How to route without a templateUrl?

A workaround is to use template instead of templateUrl. From the Angular docs:

template – {string=} – html template as a string that should be used by ngView or ngInclude directives. this property takes precedence over templateUrl.

This can be used as follows:

$routeProvider.when("/foo", {template: " ", controller: "Ctrl"});

Note: You must use " " instead of an empty string "" because Angular uses an if (template) check before firing the controller, and an empty string evaluates to false.

-- EDIT --

A better way to do it is to use the resolve map. See the Angular Docs:

resolve - {Object.=} - An optional map of dependencies which should be injected into the controller.

This can be used like this:

$routeProvider.when('/foo', {resolve: {redirect: 'RedirectService'}});

Note: I've changed it from "Ctrl" to "RedirectService", because what you're describing in the question isn't really a "controller" in the Angular sense. It doesn't set up scope for a view. Instead, it's more like a service, which ends up redirecting.

I am writing the solution based on the already accepted answer and the github issue mentioned in it's comments.

The approach I am using is a resolve parameter in the $routeProvider. In my case I was trying to create a nice solution to logout in my application, when user goes to /logout.

Example code of $routeProvider:

app.config(['$routeProvider', function ($routeProvider) {    $routeProvider.        ...        when('/logout', {            resolve: {                logout: ['logoutService', function (logoutService) {                    logoutService();                }]            },        }).        ...}]);

In the resolve part you specify a service (factory) by name and later on you have to call it. Still it is the nicest solution around.

To make the example complete I present my logoutService:

angular.module('xxx').factory('logoutService', function ($location, Auth) {    return function () {       Auth.setUser(undefined);       $location.path('/');    }});

Works great!