Getting the children of an element with an attribute directive - angularjs

I have a directive that is restricted to attribute. I want to do either of 2 things. If a certain condition is met, I want to use the children for the element with the directive attribute as the model (thats the content) or if that condition is not met then I want to data bind from a service instead, so the directive would replace the children with something i was given. I have a directive that is doing the latter but Im finding it very hard to have it grab the children before the compiler comes in and replaces it with its template... Anyone know how this is done if its possible?

I think what you're looking for is element.context in your directive's link (or compile) function.
Inside your link function (pre or post), the original element that your directive was found on is stored in the passed-in element's context property. So if your service call returns no data, you can just replace the compiled element with the original element by doing element.replaceWith(element.context).
So your directive would look something like this:
.directive('ttContent', ['mySvc', function (mySvc) {
return {
restrict: 'A',
replace: true,
transclude: false,
template: '<div class="content new-content" ng-bind-html="htmlContent | sanitize"></div>',
scope: {
testDataReturned: '#'
},
link: {
pre: function (scope, element, attrs) {
},
post: function (scope, element, attrs){
mySvc.fetchContent().then(function success(data){
if (data) {
scope.htmlContent = data;
} else {
// element.context is our original, pre-compiled element
element.replaceWith(element.context);
}
}, function fail(data){
element.replaceWith(element.context);
});
}
}
};
}]);
Here's a plunk.

Related

Provide template with expressions as attribute on directive

I'm wanting to pass a "template" into a directive, by means of an attribute. Here's a trite example of what I'm trying to accomplish:
This HTML:
<greeter person-name="Jim" greeting-template="Hello {{name}}"></greeter>
Would produce output: Hello Jim.
I've tried with a directive like this:
function greeter($interpolate) {
var directive = {
link: link,
restrict: 'EA',
template: '<div>{{evaluatedTemplate}}</div>'
};
return directive;
function link(scope, element, attrs) {
scope.name = attrs.personName;
scope.evaluatedTemplate = $interpolate(attrs.greetingTemplate)(scope);
}
}
But that doesn't work, because {{name}} in the greeting-template attribute gets evaluated in the parent scope before it gets as far as the directive link function.
Ultimately, I would need the value of attrs.greetingTemplate to literally be a string of: 'Hello {{name}}'. I figure I could do it with some alternative syntax, like having the greeting-template attribute value as: "Hello [name]" and convert "[" to "{{" before interpolation. But that feels messy. I looked at transclusion too, but the way it evaluates the directive against the parent scope looks like it could cause issues when I have multiple greeter's.
Instead of using the link function, you could use the compile function, which runs before any linking to a scope occurs, and gets passed the template element (the original DOM element) as well as its uninterpolated attributes as arguments. I think that's what you're looking for here.
In the compile function, you could store the uninterpolated template string in a variable for later use in your post-link function (which is the same as the link function if you use link rather than compile), where you can then bind it to your scope.
So your directive would look like this, with a compile property rather than a link property:
function greeter($interpolate) {
var directive = {
compile: compile,
restrict: 'EA',
scope: true,
template: '<div>{{evaluatedTemplate}}</div>'
};
return directive;
function compile(tElement, tAttrs) {
// save the uninterpolated template for use in our post-link function
var greetingTemplateUninterpolated = tAttrs.greetingTemplate;
return {
pre: function (scope, element, attrs) {},
post: function (scope, element, attrs) {
scope.name = attrs.personName;
scope.evaluatedTemplate = $interpolate(greetingTemplateUninterpolated)(scope);
}
};
}
}
Here's a fiddle showing it working.
And here's a really good article explaining how compile and link work.

Should I use isolate scope in this case?

