How do I specify an angular directive in the link of another? - angularjs

Question

I'm trying to create a server-validate directive, which asynchronously validates form input by submitting a partial form to our server back-end and parsing the response. I hoped to use it like this:
<input type="text" ng-model="stuff" server-validate />
(I'm combining it with another directive on the wrapping <form>, that specifies what URL to use etc...) In order for the form not to submit validation requests on page load, I need to set ng-model-options="{ updateOn: 'blur' }", but I'd like to *not* have to do this on every element in the form. Instead, I'd like theserver-validate` to specify this behavior as well.
I've tried a couple of things in the link function, for example attrs['ngModelOptions'] = '{updateOn: "blur"}' and attrs['ngModelOptions'] = { updateOn: 'blur' }, but neither had any effect at all.
Is there a way to apply this through my own directive, without having to specify anything else?

Answer 1

They have a great example of what you want over at the docs:
directive('contenteditable', ['$sce', function($sce) {
return {
restrict: 'A', // only activate on element attribute
require: '?ngModel', // get a hold of NgModelController
link: function(scope, element, attrs, ngModel) {
if (!ngModel) return; // do nothing if no ng-model
// Specify how UI should be updated
ngModel.$render = function() {
element.html($sce.getTrustedHtml(ngModel.$viewValue || ''));
};
// Listen for change events to enable binding
element.on('blur keyup change', function() {
scope.$evalAsync(read);
});
read(); // initialize
// Write data to the model
function read() {
var html = element.html();
// When we clear the content editable the browser leaves a <br> behind
// If strip-br attribute is provided then we strip this out
if ( attrs.stripBr && html == '<br>' ) {
html = '';
}
ngModel.$setViewValue(html);
}
}
};
}]);
So the only thing that looks like what you would change would be to remove the keyup and change events from the element.on. Then in your blur you would also do the server request. Docs on ngModelController: https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng/type/ngModel.NgModelController