angularjs - How to reload / refresh model data from the server programmatically?

Question

Background

I have the most basic "newbie" AngularJS question, forgive my ignorance: how do I refresh the model via code? I'm sure it's answered multiple times somewhere, but I simply couldn't find it. I've watched some great videos here http://egghead.io and went quickly over the tutorial, but still I feel I'm missing something very basic.

I found one relevant example here ($route.reload()) but I'm not sure I understand how to use it in the example below

Here is the setup

controllers.js

function PersonListCtrl($scope, $http) {
  $http.get('/persons').success(function(data) {
    $scope.persons = data;
  });
}

index.html

...
<div>
    <ul ng-controller="PersonListCtrl">
        <li ng-repeat="person in persons">
            Name: {{person.name}}, Age {{person.age}}
        </li>
    </ul>
</div>
...

This all works amazingly well, each time the page is reloaded I see the list of people as expected

The questions

1. Let's say I want to implement a refresh button, how do I tell the model to reload programmatically?
2. How can I access the model? it seems Angular is magically instantiating an instance of my controller, but how do I get my hands on it?
3. EDIT added a third question, same as #1 but how can it be done purely via JavaScript?

I'm sure I'm missing something basic, but after spending an hour trying to figure it out, I think it deserves a question. Please let me know if it's duplicate and I'll close + link to it.

Answer 1

You're half way there on your own. To implement a refresh, you'd just wrap what you already have in a function on the scope:

function PersonListCtrl($scope, $http) {
  $scope.loadData = function () {
     $http.get('/persons').success(function(data) {
       $scope.persons = data;
     });
  };

  //initial load
  $scope.loadData();
}

then in your markup

<div ng-controller="PersonListCtrl">
    <ul>
        <li ng-repeat="person in persons">
            Name: {{person.name}}, Age {{person.age}}
        </li>
    </ul>
   <button ng-click="loadData()">Refresh</button>
</div>

As far as "accessing your model", all you'd need to do is access that $scope.persons array in your controller:

for example (just puedo code) in your controller:

$scope.addPerson = function() {
     $scope.persons.push({ name: 'Test Monkey' });
};

Then you could use that in your view or whatever you'd want to do.