I'm implementing an custom input widget. The real code is more complex, but generally it looks like this:
app.directive('inputWidget', function () {
return {
replace:true,
restrict: 'E',
templateUrl:"inputWidget.html",
compile: function (tElement, tAttributes){
//flow the bindings from the parent.
//I can do it dynamically, this is just a demo for the idea
tElement.find("input").attr("placeholder", tAttributes.placeholder);
tElement.find("input").attr("ng-model", tElement.attr("ng-model"));
}
};
});
inputWidget.html:
<div>
<input />
<span>
</span>
</div>
To use it:
<input-widget placeholder="{{name}}" ng-model="someProperty"></input-widget>
The placeholder is displayed correctly with above code because it uses the same scope of the parent: http://plnkr.co/edit/uhUEGBUCB8BcwxqvKRI9?p=preview
I'm wondering if I should use an isolate scope, like this:
app.directive('inputWidget', function () {
return {
replace:true,
restrict: 'E',
templateUrl:"inputWidget.html",
scope : {
placeholder: "#"
//more properties for ng-model,...
}
};
});
With this, the directive does not share the same scope with the parent which could be a good design. But the problem is this isolate scope definition will quickly become messy as we're putting DOM-related properties on it (placeholder, type, required,...) and every time we need to apply a new directive (custom validation on the input-widget), we need to define a property on the isolate scope to act as middle man.
I'm wondering whether it's a good idea to always define isolate scope on directive components.
In this case, I have 3 options:
Use the same scope as the parent.
Use isolate scope as I said above.
Use isolate scope but don't bind DOM-related properties to it, somehow flow the DOM-related properties from the parent directly. I'm not sure if it's a good idea and I don't know how to do it.
Please advice, thanks.
If the input-widget configuration is complex, I would use an options attribute, and also an isolated scope to make the attribute explicit and mandatory:
<input-widget options="{ placeholder: name, max-length: 5, etc }"
ng-model="name"></input-widget>
There is no need to flow any DOM attributes if you have the options model, and the ngModel:
app.directive('inputWidget', function () {
return {
replace:true,
restrict: 'E',
templateUrl:"inputWidget.html",
scope: { options:'=', ngModel: '='}
};
});
And in your template, you can bind attributes to your $scope view model, as you normally would:
<div>
<input placeholder="{{options.placeholder}}" ng-model="ngModel"/>
<span>
{{options}}
</span>
</div>
Demo
Personally, when developing for re-use, I prefer to use attributes as a means of configuring the directive and an isolated scope to make it more modular and readable. It behaves more like a component and usually without any need for outside context.
However, there are times when I find directives with child / inherited scopes useful. In those cases, I usually 'require' a parent directive to provide the context. The pair of directives work together so that less attributes has to flow to the child directive.
This is not a very trivial problem. This is because one could have arbitrary directives on the templated element that are presumably intended for <input>, and a proper solution should ensure that: 1) these directives compile and link only once and 2) compile against the actual <input> - not <input-widget>.
For this reason, I suggest using the actual <input> element, and add inputWidget directive as an attribute - this directive will apply the template, while the actual <input> element would host the other directives (like ng-model, ng-required, custom validators, etc...) that could operate on it.
<input input-widget
ng-model="someProp" placeholder="{{placeholder}}"
ng-required="isRequired"
p1="{{name}}" p2="name">
and inputWidget will use two compilation passes (modeled after ngInclude):
app.directive("inputWidget", function($templateRequest) {
return {
priority: 400,
terminal: true,
transclude: "element",
controller: angular.noop,
link: function(scope, element, attrs, ctrl, transclude) {
$templateRequest("inputWidget.template.html").then(function(templateHtml) {
ctrl.template = templateHtml;
transclude(scope, function(clone) {
element.after(clone);
});
});
}
};
});
app.directive("inputWidget", function($compile) {
return {
priority: -400,
require: "inputWidget",
scope: {
p1: "#", // variables used by the directive itself
p2: "=?" // for example, to augment the template
},
link: function(scope, element, attrs, ctrl, transclude) {
var templateEl = angular.element(ctrl.template);
element.after(templateEl);
$compile(templateEl)(scope);
templateEl.find("placeholder").replaceWith(element);
}
};
});
The template (inputWidget.template.html) has a <placeholder> element to mark where to place the original <input> element:
<div>
<pre>p1: {{p1}}</pre>
<div>
<placeholder></placeholder>
</div>
<pre>p2: {{p2}}</pre>
</div>
Demo
(EDIT) Why 2 compilation passes:
The solution above is a "workaround" that avoids a bug in Angular that was throwing with interpolate values being set on a comment element, which is what is left when transclude: element is used. This was fixed in v1.4.0-beta.6, and with the fix, the solution could be simplified to:
app.directive("inputWidget", function($compile, $templateRequest) {
return {
priority: 50, // has to be lower than 100 to get interpolated values
transclude: "element",
scope: {
p1: "#", // variables used by the directive itself
p2: "=" // for example, to augment the template
},
link: function(scope, element, attrs, ctrl, transclude) {
var dirScope = scope,
outerScope = scope.$parent;
$templateRequest("inputWidget.template.html").then(function(templateHtml) {
transclude(outerScope, function(clone) {
var templateClone = $compile(templateHtml)(dirScope);
templateClone.find("placeholder").replaceWith(clone);
element.after(templateClone);
});
});
}
};
});
Demo 2

