If you're wrapping your api calls within a service/factory, then you can track the loading counter there (per answer and excellent simultaneous suggestion by @JMaylin), and reference the loading counter via a directive. Or any combination thereof.
API WRAPPER
yourModule
.factory('yourApi', ['$http', function ($http) {
var api = {}
//#region ------------ spinner -------------
// ajax loading counter
api._loading = 0;
/**
* Toggle check
*/
api.isOn = function () { return api._loading > 0; }
/**
* Based on a configuration setting to ignore the loading spinner, update the loading counter
* (for multiple ajax calls at one time)
*/
api.spinner = function(delta, config) {
// if we haven't been told to ignore the spinner, change the loading counter
// so we can show/hide the spinner
if (NG.isUndefined(config.spin) || config.spin) api._loading += delta;
// don't let runaway triggers break stuff...
if (api._loading < 0) api._loading = 0;
console.log('spinner:', api._loading, delta);
}
/**
* Track an ajax load begin, if not specifically disallowed by request configuration
*/
api.loadBegin = function(config) {
api.spinner(1, config);
}
/**
* Track an ajax load end, if not specifically disallowed by request configuration
*/
api.loadEnd = function (config) {
api.spinner(-1, config);
}
//#endregion ------------ spinner -------------
var baseConfig = {
method: 'post'
// don't need to declare `spin` here
}
/**
* $http wrapper to standardize all api calls
* @param args stuff sent to request
* @param config $http configuration, such as url, methods, etc
*/
var callWrapper = function(args, config) {
var p = angular.extend(baseConfig, config); // override defaults
// fix for 'get' vs 'post' param attachment
if (!angular.isUndefined(args)) p[p.method == 'get' ? 'params' : 'data'] = args;
// trigger the spinner
api.loadBegin(p);
// make the call, and turn of the spinner on completion
// note: may want to use `then`/`catch` instead since `finally` has delayed completion if down-chain returns more promises
return $http(p)['finally'](function(response) {
api.loadEnd(response.config);
return response;
});
}
api.DoSomething = function(args) {
// yes spinner
return callWrapper(args, { cache: true });
}
api.DoSomethingInBackground = function(args) {
// no spinner
return callWrapper(args, { cache: true, spin: false });
}
// expose
return api;
});
SPINNER DIRECTIVE
(function (NG) {
var loaderTemplate = '<div class="ui active dimmer" data-ng-show="hasSpinner()"><div class="ui large loader"></div></div>';
/**
* Show/Hide spinner with ajax
*/
function spinnerDirective($compile, api) {
return {
restrict: 'EA',
link: function (scope, element) {
// listen for api trigger
scope.hasSpinner = api.isOn;
// attach spinner html
var spin = NG.element(loaderTemplate);
$compile(spin)(scope); // bind+parse
element.append(spin);
}
}
}
NG.module('yourModule')
.directive('yourApiSpinner', ['$compile', 'yourApi', spinnerDirective]);
})(angular);
USAGE
<div ng-controller="myCtrl" your-api-spinner> ... </div>