Using a 'model' in angular

user-service.js

// this is the constructor function of the javascript object (i.e. the `initialize` method)
var User = function(data, http) {
  // copy data (presumably a simple JSON object received by a call to some API)
  angular.copy(data, this);
  this.http = http;
}

// add methods to the User "class"
User.prototype.fullName = function() {
  return this.firstName + ' ' + this.lastName;
}

// use things that are dependency injected, like $http
User.prototype.addRole = function(roleName) {
  return this.http.post('/users/' + this.id + '/roles', roleName);
}

User.prototype.save = function(){
  return this.http.post(
    '/users', {
    email: this.email,
    password: this.password
  });
}

// wrap the user model in a service that can create new instances of User
// this will return a simple object that responds to `#new` and will return a new User object
// you can use dependency injection as normal here
angular.module('myApp').service('userService', function($http){
  return {
    new: function(data) {
      // $http was injected into the service, so we can easily hand it to the model
      return new User(data, $http)
    },
  }
});

user.html

<!-- example of using the user model in a view -->
<!-- arguably this sort of thing can be done in a filter -->
<p>
  Welcome, {{ user.fullName() }
</p>

userController.js

// an example of using the service in a controller
angular.module('myApp').controller('newUserController', function(userService, $scope){
  // presumably $scope.user.email is bound in some view somewhere
  $scope.user = userService.new({});
  
  $scope.save = function() {
    $scope.user.save().then(function(){
      handleSuccess();
    }, function() {
      handleError();
    })
  };
  
  $scope.addRole = function(roleName) {
    $scope.user.addRole(roleName).then(function(){
      successfullyAddedRole();
    }, function() {
      failedToAddRole();
    })
  }
});

I've had some success with this pattern when I want my angular objects to be a little more modely. The advantage here is that the controller is less noisy and serves the single purpose of passing data between model and view.