Is it possible to pass in a custom controller into custom directive? - angularjs

Is it possible to pass in a custom controller into custom directive to be able to use the custom directive on the page with different controllers?
I can't find a solution for that on docs.angularjs.org
[Edited]
Let's say we have the following directive's defenition:
angular.module('myApp', [])
.controller('myDirectiveController', function ($scope) {
$scope.name = 'there, dude';
})
.directive('myDirective', function () {
return {
restrict: 'E',
replace: true,
template: '<div>Hello {{name}}!</div>',
controller: 'myDirectiveController' // can i overwrite it outside this code?
};
});
Can I simply overwrite the directive's controller not touching the directive's source code itself?

Use custom controller with one HTML template
Then pass your data from that page to directive.
and use that data in HTML template which is assign in directive or also you can write controller in your directive.
.controller('myController', function () {
// write business logic here
// take some data which you want to use in directive
});
Then pass it through HTML to directive
Use that data in,
.directive('dir', function () {
return {
scope: {
// collect your data and use it in link
}
};
});

Perhaps instead of defining the controller in the directive like you have, you can put it in the html template like:
.directive('myDirective', function () {
return {
restrict: 'E',
replace: true,
scope: {
ctrl: '='
},
template: '<div ng-controller="{{ctrl}}">Hello {{name}}!</div>'
};
});
Then I think you will be able to use the directive like:
<my-directive ctrl="myDirectiveController"></my-directive>

Related

Access isolated scope in angular directive template

I am currently writing an angular directive that uses a template in a different HTML file and an isolated template. The directive gets some string via # to its scope and that value is available in teh controller function.
Somehow its not available via {{}} in the HTML template. Why is that so? How can I change that? I read something about the template using the parent scope but I don't fully understand that.
Here is a code example:
angular.module('moduleName')
.directive('aGreatDirective', function () {
return {
restrict: 'E',
scope: {
mapid: '#'
},
templateUrl: "path/to/template.html",
controller: ['$scope', function (scope) {
console.log($scope.mapid); // is defined
}
}
});
And the html code for the template:
<div id="{{mapid}}"></div>
The result in the browser is exactly the same where it should be:
<div id="theValueOfmapid"></div>
Thanks for your help!
PS Here is a jsfiddle: fiddle
Your fiddle was incorrect since you didn't have your controller defined or $scope injected properly. The following will work just fine:
template:
<div ng-controller="MyCtrl">
<a-great-directive mapid="thisisthemapid"></a-great-directive>
Some other code
</div>
js:
var myApp = angular.module('myApp', []);
myApp.controller('MyCtrl', function () {
});
myApp.directive('aGreatDirective', function() {
return {
restrict: 'E',
scope: {
mapid: '#'
},
template: "<div id='{{mapid}}'> {{mapid}} </div>",
controller: ['$scope', function($scope) {
console.log($scope.mapid); // is defined
}
]}
});
Fiddle
Note that in my example, the injected variable in your directive's controller should be $scope, not scope, for consistency reasons.

angular directive with attributes linked to function outside the parent scope

I have an angular directive (restrict to an element), its have an attribute to link to a function (using "&" attribute)
for example:
app.directive('myDirective', function () {
return {
restrict: 'E',
scope: {
myonclick: "&",
},
controller: 'myController',
template: '<button ng-click="clicked()">Click me!</button>'
}
});
i'm assigning a function to the attribute like this:
<my-directive myonclick="inScopeFunction()"></my-directive>
its work fine if the function is inside the angular controller scope.
but i cant assign it to a function outside the angular scope.
there is a working example at plunker
Thanks
Since inScopeFunction() is a global method, you can call it directly inside your directive. Register a click listener on the element inside directive and call inScopeFunction() in listener callback. Here is the updated plunk
link: function postLink (scope, element, attrs) {
element.on('click', function () {
window[attrs.myonclick]()
});
}
html:
<my-directive myonclick="outScopeFunction"></my-directive>
Your controller will have access to global objects so you can access it from there
$scope.inScopeFunction = outScopeFunction
To access it from your directive controller you could pass in a string and call the global object from there
<my-directive myonclick="'outScopeFunction'"></my-directive>
...
app.controller('myController', function($scope) {
$scope.clicked = function(){
window[$scope.myonclick()]()
}
});

