A simple, naïve, and hacky proof-of-concept for auto-loading modules in AngularJS.

angular-autoload.js

/**
 * Naive AngularJS module autoloader; depends on require.js.
 *
 * Usage:
 *
 * angular.autoLoad({
 *     'ngResource': '/js/angular-resource-1.0.1.min.js',
 *     'google-maps': '/js/angular-google-maps.js',
 *     'ui.bootstrap': '/js/ui/ui-bootstrap-custom-tpls-0.4.0.min.js',
 *     'module.split.over.multiple.files': ['/js/file1.js', '/js/file2.js']
 * });
 *
 * Then initialize your modules with their dependencies as normal, and the correct scripts will be
 * autoloaded appropriately.
 *
 * Notes:
 * As mentioned, this is currently implemented with required.js. It should be rewritten using $q.
 * ALSO, Angular must be boostrapped manually (http://docs.angularjs.org/guide/bootstrap) *after*
 * your autoload configuration is initialized, and *before* your application modules are loaded.
 */
(function(angular) {

	var _module = angular.module, _bootstrap = angular.bootstrap, _requests = 0, _inited = false;
	var _loadMap = {}, _invokeQueue = {}, _loaded = {}, _funcCache = {}, _ = {};
	var _appendAndFlatten = function(list, item) {
		if (!angular.isArray(item)) {
			if (list.indexOf(item) === -1) {
				list.push(item);
			}
			return list;
		}
		angular.forEach(item, function(i) {
			if (list.indexOf(i) === -1) {
				list.push(i);
			}
		});
		return list;
	};

	angular.extend(angular, {
		module: function(name, requires, configFn) {
			if (!requires) {
				return _module.call(angular, name, requires, configFn);
			}
			var autoLoad = [];

			angular.forEach(requires, function(mod) {
				try {
					angular.module(mod);
				} catch (e) {
					if (!e.toString().match(/No module/)) {
						throw e;
					}
					if (_loadMap[mod]) {
						autoLoad = _appendAndFlatten(autoLoad, _loadMap[mod]);
					}
				}
			});

			if (!autoLoad.length || (autoLoad.length === 1 && autoLoad[0] === "ng")) {
				_inited = true;
				return _module.call(angular, name, requires, configFn);
			}
			var module = _module.call(angular, name, [], configFn);

			angular.forEach(module, function(val, key) {
				if (!angular.isFunction(val)) {
					return;
				}
				module[key] = function() {
					_invokeQueue[name].push([key, Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments)]);
					return module;
				};
				_funcCache[key] = val;
			});
			_invokeQueue[name] = [];

			require(autoLoad, function() {
				for (var n in _funcCache) {
					module[n] = _funcCache[n];
				}
				module.requires = requires;

				if (angular.isFunction(configFn)) {
					module.config(configFn);
				}

				for (var i = 0; i < _invokeQueue[name].length; i++) {
					var call = _invokeQueue[name][i];
					module[call[0]].apply(module, call[1]);
				}
				_requests--;

				if (_.businessTime) {
					_.businessTime();
				}
			});
			_requests++;
			_inited = true;

			return module;
		},

		autoLoad: function(modules) {
			angular.extend(_loadMap, modules);
		},

		bootstrap: function() {
			var args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);

			_.businessTime = function() {
				if (_inited && _requests === 0) {
					return _bootstrap.apply(angular, args);
				}
			};
			_.businessTime();
		}
	});

})(angular);

• Plnkr: http://plnkr.co/edit/Gv4YOk5p3wtXqdz5vdnr?p=preview
• Discussion: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-US&fromgroups#!searchin/angular/lazy|sort:date/angular/XctfU9havi0/XOcFB388IQ0J

@nateabele -- I put some comments in a fork... are they mostly accurate? https://gist.github.com/stu-salsbury/5691371

I'm going to try to wrangle this a little bit, I'll keep you posted.

@nateabele: so far no luck getting it to go at runtime -- it might make more sense for my purposes to try to take the logic of separately invoking the functions and put it into something that takes a module object as a parameter so that the top level app isn't passed by name...basically a wrapper around your module function that directly populates an existing module?

Hmm. I think I see a serious roadblock -- anything written to use injected providers isn't going to work at runtime. That may be a deal killer...