Accessing Angular directive controller from Protractor - angularjs

Question

Is there a way to access a directive's controller using the .controller() method inside a Protractor test? In unit tests I can do
var el = angular.element(...);
$compile(el)(scope);
var component = el.controller('nameOfDirective');
but I can't seem to figure out how to do that in a Protractor test.
Here is the code I'm trying to test...
//registration.route.js
(function () {
'use strict';
angular.module('app.account.registration').run(appRun);
appRun.$inject = ['routerHelper'];
/* #ngInject */
function appRun(routerHelper) {
routerHelper.configureStates(getStates());
}
function getStates() {
return [
{
state: 'registration',
config: {
url: '/registration',
template: '<registration layout="column" flex/>',
title: 'registration'
}
}
];
}
})();
//registration.component.js
(function () {
'use strict';
angular.module('app.account.registration').component('registration', {
templateUrl: 'app/account/registration/registration.html',
controller: Controller
});
/* #ngInject */
function Controller($state, UserService, SweetAlert) {
var self = this;
this.$onInit = function () {
this.state = 'unverified';
this.processing = false;
};
this.register = function (formData) {
this.processing = true;
UserService.register(formData.email).then(function (response) {
self.state = 'verify';
self.email = response.data.email;
//response.data.token will only be returned on localhost for security reasons
self.token = response.data.token;
self.processing = false;
}).catch(function (error) {
if (error.status === 422) {
SweetAlert.error('Error!', formData.email + ' already exists. Please use a unique email.');
}
self.processing = false;
});
};
}
})();

Answer 1

If anyone needs the answer for this, here it is:
browser.executeScript(function () {
return window.angular.element(document.body)
.find('DIRECTIVE-TAG-NAME').controller('directiveName');
}).then(function (directiveControllerInstance) {
console.log(directiveControllerInstance);
});
For example, if your directive name is "testDirective", you would do:
browser.executeScript(function () {
return window.angular.element(document.body)
.find('test-directive').controller('testDirective');
}).then(function (directiveControllerInstance) {
console.log(directiveControllerInstance);
});