False matches on .decorator methods

[schmod]

Currently, ng-annotate is aggressively annotating functions with .decorator() methods.

Specifically, ui-router's $stateProvider.decorator() method does not use DI injections, and breaks if ngAnnotate processes a file that calls it:

Original:

$stateProvider.decorator('parent', function (state, parentFn) {
  doStuff();
});

After ng-annotate:

$stateProvider.decorator('parent', ["state", "parentFn", function (state, parentFn) {
  doStuff();
}]);

Given that ui-router does not expect an array to be passed into this function, any code that calls $stateProvider.decorator() will break if it's processed by ngAnnotate.

Given that decorator is potentially a rather generic name, ng-annotate needs to be a lot less aggressive when matching some of these methods.

[schmod]

There's a real-world example of this in ui-router-extras

[olov]

Thanks for the issue and clear example. First of all, decorator should only match on $provide.decorator, not foo.decorator (or $stateProvider.decorator). This will be fixed and with that your problem will be solved.

There is a second potential problem, which is that ng-annotate supports "shorts declaration form" by default (see https://github.com/olov/ng-annotate#declaration-forms). The good thing about that is that it will catch more places to annotations without extra effort from the end-user. The bad thing is that it increases the risk for false positives, like the one you just got. This may change to become an opt-in for future versions of ng-annotate, depending on user feedback. So far we've always been able to address false positives reported by end users, just like this issue.

Meanwhile, you can use the regexp option to limit (or disable) short declaration forms altogether.

[Xiot]

I just found another work around as well which was refactoring the function to a variable and passing it to the decorator.
The variable gets $inject set on it, but it still works

so

var decoratorFn = function($state, parent) {};
$stateProvider.decorator('views', decoratorFn);

becomes

var decoratorFn = function($state, parent) {};
decoratorFn.$inject = ['$state', 'parent'];
$stateProvider.decorator('views', decoratorFn);

since decoratorFn is still a function, ui-router stays happy

[olov]

released in 0.13

[fabricioflores]

Hi. I'm using 0.15.4 version and gulp-ng-annotate@0.5.2 and I still have this issue...

[olov]

@fabricioflores that's weird. The example given in this issue does not get annotated any longer and we have a test case protecting it in the test suite. Can you open up a new issue and provide a minimal input and output? Please run it using the command-line ng-annotate directly (npm install -g ng-annotate and then ng-annotate -a example.js). Thanks.

[tkhelifiT]

I can confirm. ng-annotate 0.15.4 is working properly on ui-router's $stateProvider.decorator() method. Verify if your grunt-ng-annotate or gulp-ng-annotate is using the latest version of ng-annotate!!!