Q:

How to bootstrap data as it it were fetched by a $resource service in Angular.js

I have this Rails app that serves an index.html.erb by a UsersController. In the angular controller that handles that page, I have a $resource service for the User
CoffeeScript
.factory('User', ['$resource', ($resource) ->
  $resource 'api/users/:user_id/:action', {authenticity_token:app.csrf},
    query:
      method: 'GET'
      isArray: yes
    new:
      method: 'GET'
      params:
        user_id: 'new'
    update:
      method: 'PUT'
])

And the controller fetches
window.app = angular.module("app", ['userServices'])
.config(["$routeProvider", ($routeProvider) ->
  $routeProvider
  .when "/users",
    templateUrl: "assets/templates/users/index.html"
    controller: UserCtrl
    
  .otherwise redirectTo: "/users"
])

# users Controllers
UserCtrl = ($scope, User) ->
  User.query (r) ->
    $scope.users = r
    # code..

I think this is a pretty common scenario, but clearly it takes more than one trip to the server for just this page. I was wondering if there's a way for Angular to use some bootstrap data as it they were returned data from an action called in a $resource service.
I have already taken care of the bootstrap data part by assigning it to a global variable called Gon with the Gon ruby gem. I know I could simply do $scope.users = gon.users. But then these users models won't get the niceties like $scope.users[0].$save()
Thank you!

A:

As it turns out, it's really simple!
For instances, let's say you have all your non-angular models in a variable _tasks and the angular $resource model Task, all you need to do is pass the _tasks one by one into the constructor function Task like this:
$scope.tasks = (new Task(task) for task in _tasks)

then each of the $scope.tasks will have all those $update(), $delete() methods
$scope.tasks[0].$update({due_at: new Date})

