Angular - Limit HTTP interceptor retries

Question

I've written an interceptor that, upon error of response, if the status code and an access token is present in local storage, retries the HTTP request.

I wrote this mostly to counter mysteriously failing responses from the API we're using (which I have no control of), because in some cases a retry sufficed. Sometimes the API endpoint would fail for no reason, so I figured that since I do not have control over the maintenance of the API I'd just retry sending the HTTP requests.

primesis.factory('httpResponseErrorInterceptor', function ($q, $injector) {
    return {
        'responseError': function (response) {
            if(response.status === 500 && localStorage.getItem('token')) {
                var $http = $injector.get('$http');
                return $http(response.config);
            }
            return $q.reject(response);
        }
    };
});

   $httpProvider.interceptors.push('httpResponseErrorInterceptor');

However, this results in an infinitely-retrying interceptor in those cases that there is indeed an error in the API.

What I'm trying to achieve is to put a limit in the retries of this interceptor. I've tried putting a counter in it but it seems like the counter does not carry on to the next interceptor call.

I've been searching for something that addresses a situation like this but to no avail. Is there a way to put limits on interceptor response error retries?

Answer 1

@csupnig's answer would work if you could picture it and write an implementation for it, but I managed to do it within the confines of the same interceptor itself: no added services.

Here's how I did it:

app.factory('httpResponseErrorInterceptor', function ($q, $injector) {
        return {
            responseError: function (response) {
                if(response.status === 500 && localStorage.getItem('token')) {
                var $http = $injector.get('$http');

                if(response.config.Retries===undefined){
                    //do something on first error e.g, reporting
                    response.config.Retries=1;
                    return $http(response.config);
                }else{
                    if(response.config.Retries!==2){
                        response.config.Retries = response.config.Retries +1;
                        return $http(response.config);
                    }
                    else{
                        response.config.Retries = undefined;
                        //do something on last retry
                        return $q.reject(response);
                    }
                }
            }
            return $q.reject(response); // give up
        }
    };
}); 

This works by attaching the counter on the response config itself.

I admit this could use some refactoring, but you get the idea. This worked for my use case, and I think this is fairly easy enough to alter.