How to Expand a Default Angular UI Tree Node - angularjs

Question

I have the following markup:
<div class="modal fade" id="locationSearchModal" tabindex="-1" role="dialog">
<div class="modal-dialog narrow-modal" role="document">
<div class="modal-content">
<div class="modal-header">
<button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal" aria-label="Close"><span aria-hidden="true">×</span></button>
<h4 class="modal-title" id="myModalLabel">Search for Locations</h4>
</div>
<div class="modal-body">
<div class="tree-container">
<section>
<h2>Browse for Locations</h2>
<div ui-tree="" data-drag-enabled="false" id="tree-root">
<ul ui-tree-nodes="" ng-model="data">
<li ng-repeat="item in data" ui-tree-node="" collapsed="!item.ItemsRetrieved" ng-include="item.Place || item.$hashkey == undefined ? 'parent_items_renderer' : 'terminal_item_renderer' " ></li>
</ul>
</div>
<script type="text/ng-template" id="parent_items_renderer">
<div ui-tree-handle class="tree-node tree-node-content" ng-class="{'tree-node-open': !collapsed}" ng-click="toggle(item); convertObjs(item)">
<i class="fa fa-caret-right" ng-class="{'fa-caret-right': collapsed, 'fa-caret-down': !collapsed}"></i>
<i class="fa fa-map-marker" ng-class="{'text-blue': !collapsed}"></i>
<span class="" ng-bind-html="item.PlaceName"></span>
</div>
<ul ng-if="item.Place != null" ui-tree-nodes ng-model="item.Place" ng-class="{hidden: collapsed}">
<li ng-repeat="item in item.Place" ui-tree-node collapsed="!item.ItemsRetrieved" ng-include="item.Place ? 'parent_items_renderer' : 'terminal_item_renderer' " on-finish-render="ngRepeatFinished"> </li>
</ul>
</script>
<script type="text/ng-template" id="terminal_item_renderer">
<div ui-tree-handle class="tree-node tree-node-content" ng-class="{'tree-node-open': !collapsed}" ng-click="addLocation(item)">
<a href title="Add Location"><span class="" ng-bind-html="item.PlaceName"></span></a>
</div>
</script>
</section>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
The JSON data object that contains the location data is an hierarchical collection of Places:
{
"PlaceHierarchy":{
"Places":{
"Place":{
"PlaceID":"1000",
"PlaceTypeID":"5",
"PlaceName":"Company",
"AbbrName":"Company",
"Place":[
{
"PlaceID":"2000",
"PlaceTypeID":"4",
"PlaceName":"Region",
"AbbrName":"ThePlace",
"Place":[
{
"PlaceID":"3000",
"PlaceTypeID":"3",
"PlaceName":"SubRegion",
"AbbrName":"TheSubPlace",
"Place":[
{
"PlaceID":"4000",
"PlaceTypeID":"2",
"PlaceName":"SubSubRegion",
"AbbrName":"TheSubSubPlace",
"Place":[
{
"PlaceID":"5000",
"PlaceTypeID":"1",
"PlaceName":"Building",
"AbbrName":"Building",
"Place":[
{
"PlaceID":"5001",
"PlaceTypeID":"6",
"PlaceName":"Lobby",
"AbbrName":"Lobby"
},
{
"PlaceID":"5002",
"PlaceTypeID":"6",
"PlaceName":"Lobby 2",
"AbbrName":"Lobby2"
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
}
}
}
When I get that JSON back from the API, I need to process the data to make sure that all nodes are arrays. I do it like this:
$scope.processLocationNodes = function (nodes) {
for (var node in nodes) {
if (angular.isArray(node)) {
$scope.processLocationNodes(node);
} else {
$scope.convertObjs(node);
};
}
};
$scope.convertObjs = function (item) {
angular.forEach(item.Place, function (items) {
if (items != undefined && !angular.isString(items)) {
if (items.Place && !angular.isArray(items.Place)) {
var PlaceObj = items.Place;
items.Place = [];
items.Place.push(PlaceObj);
}
}
});
};
Now, when the modal is shown, the data properly displays and the tree works as expected. The only problem is, I want to default the tree to expand to the node of the Default Place of the user. I do that by the following logic:
The onFinishRender directive (debugging the code shows that this is hit):
app.directive('onFinishRender', function ($timeout) {
return {
link: function (scope, element, attr) {
if (scope.$last === true) {
$timeout(function () {
scope.$emit(attr.onFinishRender);
});
}
}
}
});
The ngRepeatFinished function is as follows:
$scope.$on('ngRepeatFinished', function (ngRepeatFinishedEvent) {
var rootScope = $scope.getRootNodesScope();
if (rootScope != undefined) {
rootScope.collapseAll();
$scope.expandNode($scope.defaultPlace);
}
});
$scope.getRootNodesScope = function() {
return angular.element(document.getElementById("tree-root")).scope().$nodesScope.childNodes()[0];
}
$scope.expandNode = function(nodeId) {
// We need to get the whole path to the node to open all the nodes on the path
var parentScopes = $scope.getScopePath(nodeId);
for (var i = 0; i < parentScopes.length; i++) {
parentScopes[i].expand();
}
};
$scope.getScopePath = function (nodeId) {
return $scope.getScopePathIter(nodeId, $scope.getRootNodesScope(), []);
};
$scope.getScopePathIter = function(nodeId, scope, parentScopeList) {
if (!scope) return null;
var newParentScopeList = parentScopeList.slice();
newParentScopeList.push(scope);
if (scope.$modelValue && scope.$modelValue.id === nodeId) return newParentScopeList;
var foundScopesPath = null;
var childNodes = scope.childNodes();
for (var i = 0; foundScopesPath === null && i < childNodes.length; i++) {
foundScopesPath = $scope.getScopePathIter(nodeId, childNodes[i], newParentScopeList);
}
return foundScopesPath;
};
Now, here's what my problem is:
First of all at the angular.element(document.getElementById("tree-root")).scope().$nodesScope.childNodes()[0] code, "childNodes()" is empty. No childNodes exist at all. Thus, the code has nothing to collapse or expand. I don't know why the childNodes collection is empty.
Second, once I figure that out, I can see what the actual NodeId is for a specific node and then be able to expand the tree to that node using the $scope.defaultPlace object.
Essentially, I just need to know why the childNodes collection is empty.