How to prevent duplicated attributes in angular directive when replace=true

I've found that angular directives that specify replace: true will copy attributes from the directive usage into the output rendered by the template. If the template contains the same attribute, both the template attribute value and the directive attribute value will be combined together in the final output.
Directive usage:
<foo bar="one" baz="two"></foo>
Directive:
.directive('foo', function() {
return {
restrict: 'E',
replace: true,
template: '<div bar="{{bar}}" baz="baz"></div>',
scope: {
bar: '#'
},
link: function(scope, element, attrs, parentCtrl) {
scope.bar = scope.bar || 'bar';
}
};
})
Output:
<div bar="one " baz="two baz" class="ng-isolate-scope"></div>
The space in bar="one " is causing problems, as is multiple values in baz. Is there a way to alter this behavior? I realized I could use non-conflicting attributes in my directive and have both the template attributes and the non-conflicting attributes in the output. But I'd like to be able to use the same attribute names, and control the output of the template better.
I suppose I could use a link method with element.removeAttr() and element.attr(). It just seems like there should be a better solution.
Lastly, I realize there is talk of deprecating remove: true, but there are valid reasons for keeping it. In my case, I need it for directives that generate SVG tags using transclusion. See here for details:
https://github.com/angular/angular.js/commit/eec6394a342fb92fba5270eee11c83f1d895e9fb
No, there isn't some nice declarative way to tell Angular how x attribute should be merged or manipulated when transplanted into templates.
Angular actually does a straight copy of attributes from the source to the destination element (with a few exceptions) and merges attribute values. You can see this behaviour in the mergeTemplateAttributes function of the Angular compiler.
Since you can't change that behaviour, you can get some control over attributes and their values with the compile or link properties of the directive definition. It most likely makes more sense for you to do attribute manipulation in the compile phase rather than the link phase, since you want these attributes to be "ready" by the time any link functions run.
You can do something like this:
.directive('foo', function() {
return {
// ..
compile: compile
// ..
};
function compile(tElement, tAttrs) {
// destination element you want to manipulate attrs on
var destEl = tElement.find(...);
angular.forEach(tAttrs, function (value, key) {
manipulateAttr(tElement, destEl, key);
})
var postLinkFn = function(scope, element, attrs) {
// your link function
// ...
}
return postLinkFn;
}
function manipulateAttr(src, dest, attrName) {
// do your manipulation
// ...
}
})
It would be helpful to know how you expect the values to be merged. Does the template take priority, the element, or is some kind of merge needed?
Lacking that I can only make an assumption, the below code assumes you want to remove attributes from the template that exist on the element.
.directive('foo', function() {
return {
restrict: 'E',
replace: true,
template: function(element, attrs) {
var template = '<div bar="{{bar}}" baz="baz"></div>';
template = angular.element(template);
Object.keys(attrs.$attr).forEach(function(attr) {\
// Remove all attributes on the element from the template before returning it.
template.removeAttr(attrs.$attr[attr]);
});
return template;
},
scope: {
bar: '#'
}
};
})

