Notes:
This answer is old. This is just a proof of concept on how the desired outcome can be achieved. However, it may not be the best solution as per some comments below. I don’t have any documentation to support or reject the following approach. Please refer to some of the comments below for further discussion on this topic.
Original Answer:
I answered this to
Yes you absolutely can do so using ng-init
and a simple init function.
Here is the example of it on plunker
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html ng-app="angularjs-starter">
<head lang="en">
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.0.3/angular.min.js"></script>
<script src="app.js"></script>
</head>
<body ng-controller="MainCtrl" ng-init="init('James Bond','007')">
<h1>I am {{name}} {{id}}</h1>
</body>
</html>
JavaScript
var app = angular.module('angularjs-starter', []);
app.controller('MainCtrl', function($scope) {
$scope.init = function(name, id)
{
//This function is sort of private constructor for controller
$scope.id = id;
$scope.name = name;
//Based on passed argument you can make a call to resource
//and initialize more objects
//$resource.getMeBond(007)
};
});