AngularJS controller unit testing with $http.get() on load

Question

I'm having difficulties understanding how to resolve the problem of the unit testing the controller, which makes a GET call during initialisation.

When testing the controller method, that performs the POST request, because of the initial GET call I'm getting the following error in my tests:

Error: Unexpected request: GET

The main part of the controller looks like this:

.controller('someController', function($scope, $http, $log) {

    $scope.posts = [];

    $scope.content = '';

    $scope.read = function() {

        $http.get('/read.php')

            .success(function(data) {

                $scope.posts = data;

            })

            .error(function(data, status, headers, config) {

                throw new Error('Something went wrong with reading data');

            });

    };


    $scope.read();


    $scope.write = function() {

        $http({
            method: 'POST',
            url: '/write.php',
            data: "content=" + $scope.content,
            headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'}
        })
            .success(function(data) {

                $scope.posts.push({ id : data.id, task : $scope.content })

            })
            .error(function(data, status, headers, config) {

                throw new Error('Something went wrong with writing data');

            });

    };

});

As you can see I'm calling the read() method right after its definition - so that all records are fetched from the database on page load.

I've tried the same with the .config() or other service, but obviously the result is the same.

Now - my test is as follow:

describe('someController tests', function() {


    var $scope,
        $http,
        $httpBackend,
        $log;


     beforeEach(function() {

        module('myApp');

        inject(function($rootScope, _$http_, _$httpBackend_, _$log_) {

            $scope = $rootScope.$new();
            $http = _$http_;
            $httpBackend = _$httpBackend_;
            $log = _$log_;

        });


        $httpBackend.expectGET("/mod/read.php").respond({});


    });



    it('should add new record', inject(function($controller) {

        $controller('ToDoController', {

            $scope : $scope,
            $http : $http,
            $log : $log

        });


        $scope.posts = [];

        $scope.content = 'Some content';

        $httpBackend
            .whenPOST('/write.php')
            .respond({ id : 1, content : $scope.content });


        $scope.write();        

        $httpBackend.flush();     


        expect($scope.posts.length).toBe(1);


        afterEach(function() {

            $httpBackend.verifyNoOutstandingExpectation();
            $httpBackend.verifyNoOutstandingRequest();

        });

    }));



});

Now - there are a few questions I have about this code.

1. Is calling the method within the controller on page load considered a good practice? I know that if I used ng-init within the document to call it - this would solve all my problems, but I just don't like this approach.

2. In the beforeEach() method of the test I'm calling:

$httpBackend.expectGET("/mod/read.php").respond({});

to reflect the call of the read() method during initialisation, but again - I'm not sure this is the right thing to do here. I know that if I remove it - the 'should add new record' test will fail with the error mentioned above.

1. I know that afterEach() should be placed outside of the it() block, but if I do this - it will cause the same problem, but error will apply to all of the tests within this describe block. Is putting it inside of the it() block considered a bad practice / incorrect?

2. How would I perform the read() test - if the call is already triggered in the beforeEach() loop?

3. Lastly - what would your suggestion be to improve / rewrite the controller and the test to make sure it works its best?

I'm pretty new to the TDD - so I'm sure it's just my limited understanding of the topic, but would appreciate some constructive help.