Illegal use of ngTransclude directive in the template

I have two directive
app.directive('panel1', function ($compile) {
return {
restrict: "E",
transclude: 'element',
compile: function (element, attr, linker) {
return function (scope, element, attr) {
var parent = element.parent();
linker(scope, function (clone) {
parent.prepend($compile( clone.children()[0])(scope));//cause error.
// parent.prepend(clone);// This line remove the error but i want to access the children in my real app.
});
};
}
}
});
app.directive('panel', function ($compile) {
return {
restrict: "E",
replace: true,
transclude: true,
template: "<div ng-transclude ></div>",
link: function (scope, elem, attrs) {
}
}
});
And this is my view :
<panel1>
<panel>
<input type="text" ng-model="firstName" />
</panel>
</panel1>
Error: [ngTransclude:orphan] Illegal use of ngTransclude directive in the template! No parent directive that requires a transclusion found. Element: <div class="ng-scope" ng-transclude="">
I know that panel1 is not a practical directive. But in my real application I encounter this issue too.
I see some explanation on http://docs.angularjs.org/error/ngTransclude:orphan. But I don't know why I have this error here and how to resolve it.
EDIT
I have created a jsfiddle page. Thank you in advance.
EDIT
In my real app panel1 does something like this:
<panel1>
<input type="text>
<input type="text>
<!--other elements or directive-->
</panel1>
result =>
<div>
<div class="x"><input type="text></div>
<div class="x"><input type="text></div>
<!--other elements or directive wrapped in div -->
</div>
The reason is when the DOM is finished loading, angular will traverse though the DOM and transform all directives into its template before calling the compile and link function.
It means that when you call $compile(clone.children()[0])(scope), the clone.children()[0] which is your <panel> in this case is already transformed by angular.
clone.children() already becomes:
<div ng-transclude="">fsafsafasdf</div>
(the panel element has been removed and replaced).
It's the same with you're compiling a normal div with ng-transclude. When you compile a normal div with ng-transclude, angular throws exception as it says in the docs:
This error often occurs when you have forgotten to set transclude:
true in some directive definition, and then used ngTransclude in the
directive's template.
DEMO (check console to see output)
Even when you set replace:false to retain your <panel>, sometimes you will see the transformed element like this:
<panel class="ng-scope"><div ng-transclude=""><div ng-transclude="" class="ng-scope"><div ng-transclude="" class="ng-scope">fsafsafasdf</div></div></div></panel>
which is also problematic because the ng-transclude is duplicated
DEMO
To avoid conflicting with angular compilation process, I recommend setting the inner html of <panel1> as template or templateUrl property
Your HTML:
<div data-ng-app="app">
<panel1>
</panel1>
</div>
Your JS:
app.directive('panel1', function ($compile) {
return {
restrict: "E",
template:"<panel><input type='text' ng-model='firstName'>{{firstName}}</panel>",
}
});
As you can see, this code is cleaner as we don't need to deal with transcluding the element manually.
DEMO
Updated with a solution to add elements dynamically without using template or templateUrl:
app.directive('panel1', function ($compile) {
return {
restrict: "E",
template:"<div></div>",
link : function(scope,element){
var html = "<panel><input type='text' ng-model='firstName'>{{firstName}}</panel>";
element.append(html);
$compile(element.contents())(scope);
}
}
});
DEMO
If you want to put it on html page, ensure do not compile it again:
DEMO
If you need to add a div per each children. Just use the out-of the box ng-transclude.
app.directive('panel1', function ($compile) {
return {
restrict: "E",
replace:true,
transclude: true,
template:"<div><div ng-transclude></div></div>" //you could adjust your template to add more nesting divs or remove
}
});
DEMO (you may need to adjust the template to your needs, remove div or add more divs)
Solution based on OP's updated question:
app.directive('panel1', function ($compile) {
return {
restrict: "E",
replace:true,
transclude: true,
template:"<div ng-transclude></div>",
link: function (scope, elem, attrs) {
elem.children().wrap("<div>"); //Don't need to use compile here.
//Just wrap the children in a div, you could adjust this logic to add class to div depending on your children
}
}
});
DEMO
You are doing a few things wrong in your code. I'll try to list them:
Firstly, since you are using angular 1.2.6 you should no longer use the transclude (your linker function) as a parameter to the compile function. This has been deprecated and should now be passed in as the 5th parameter to your link function:
compile: function (element, attr) {
return function (scope, element, attr, ctrl, linker) {
....};
This is not causing the particular problem you are seeing, but it's a good practice to stop using the deprecated syntax.