Isolated scope: value not updating

I am trying to expand on the bootstrap ui library with my own custom control. This control will be used in an AngularJS app. Currently, I'm getting stuck on the scoping.
My plunker is here
This plunker is a simplified version of a more complex control. The concept that I'm trying to highlight is the scoping. You will notice that the custom control, my-query, is pre-populated with the value of myController.$scope.query. You will also see that the query is put in the page underneath the custom control. As I type, the value does NOT get updated. Why? My code looks like the following:
myApp.directive('myQuery', [function() {
return {
restrict:'E',
transclude: true,
scope: {
query: '='
},
template: '<div ng-controller="myQueryController"><input type="text" ng-model="query" /><button ng-click="go_Click()">go</button></div>'
};
}]);
myApp.controller('myQueryController', ['$scope', function($scope) {
$scope.go_Click = function() {
$scope.$emit("goClicked");
};
}]);
What am I doing wrong?
In your directive template, you are adding an additional controller which is adding in another scope. That is what is causing the problem. Instead of doing it that way, move the controller logic into either a controller function or a link function defined on your directive, either will work.
Try this. Here's an example using a controller function. Note that I moved your original myQueryController inside the directive and removed the ng-controller directive from the myQuery directive's template.
'use strict';
var myApp = angular.module('myApp', []);
myApp.controller('myController', ['$scope', function($scope) {
$scope.queryValue = 'test';
$scope.$on('goClicked', function() {
$scope.performAction();
});
$scope.performAction = function() {
alert('Using ' + $scope.queryValue);
};
}]);
myApp.directive('myQuery', [function() {
return {
restrict:'E',
transclude: true,
scope: {
query: '='
},
template: '<div><input type="text" ng-model="query" /><button ng-click="go_Click()">go</button></div>',
controller : function ($scope) {
$scope.go_Click = function() {
$scope.$emit("goClicked");
};
}
};
}]);
<div ng-controller="myQueryController">
A controller creates a new scope. So <input type="text" ng-model="query" /> doesn't use query from the directive's scope but from the controller's scope. Instead of using a controller you can define the go_Clickfunction in the directive's link method.
Do you need this?:
http://plnkr.co/edit/6IrlnXvsi2Rneee0hGC8?p=preview
scope: {
model: '='
}
The problem was that you used a primitive type which was passed by value into your directive. Always use complex types which are passed by reference.

In angular.js, can a directive controller access data in a page controller that loaded it?

