angularjs - Alternative to ng-show/-hide or how to load only relevant section of DOM

Question

When using ng-show/-hide, the content included in those blocks initially displays on the user screen. Only after few milliseconds (after angular.js has loaded and executed) does the right block show up in ng-show.

Is there a better way than ng-show/-hide to load only the relevant section of data into the DOM?

The problem with ng-view is that I can have only one on the page, so I have to toggle the behavior of many sections of the DOM based on the current state.

Answer 1

To avoid the "flash of uncompiled content", use ng-bind instead of {{}} or use ng-cloak:

<span ng-cloak ng-show="show">Hello, {{name}}!</span>

If you use ng-cloak, and you do not load Angular.js in the head section of your HTML, you will need to add this to your CSS file, and ensure it loads at the top of your page:

[ng:cloak], [ng-cloak], .ng-cloak { display: none; }

Note that you only need to use these directives on your initial page. Content that is pulled in later (e.g., via ng-include, ng-view, etc.) will be compiled by Angular before the browser renders.

Is there a better way to load data other than ng-show / hide, in which only the relevant section is loaded into the DOM.

Some alternatives to ng-show/ng-hide are ng-include, ng-switch and (since v1.1.5) ng-if:

<div ng-include src="someModelPropertySetToThePartialYouWantToLoadRightNow"></div>

See also https://stackoverflow.com/a/12584774/215945 for an example of ng-switch working together with ng-include.

Note that ng-switch and ng-if add/remove DOM elements, whereas ng-show/hide only alters the CSS (if that matters to you).