Discussion: Match the most specific URL, not the first found

[christopherthielen]

Currently if you register states with urls like:

.state('foo', {
  url: '/foo/:fooid',
  params: { bar: null, squash: true }
})
.state('foo.bar', {
  url: '/staticstring'
})
.state('foo2', {
  url: '/foo/otherstring'
})

With URL /foo/staticstring, foo is matched because it matches the pattern and its url rule was registered first. Currently, the first matched URL always wins.

Likewise, with URL /foo/otherstring, foo is matched for the same reasons.

Choose most specific match

Consider implementing heuristics where the most specific match is chosen.

• For url: /foo/staticstringwe should detect that foo.bar is more specific than foo.
  • Deepest state wins
• For url: /foo/otherstring we should detect that foo2 is more specific than foo.
  • Fewer parameters win?

This would have the additional benefit during lazy loading. When states are lazy loaded, there might not be a guarantee of the load order, so less specific urls could be registered before more specific ones.

[christopherthielen]

Closed by eb2f5d7