ng-auto-save

Set of angularjs directives to save inputs' values as user types

Installation:

via NPM: npm install ng-auto-save

Reference module in your app

angular.module('app', ['ng-auto-save']);

Demo:

Plunker Live Demo - Exchange with the database is imitated.

Example:

All you have to do in the controller is to provide a function to save record. This must return a promise and it takes three arguments:

• field - corresponds to the column in the table in database that will be updated
• val - new value to save
• key - the constraint that usually goes in the the where clause of the sql update statement

index.js - inside Controller:

$scope.updateField = function (field, val, key) {
    return $http.post('/api/article/update', { id: key, field: field, val: val })
        .success(function () {
            articleRef[field] = $scope.article[field];
        })
        .error(function(error) {
            console.log(error);
        });
};

index.html: Example uses angular-material, ng-messages, font-awesome

<form name="formEditArticle" novalidate auto-save="updateField" auto-save-key="article.id" auto-save-debounce="1000">
    <md-content layout="column">
        <div layout="row" layout-align="start center">
            <md-input-container>
                <label>Name</label>
                <input ng-model="article.name" required auto-save-field="name" name="article.name">
            </md-input-container>
            <span class="fa fa-gear fa-spin" auto-saving="name"></span>
            <span class="fa fa-check-square-o" auto-saved="name"></span>
        </div>
 
        <div ng-messages for="formEditArticle['article.name'].$error">
            <span ng-message when="required">Name is required</span>
        </div>
    </md-content>
</form>

Explanation of directives used:

• auto-save="updateField" - must be applied to the <form>. It takes the name of the function used to save record.
• auto-save-key="article.id" - article.id here is the primary key in the table Articles. If it is undefined, the auto-save function will not execute (thus making it easy to customize insert functionality).
• auto-save-debounce="1000" - specify how long to wait for input before saving
• auto-save-field="name" - must be applied to an input with attribute ng-model. The "name" here is the name of the column in the table to be updated.
• auto-saving="name" - apply this directive to an element that you want to show up when saving is in progress. The value of the attribute must be set to the value of 'auto-save-field' applied to the corresponding input
• auto-saved="name" - apply this directive to an element that you want to show up when saving is in complete successfully. The value of the attribute must be set to the value of 'auto-save-field' applied to the corresponding input

Server side implementation Example for NodeJs as a web server using express.js and PostgreSql as a database.

Set Route:

router.post('/api/article/update', routes.api.articleUpdateField);

Implementation for route:

var query = require('pg-query');
var squel = require("squel");
squel.useFlavour('postgres');
var sqlOptions = { autoQuoteAliasNames: false };
query.connectionParameters = 'postgres://postgres:mypassword@localhost:5432/Articles'; // example connection
 
exports.articleUpdateField = function (req, res) {
    var id = parseInt(req.body.id);
 
    if (id) {
        var sql = squel.update()
            .table('tblArticles')
            .set(req.body.field, req.body.val)
            .where('id = ?', id)
            .toParam();
 
        query(sql.text, sql.values, function(err, rows, result) {
            if (err) {
                console.log(err);
                res.status(500).end();
            } else {
                res.end();
            }
        });
    } else {
        res.status(500).end();
    }
};

Credits

Inspired by an article written by Adam Albrecht: "How to Auto-Save your model in Angular.js using $watch and a Debounce function."