The real problem is in how you apply your transclude function in the panel1 directive:
parent.prepend($compile(clone.children()[0])(scope));
Before I go into what's wrong let's quickly review how transclude works.
Whenever a directive uses transclusion, the transcluded content is removed from the dom. But it's compiled contents are acessible through a function passed in as the 5th parameter of your link function (commonly referred to as the transclude function).
The key is that the content is compiled. This means you should not call $compile on the dom passed in to your transclude.
Furthermore, when you are trying to insert your transcluded DOM you are going to the parent and trying to add it there. Typically directives should limit their dom manipulation to their own element and below, and not try to modify parent dom. This can greatly confuse angular which traverses the DOM in order and hierarchically.
Judging from what your are trying to do, the easier way to accomplish it is to use transclude: true instead of transclude: 'element'. Let's explain the difference:
transclude: 'element' will remove the element itself from the DOM and give you back the whole element back when you call the transclude function.
transclude: true will just remove the children of the element from the dom, and give you the children back when you call your transclude.
Since it seems you care only about the children, you should use transclude true (instead of getting the children() from your clone). Then you can simply replace the element with it's children (therefore not going up and messing with the parent dom).
Finally, it is not good practice to override the transcluded function's scope unless you have good reason to do so (generally transcluded content should keep it's original scope). So I would avoid passing in the scope when you call your linker().
Your final simplified directive should look something like:
app.directive('panel1', function ($compile) {
return {
restrict: "E",
transclude: true,
link: function (scope, element, attr, ctrl, linker) {
linker(function (clone) {
element.replaceWith(clone);
});
}
}
});
Ignore what was said in the previous answer about replace: true and transclude: true. That is not how things work, and your panel directive is fine and should work as expected as long as you fix your panel1 directive.
Here is a js-fiddle of the corrections I made hopefully it works as you expect.
http://jsfiddle.net/77Spt/3/
EDIT:
It was asked if you can wrap the transcluded content in a div. The easiest way is to simply use a template like you do in your other directive (the id in the template is just so you can see it in the html, it serves no other purpose):
app.directive('panel1', function ($compile) {
return {
restrict: "E",
transclude: true,
replace: true,
template: "<div id='wrappingDiv' ng-transclude></div>"
}
});
Or if you want to use the transclude function (my personal preference):
app.directive('panel1', function ($compile) {
return {
restrict: "E",
transclude: true,
replace: true,
template: "<div id='wrappingDiv'></div>",
link: function (scope, element, attr, ctrl, linker) {
linker(function (clone) {
element.append(clone);
});
}
}
});
The reason I prefer this syntax is that ng-transclude is a simple and dumb directive that is easily confused. Although it's simple in this situation, manually adding the dom exactly where you want is the fail-safe way to do it.
Here's the fiddle for it:
http://jsfiddle.net/77Spt/6/
I got this because I had directiveChild nested in directiveParent as a result of transclude.
The trick was that directiveChild was accidentally using the same templateUrl as directiveParent.

mouseover event Angular JS access attributes

I have the following directive
courseApp.directive("courseoverview", function() {
function link(scope, element, attrs) {
scope.switched = false;
//hover handler
scope.hoverItem = function(hovered){
if (hovered) {
//element.addClass('hover');
$('#course-'+ scope.$index +' figure').addClass('tint');
//console.log(scope.$index);
}
else
//element.removeClass('hover');
$('#course-'+ scope.$index +' figure').removeClass('tint');
};
}
return {
restrict : 'A',
replace: true,
transclude: true,
templateUrl: "views/course-overview.html",
link: link
}});
The directive is called with the following code
<li data-ng-repeat="item in social" class="social-{{item.name}}"
ng-mouseover="hoverItem(true);"
ng-mouseout="hoverItem(false);"
current-social="{{item.name}}">
The hover function works great but i need access to this attribute in the directive, well i need the value of it.
Any ideas on how to achieve this would be great.
First, your directive is named 'courseoverview' but I don't see that attribute anywhere in the markup you provided.
To address your question, you say I need access to this attribute in the directive. But I think you have the attributes in the link function - see the attrs parameter. Those are the attributes on the element that fired your directive.
function link(scope, element, attrs) { ... }
See this answer for more.

Resources