Kindberg on Angular UI-Router
Activating States (egghead.io)
Learn Angular.js using UI-Router (LearnCode.academy)

Reporting issues and Contributing

Please read our Contributor guidelines before reporting an issue or creating a pull request.

tulies / ui-router