In angular.js, can a directive controller access data in a page controller that loaded it?
/**
* Profile directive
*/
.directive('profile', function () {
return {
restrict: 'E',
replace: true,
templateUrl: '/partials/users/_profile.html',
scope: {
user: '=',
show: '=?'
},
controller: function($scope, $rootScope){
$scope.show = angular.isDefined($scope.show) ? $scope.show : { follow: true, link: true };
$scope.currentUser = $rootScope.currentUser;
//do stuff here and then set data in UserShowCtrl
}
};
});
The <profile user="user"></profile> method is called from ./users/show.html which uses the UserShowCtrl controller.
Is there anyway I can use scope on the profile directive with its own controller and still be able to pass data to the UserShowCtrl?
Even though the profile can be isolated to its own functionality, it still needs to set some data on the page level in the UserShowCtrl controller.
Here is where _user.html is loading the <profile> directive. The data for the page is served by the UserShowCtrl and has some collections that get updated when things happen, like following a user.
<ol class="following" ng-show="showConnections == 'following'">
<li ng-repeat="following in user.following">
<profile user="connections[following]"></profile>
</li>
</ol>
Right now there is an ng-click="follow(user)"> that is happening in the _profile.html. I would like to be able to have the directive handle this but also update the collections in the UserShowCtrl.
Edit: here is a plunker demonstrating what I'm trying to do:
http://plnkr.co/edit/9a5dxMVg9cKLptxnNfX3
You need to use a service in order to share any information between controllers, directives, services
something like
angular.module('myapp',[]).
service('myservice',function(){
return {a:'A',b:'B'}
}).
controller('mycontroller',['myservice',function(myservice){
//do someting with myservice
}]).
directive('mydirective',['myservice',function(myservice){
//do someting with myservice
}]);
there controller and directive access the same data through the service
You can access the parent scope from your directive with $scope.$parent.myvar.
myvar will be resolved in parent scope, which means prototypical scope inheritance is used to resolve the variable.
However, this does not guarantee that myvar is coming from the same scope as UserShowCtrl since its possible that any scope in between the 'profile' directive and UserShowCtrl's scope may override 'myvar'.
A better solution would be to use directive-to-directive communication. There are generally two ways for directives to communicate:
Through attributes passed into your directive. You've already used this method to import 'user' and 'show' from parent scope into your directive's isolated scope.
Requiring another directive. When you use 'require: ^UserShow', you are specifying that your 'profile' directive requires another directive as a dependency. The '^' means that it will search for the directive on the current element, or any parent element further up the DOM tree. UserShow's controller is then passed to your link function:
.directive('UserShow', function () {
return {
restrict: 'E',
controller: function($scope){
$scope.myvar = 'test';
this.setMyVar = function(var) {
$scope.myvar = var;
}
}
};
});
.directive('profile', function () {
return {
restrict: 'E',
replace: true,
templateUrl: '/partials/users/_profile.html',
require: '^UserShow',
scope: {
user: '=',
show: '=?'
},
controller: function($scope, $rootScope){
},
link: function(scope, element, attr, UserShowCtrl) {
UserShowCtrl.setMyVar('hello world!);
}
};
});
HTML:
<user-show>
<profile>...</profile>
</user-show>
I am not quite sure what your after.
You are already having 2 two-way data bindings, which means that if you change user in your directive, that will also flow to the outside scope.
So you already have a solution in front of you...
So if that is not "good enough", there is something missing in your question.
Here is an illustration: http://plnkr.co/edit/qEH2Pr1Pv7MTdXjHd4bD?p=preview
However, if you use something in your outside template that creates a child scope, binding it as "value" there is NOT enough, you need to have a . in there.
But that is where there is missing something to the question, if you share your show.html I may be able to find where the scope breaks apart and explain why...
Relevant Source from demo.js:
app.directive('profile', function () {
return {
restrict: 'E',
replace: true,
template: '<div><input type="text" ng-model="user"></input></div>',
scope: { //defines an isolate scope.
user: '=',
show: '=?'
},
controller: function($scope, $rootScope){
$scope.show = angular.isDefined($scope.show) ? $scope.show : { follow: true, link: true };
$scope.currentUser = $rootScope.currentUser;
$scope.user = "Changed by scope!";
//do stuff here and then set data in UserShowCtrl
}
};
});
app.controller('UserShowCtrl', function($scope) {
$scope.value = "Value set outside!";
$scope.alertValue = function() {
alert($scope.value);
}
});
Relevant Source from home.html:
<div ng-controller="UserShowCtrl">
{{ value }}
<profile user="value"></profile>
<button ng-click="alertValue()">ALERT!</button>
</div>

AngularJS abstracting directives

How does one abstract a directive properly?
As a really basic example, let's say I have this:
http://plnkr.co/edit/h5HXEe?p=info
var app = angular.module('TestApp', []);
app.controller('testCtrl', function($scope) {
this.save = function() {
console.log("hi");
}
this.registerListeners = function() {
console.log('do stuff to register listeners');
}
this.otherFunctionsNotToBeChangedWithDifferentInstances() {
console.log('these should not change between different directives')
}
return $scope.testCtrl = this;
});
app.directive("tester", function() {
return {
restrict: 'A',
controller: 'testCtrl',
template: '<button ng-click="testCtrl.save()">save</button>'
};
});
The tester directive has some methods on it, but only two will be changed or used depending on where the directive is placed. I could pass in the function as a directive attribute, but I am wondering if there is a better way to do this. I have been looking at providers, but I am unsure how or if those would even fit into this.
Instead of letting your directive assume that testCtrl.save() exist on the scope, you would pass in that function as an attribute. Something like this: http://jsbin.com/jidizoxi/1/edit
Your directive binds the value of the my-on-click attribute as a callable function. Your template passes in the controllers ctrlOnClick() function, and when the buttons ng-click calls myOnClick() Angular will call ctrlOnClick() since they are bound to each other.
EDIT:
Another common approach is to pass in a config object to the directive. So your controller would look something like:
$scope.directiveConfig = {
method1: function() { ... },
method2: function() { ... },
method3: function() { ... },
...
}
And your template:
<my-directive config="directiveConfig"></my-directive>
The directive then gets a reference to that object by:
scope: {
config: '='
}
The directive can then call methods on the object like this: $scope.config.method1().

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