Angular ui-router, how to get state associated with controller?

Question

Plunkr demonstrating problem:

http://plnkr.co/edit/Czc5kGpCwsruUQe2EanZ?p=preview

With the states:

.state('state1', {
  url: '/state1',
  template: '<div>state1 <pre>{{current | json }}</pre><div ui-view=""></div> </div>',
  controller: 'State1Ctrl',
})
.state('state1.list', {
  url: '/list',
  template: '<div>list <pre>{{current | json }}</pre></div>',
  controller: 'State1ListCtrl',
})

And the controllers:

.controller('State1Ctrl', function($scope, $state, $rootScope, $controller) {
  $scope.current = $state
})

.controller('State1ListCtrl', function($scope, $state) {
  $scope.current = $state
})

Produces the result:

state1
{
  "url": "/list",
  "template": "<div>list <pre>{{current | json }}</pre></div>",
  "controller": "State1ListCtrl",
  "name": "state1.list"
}

list
{
  "url": "/list",
  "template": "<div>list <pre>{{current | json }}</pre></div>",
  "controller": "State1ListCtrl",
  "name": "state1.list"
}

When going directly to the state1.list state.

I need access to the state that the controller is associated with, e.g. I want the result to be:

state1 (notice how this is different - it has the state1 configuration now)
{
  "url": "/state1",
  "template": "<div>list <pre>{{current | json }}</pre></div>",
  "controller": "State1Ctrl",
  "name": "state1"
}

list
{
  "url": "/list",
  "template": "<div>list <pre>{{current | json }}</pre></div>",
  "controller": "State1ListCtrl",
  "name": "state1.list"
}

I understand that state.$current is the current state, but how do you determine the state that the controller is associated with?

Answer 1

Controllers are meant to be independent of state in ui-router, so that the same controller could be used for any state.

But you can get any state from anywhere by using e.g. $state.get('state1.list')

I think you may just have to have someone somewhere know which controller is associated with which state. Whether each controller knows which state its associated with and calls $state.get('stateName') to get it, or you could build a service which will return the state for a controller name, or you could even use $state.get() to get all states and then enumerate through the list until one has a controller name that matches the controller that you are in.

Hope that helps.