AngularJS : Initialize service with asynchronous data

I used a similar approach to the one described by @XMLilley but wanted to have the ability to use AngularJS services like $http to load the configuration and do further initialization without the use of low level APIs or jQuery.

Using resolve on routes was also not an option because I needed the values to be available as constants when my app is started, even in module.config() blocks.

I created a small AngularJS app that loads the config, sets them as constants on the actual app and bootstraps it.

// define the module of your app
angular.module('MyApp', []);

// define the module of the bootstrap app
var bootstrapModule = angular.module('bootstrapModule', []);

// the bootstrapper service loads the config and bootstraps the specified app
bootstrapModule.factory('bootstrapper', function ($http, $log, $q) {
  return {
    bootstrap: function (appName) {
      var deferred = $q.defer();

      $http.get('/some/url')
        .success(function (config) {
          // set all returned values as constants on the app...
          var myApp = angular.module(appName);
          angular.forEach(config, function(value, key){
            myApp.constant(key, value);
          });
          // ...and bootstrap the actual app.
          angular.bootstrap(document, [appName]);
          deferred.resolve();
        })
        .error(function () {
          $log.warn('Could not initialize application, configuration could not be loaded.');
          deferred.reject();
        });

      return deferred.promise;
    }
  };
});

// create a div which is used as the root of the bootstrap app
var appContainer = document.createElement('div');

// in run() function you can now use the bootstrapper service and shutdown the bootstrapping app after initialization of your actual app
bootstrapModule.run(function (bootstrapper) {

  bootstrapper.bootstrap('MyApp').then(function () {
    // removing the container will destroy the bootstrap app
    appContainer.remove();
  });

});

// make sure the DOM is fully loaded before bootstrapping.
angular.element(document).ready(function() {
  angular.bootstrap(appContainer, ['bootstrapModule']);
});

See it in action (using $timeout instead of $http) here: http://plnkr.co/edit/FYznxP3xe8dxzwxs37hi?p=preview

UPDATE

I would recommend to use the approach described below by Martin Atkins and JBCP.

UPDATE 2

Because I needed it in multiple projects, I just released a bower module that takes care of this: https://github.com/philippd/angular-deferred-bootstrap

Example that loads data from the back-end and sets a constant called APP_CONFIG on the AngularJS module:

deferredBootstrapper.bootstrap({
  element: document.body,
  module: 'MyApp',
  resolve: {
    APP_CONFIG: function ($http) {
      return $http.get('/api/demo-config');
    }
  }
});

Have you had a look at $routeProvider.when('/path',{ resolve:{...}? It can make the promise approach a bit cleaner:

Expose a promise in your service:

app.service('MyService', function($http) {
    var myData = null;

    var promise = $http.get('data.json').success(function (data) {
      myData = data;
    });

    return {
      promise:promise,
      setData: function (data) {
          myData = data;
      },
      doStuff: function () {
          return myData;//.getSomeData();
      }
    };
});

Add resolve to your route config:

app.config(function($routeProvider){
  $routeProvider
    .when('/',{controller:'MainCtrl',
    template:'<div>From MyService:<pre>{{data | json}}</pre></div>',
    resolve:{
      'MyServiceData':function(MyService){
        // MyServiceData will also be injectable in your controller, if you don't want this you could create a new promise with the $q service
        return MyService.promise;
      }
    }})
  }):

Your controller won't get instantiated before all dependencies are resolved:

app.controller('MainCtrl', function($scope,MyService) {
  console.log('Promise is now resolved: '+MyService.doStuff().data)
  $scope.data = MyService.doStuff();
});

I've made an example at plnkr: http://plnkr.co/edit/GKg21XH0RwCMEQGUdZKH?p=preview

Based on Martin Atkins' solution, here is a complete, concise pure-Angular solution:

(function() {
  var initInjector = angular.injector(['ng']);
  var $http = initInjector.get('$http');
  $http.get('/config.json').then(
    function (response) {
      angular.module('config', []).constant('CONFIG', response.data);

      angular.element(document).ready(function() {
          angular.bootstrap(document, ['myApp']);
        });
    }
  );
})();

This solution uses a self-executing anonymous function to get the $http service, request the config, and inject it into a constant called CONFIG when it becomes available.

Once completely, we wait until the document is ready and then bootstrap the Angular app.

This is a slight enhancement over Martin's solution, which deferred fetching the config until after the document is ready. As far as I know, there is no reason to delay the $http call for that.

Unit Testing

Note: I have discovered this solution does not work well when unit-testing when the code is included in your app.js file. The reason for this is that the above code runs immediately when the JS file is loaded. This means the test framework (Jasmine in my case) doesn't have a chance to provide a mock implementation of $http.

My solution, which I'm not completely satisfied with, was to move this code to our index.html file, so the Grunt/Karma/Jasmine unit test infrastructure does not see it.