An AngularJS directive for forms that alerts user of unsaved changes.

Dev Note: This module is still in development. However it's used in many of my production projects so it can be considered stable and battle tested.

This directive will alert users when they navigate away from a page where a form has unsaved changes. It will be triggered in all situations where form data would be lost:

• when user clicks a link
• when user navigates with forward / back button
• when user swipes (iOS)
• when user refreshes the page

In addition this module:

• Works with multiple forms on the same page
• Provides a button to disregard unsaved changes
• Works with Angular Translate module
• Has configurable reload and navigate messages
• Works with uiRouter by default by listeneing for $locationChangeStart and $stateChangeStart
• Can be configured to listen for any event

How it Works

The directive binds to locationChangeStart and window.onbeforeunload. When these events happen all registered froms are checked if they are dirty. The module defers to the forms $dirty property as a single source of truth. If dirty, the user is alerted. Disregarding changes resets the form and sets pristine.

Basic Usage

• Install from bower using $ bower install angular-unsavedChanges --save.
• Include the JS, for example <script src="https://github.com/facultymatt/angular-unsavedChanges/raw/v0.1.1/bower_components/angular-unsavedChanges/dist/unsavedChanges.js"></script>.
• Include in your app, for example: angular.module('app', ['unsavedChanges', 'anotherDirective'])
• Add attribute to your form, unsaved-changes-warning
• That's it!

API

Directives

The module provides two directives for use.

unsaved-warning-form

Add to forms you want to register with directive. The module will only listen when forms are registered.

<form name="testForm" unsaved-warning-form>
</form>

unsaved-warning-clear

Add to button or link that will disregard changes, preventing the messaging when user tries to navigate. Note that button type should be reset to work with lazy-model directive (outlined below).

<form name="testForm" unsaved-warning-form>
    <input name="test" type="text" ng-model="test"/>
    <button type="submit"></button>
    <button type="reset" unsaved-warning-clear></button>
</form>

Provider Configuration

A number of options can be configured. The module uses the Object.defineProperty pattern. This avoids the need for custom getters and setters and allows us to treat configuration as pure JS objects.

useTranslateService

Defaults to true. Will use translate service if available. It's safe to leave this set to true, even when not using the translate service, because the module still checks that the service exists.

unsavedWarningsConfigProvider.useTranslateService = true;

logEnabled

Defaults to false. Uses the services internal logging method for debugging.

unsavedWarningsConfigProvider.logEnabled = true;

routeEvent

Defaults to ['$locationChangeStart' ,'$stateChangeStart'] which supports ui router by default.

unsavedWarningsConfigProvider.routeEvent = '$stateChangeStart';

navigateMessage

Set custom message displayed when user navigates. If using translate this will be the key to translate.

unsavedWarningsConfigProvider.navigateMessage = "Custom Navigate Message";

reloadMessage

Set custom message displayed when user refreshes the page. If using translate this will be the key to translate.

unsavedWarningsConfigProvider.reloadMessage = "Custom Reload Message";

Integration with Lazy Model Directive

This module includes a customized version of Lazy Model. Lazy model ensures that model changes are only persisted when user submits valid form. It also resets model values to their original value when form is reset.

To use this simply add lazy-model to your inputs instead of ng-model. Submitting the form will update your model, while clicking "clear changes" will reset the model values to their original state.

<input name="test" type="text" lazy-model="test"/>

Gotchas / Known Bugs

*** Known issue: sometimes the form is removed from expected scope. Ie: in your controller $scope.formName no longer works. You might need to access $scope.$$childTail.formName. This will be fixed in furture versions.

Demo / Dev

To try the demo run npm install && bower install && grunt connect. The browser should open http://127.0.0.1:9001/demo.

Test

Note you need to manually change the paths in index.html and karam-unit.conf to point to the dist version for final testing. Make sure to run $ grunt first.

End 2 End Testing Because of the alert / event driven nature of this module it made the most sense to rely on e2e tests. (also its hard to interact with alerts via unit tests).

To run the e2e tests do the following:

• Install Protractor as per directions here: https://github.com/angular/protractor
• Start selenium server: webdriver-manager start (or use other selenium methods as per Protractor documentation.)
• Run $ grunt test:e2e

Unit Tests

• Run $ grunt test:unit OR $ grunt test

Build

Run $ grunt to lint and minify the code. Also strips console logs.