AngularJS UI-Router get the current state from within a view

Question

Considering the following states taken from the ui-router documentation:

.state('state1', {
  url: '/state1',
  templateUrl: 'partials/state1.html'
  controller: 'State1Ctrl'
})
.state('state1.list', {
  url: '/list',
  templateUrl: 'partials/state1.list.html',
})

And the controller for "partials/state1.html" for state "state1":

.controller('State1Ctrl', function () {

});

Is there any built-in feature to determine from within the controller or within the template, what state the controller/template is associated with?

For example:

.controller('State1Ctrl', function ($state) {
  console.log($state.this); // state1
});

And if there is no built-in solution, how would you "decorate" $state or $stateParams, to contain this information?

The only solution I've come up with is to use $state.get() and then find the state with the controller or template value. This seems incredibly messy, though.

Answer 1

Couldn't find this documented anywhere, so I looked in the source code.

There is a data field named $uiView attached to the ui-view element, it contains the view name and the associated state. You can get this state like this:

elem.closest('[ui-view]').data('$uiView').state

or even

elem.inheritedData('$uiView').state

Answer 2

You can access the current state configuratin object like this:

$state.current

For further information take a look at the $state documentation.

Answer 3

You can do it as follow,

$state.current.name //Return the name of current state

Answer 4

We can see what is defined for current state, using the $state.current, check this example showing:

state1
{
  "url": "/state1",
  "template": "<div>state1 <pre>{{current | json }}</pre><div ui-view=\"\"></div> </div>",
  "controller": "State1Ctrl",
  "name": "state1"
}
list
{
  "url": "/list",
  "template": "<div>list <pre>{{current | json }}</pre></div>",
  "controller": "State1Ctrl",
  "name": "state1.list"
}

the controller:

.controller('State1Ctrl', function($scope, $state) {

  $scope.current = $state.current

});

check that here

EXTEND: The above example will always return current state - i.e. if there is hierarchy of three states and we access the last state ('state1.list.detail') directly:

<a ui-sref="state1.list.detail({detailId:1})">....

Each controller will be provided with the same state: $state("state1.list.detail").

Why? beause this state has enough information what are all the views (hierarchically nested) and their controllers needed. We can observe that all in the

$state.$current // not .current

Quickly discussed here cite:

In addition, users can attach custom decorators, which will generate new properties within the state's internal definition. There is currently no clear use-case for this beyond accessing internal states (i.e. $state.$current), however, expect this to become increasingly relevant as we introduce additional meta-programming features.

BUT: there is NO way, how to get information from current controller instance, to which $state it belongs! Even any iterations, searching through some $state.get('stateName') will be unreliable, because simply there is no kept relation that way. One controller Class could be used for many views as different Instances. And also, from my experience, I do not remember any case, when I needed to know such information... wish now it is a bit more clear

Answer 5

This is useful if you are looking for Current state name, $state.current.name

Answer 6

Not sure it is the same version, but on 0.3.1 you can use this to get the current state:

$state.$current.name

And to perform a check:

$state.is('contact.details.item');

Documentation: https://ui-router.github.io/ng1/docs/0.3.1/index.html#/api/ui.router.state.$state

Answer 7

A working "out of the box" Controller from your code, which shows state:

.controller('State1Ctrl', function ($state) {
    console.log("Current State: ", $state.current.name);
});

Answer 8

If you want to check the current state

console.log("state", $state.current)

If you want to check the name of the current state name

console.log("statename", $state.current.name)