#lesson 5-3

Continuing the discussion from Shaping Up with Angular.js Level 5 Challenge 3 [FIXED] - re: ngRepeat/dupes error:

paulajbastos said:

Nevermind... my mistake with json written

In the previous thread, the author reported that it was his mistake re: the issue with the JSON, but I wanted to clarify this a bit further, as I ran into this problem not because of a small error.

The issue here is, we wrote our code in the HTML file originally, using a very basic array. When we pulled that code out of the HTML file into a JSON file all its own, it wasn't properly formatted to hold its own as a legitimate JSON file.

Seems simple, but it took a few tries before I was sure that the formatting had to be the problem. After a couple of different attempts at debugging my issue myself I turned to google because I was determined to get through the final challenge and finish the course.

It turns out that copying our gem array from the app.html file into a JSON file, doesn't quite get us where we need to go. As was explained by joakimbl on Stack Overflow:

It seems like data is a string and not an array. This is probably because the response body from the server is not properly formatted JSON. Instead of traversing objects in an array, ng-repeat traverses characters in a string and throws an error on the second tab character (encoded as %0D) it detects.

Here's a link to the full explanation (question posed by a fellow codeschooler):

stackoverflow.com

$http dependency injection throwing error

asked by mtpultz on 08:01AM - 07 Jun 14

javascript, json, angularjs, dependency-injection

The author of the solution (our buddy joakimbl) even goes so far as to provide a plunker with properly formatted JSON to prove the case: http://plnkr.co/edit/XbPuXkykzv36NyH3sSeu?p=preview

In lieu of reformatting my own code (which differed marginally) I swapped in his and my app got back to working.

But I just found a JSON formatter/validator and went back in, cleaned my code and swapped it back.

It worked!

You just need to clean up your array before expecting it to work in a standalone JSON file. Then (and ONLY then) will you stop getting that unhelpful "ngRepeat/dupes" error -- offering no data about where the dupes are. The reason that happened is because it's basically reading a duplication of an empty file, since it can't read the array correctly.

Another piece of sage wisdom that he offers:

You shouldn't use the minified version of Angular while developing. You'll get better error messages when using the non-minified version.

I totally feel you joa!