How to cancel an $http request in AngularJS?

Cancelation of requests issued with $http is not supported with the current version of AngularJS. There is a pull request opened to add this capability but this PR wasn't reviewed yet so it is not clear if its going to make it into AngularJS core.

Cancelling Angular $http Ajax with the timeout property doesn't work in Angular 1.3.15. For those that cannot wait for this to be fixed I'm sharing a jQuery Ajax solution wrapped in Angular.

The solution involves two services:

• HttpService (a wrapper around the jQuery Ajax function);
• PendingRequestsService (tracks the pending/open Ajax requests)

Here goes the PendingRequestsService service:

    (function (angular) {
    'use strict';
    var app = angular.module('app');
    app.service('PendingRequestsService', ["$log", function ($log) {            
        var $this = this;
        var pending = [];
        $this.add = function (request) {
            pending.push(request);
        };
        $this.remove = function (request) {
            pending = _.filter(pending, function (p) {
                return p.url !== request;
            });
        };
        $this.cancelAll = function () {
            angular.forEach(pending, function (p) {
                p.xhr.abort();
                p.deferred.reject();
            });
            pending.length = 0;
        };
    }]);})(window.angular);

The HttpService service:

     (function (angular) {
        'use strict';
        var app = angular.module('app');
        app.service('HttpService', ['$http', '$q', "$log", 'PendingRequestsService', function ($http, $q, $log, pendingRequests) {
            this.post = function (url, params) {
                var deferred = $q.defer();
                var xhr = $.ASI.callMethod({
                    url: url,
                    data: params,
                    error: function() {
                        $log.log("ajax error");
                    }
                });
                pendingRequests.add({
                    url: url,
                    xhr: xhr,
                    deferred: deferred
                });            
                xhr.done(function (data, textStatus, jqXhr) {                                    
                        deferred.resolve(data);
                    })
                    .fail(function (jqXhr, textStatus, errorThrown) {
                        deferred.reject(errorThrown);
                    }).always(function (dataOrjqXhr, textStatus, jqXhrErrorThrown) {
                        //Once a request has failed or succeeded, remove it from the pending list
                        pendingRequests.remove(url);
                    });
                return deferred.promise;
            }
        }]);
    })(window.angular);

Later in your service when you are loading data you would use the HttpService instead of $http:

(function (angular) {

    angular.module('app').service('dataService', ["HttpService", function (httpService) {

        this.getResources = function (params) {

            return httpService.post('/serverMethod', { param: params });

        };
    }]);

})(window.angular);

Later in your code you would like to load the data:

(function (angular) {

var app = angular.module('app');

app.controller('YourController', ["DataService", "PendingRequestsService", function (httpService, pendingRequestsService) {

    dataService
    .getResources(params)
    .then(function (data) {    
    // do stuff    
    });    

    ...

    // later that day cancel requests    
    pendingRequestsService.cancelAll();
}]);

})(window.angular);

If you want to cancel pending requests on stateChangeStart with ui-router, you can use something like this:

// in service

                var deferred = $q.defer();
                var scope = this;
                $http.get(URL, {timeout : deferred.promise, cancel : deferred}).success(function(data){
                    //do something
                    deferred.resolve(dataUsage);
                }).error(function(){
                    deferred.reject();
                });
                return deferred.promise;

// in UIrouter config

$rootScope.$on('$stateChangeStart', function (event, toState, toParams, fromState, fromParams) {
    //To cancel pending request when change state
       angular.forEach($http.pendingRequests, function(request) {
          if (request.cancel && request.timeout) {
             request.cancel.resolve();
          }
       });
    });

This enhances the accepted answer by decorating the $http service with an abort method as follows ...

'use strict';
angular.module('admin')
  .config(["$provide", function ($provide) {

$provide.decorator('$http', ["$delegate", "$q", function ($delegate, $q) {
  var getFn = $delegate.get;
  var cancelerMap = {};

  function getCancelerKey(method, url) {
    var formattedMethod = method.toLowerCase();
    var formattedUrl = encodeURI(url).toLowerCase().split("?")[0];
    return formattedMethod + "~" + formattedUrl;
  }

  $delegate.get = function () {
    var cancelerKey, canceler, method;
    var args = [].slice.call(arguments);
    var url = args[0];
    var config = args[1] || {};
    if (config.timeout == null) {
      method = "GET";
      cancelerKey = getCancelerKey(method, url);
      canceler = $q.defer();
      cancelerMap[cancelerKey] = canceler;
      config.timeout = canceler.promise;
      args[1] = config;
    }
    return getFn.apply(null, args);
  };

  $delegate.abort = function (request) {
    console.log("aborting");
    var cancelerKey, canceler;
    cancelerKey = getCancelerKey(request.method, request.url);
    canceler = cancelerMap[cancelerKey];

    if (canceler != null) {
      console.log("aborting", cancelerKey);

      if (request.timeout != null && typeof request.timeout !== "number") {

        canceler.resolve();
        delete cancelerMap[cancelerKey];
      }
    }
  };

  return $delegate;
}]);
  }]);

WHAT IS THIS CODE DOING?

To cancel a request a "promise" timeout must be set. If no timeout is set on the HTTP request then the code adds a "promise" timeout. (If a timeout is set already then nothing is changed).

However, to resolve the promise we need a handle on the "deferred". We thus use a map so we can retrieve the "deferred" later. When we call the abort method, the "deferred" is retrieved from the map and then we call the resolve method to cancel the http request.

Hope this helps someone.

LIMITATIONS

Currently this only works for $http.get but you can add code for $http.post and so on

HOW TO USE ...

You can then use it, for example, on state change, as follows ...

rootScope.$on('$stateChangeStart', function (event, toState, toParams) {
  angular.forEach($http.pendingRequests, function (request) {
        $http.abort(request);
    });
  });