Angular.js Accessing input field value inside controller $scope - angularjs

Question

I've got a directive which defines a input field of type="file", which I can print and is not empty, namely:
<form class="form-horizontal" role="form">
<input type="file" file-model="myFile"/>
{{myFile}} <-- this prints fine
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-success" ng-click="saveData()">Post</button>
</form>
which I can see if called in the view
app.js
.directive('fileModel', ['$parse', function ($parse) {
return {
restrict: 'A',
link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
var model = $parse(attrs.fileModel);
var modelSetter = model.assign;
element.bind('change', function(){
scope.$apply(function(){
modelSetter(scope, element[0].files[0]);
});
});
}
};
}]);
What I am trying to do now is access the field inside my controller:
.controller('Ctrl', function($scope, fileUpload) {
...
$scope.myFile; <-- initialise it
$scope.saveData = function() {
var file = $scope.myFile;
console.log(file); <-- prints out as undefined
}
.service('fileUpload', ['$http', function ($http) {
this.uploadFileToUrl = function(file, uploadUrl){
var fd = new FormData();
fd.append('file', file);
$http.post(uploadUrl, fd, {
transformRequest: angular.identity,
headers: {'Content-Type': undefined}
})
.success(function(){
})
.error(function(){
});
}
}]);
But file is undefined.
Any ideas why that would happen and how to access the value of the field?

Answer 1

If you want to bring in attribute values to your directive, I recommend doing it like so.
.directive('myDirective', ['$parse', function ($parse) {
return {
restrict: 'A',
scope: {
fileModel: '=fileModel'
}
link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
var model = scope.fileModel;
var modelSetter = model.assign;
element.bind('change', function(){
scope.$apply(function(){
modelSetter(scope, element[0].files[0]);
});
});
}
};
}]);
Note I changed your directive name since you already had an attribute with that name.
<input type="file" my-directive file-model="myFile"/>
I'm not sure what you are trying to do after you have the attribute value, but if you console.log(scope.fileModel) you can see what built in options are available. This is an example of isolated scope within directives.
Update with controller access
To access within your controller, you could emit the value from your directive:
scope.$emit('myFile', scope.fileModel);
and then listen for the event in your controller:
$scope.$on('myFile', function (event, myFile) {
$scope.myFile = myFile;
};
Update with working fiddle
http://jsfiddle.net/jonesmac82/376SS/26/