Angular - condition, transclude - angularjs

Question

I've written a sample directive with a conditional content (component.html):
<div class="panel panel-default">
<div class="panel-heading">{{title}}</div>
<div class="panel-body">
<p ng-show="loadingVisible()" class="text-center">Loading...</p>
<div ng-show="!loadingVisible()" ng-transclude></div>
</div>
Directive code (component.js):
app.directive('component', function () {
return {
restrict : 'A',
transclude : true,
replace : true,
templateUrl : 'component.html',
require : '^title',
scope : {
title : '#',
loadingVisible : '&'
},
controller : [ '$scope', function ($scope) {
if (!$scope.loadingVisible) {
$scope.loadingVisible = function () {
return false;
};
}
} ]
};
});
The main use of this directive is something like this (sample.html):
<div component title="Title">
<div id="t"></div>
</div>
And the controller code (sample.js):
app.directive('sample', function () {
return {
restrict: 'A',
templateUrl: 'sample.html',
controller: [ '$scope', function ($scope) {
$('#id');
} ]
};
});
0
The problem is that the div aquired by using jQuery selector isn't visible. I guess it's because the loadingVisible method (conditional content) hides that div in the construction phase. So when the sample directive tries to get it it fails. Am I doing something wrong? What's the coorect resolution of this problem? Or maybe my knowledge of directives is wrong?
I'll appreciate any help :)

Answer 1

if you're trying to interact with the DOM (or the directive element itself), you'll want to define a link function. The link function gets fired after angular compiles your directive and gives you access to the directives scope, the element itself, and any attributes on the directive. so, something like:
link: function (scope, elem, attrs) {
/* interact with elem and/or scope here */
}
I'm still a little unclear about what your directive is trying to accomplish though, so it's tough to provide much more help. Any additional details?
so if you want to ensure that a title is specified, you can just check for the presence of the title scope var when the directive gets linked, then throw an error if it's not there.
also, is there any reason loadingVisible needs to be an expression? (using '&' syntax). If you just need to show/hide content based on this value, you could just do a normal one-way '#' binding. so overall, something like:
app.directive('component', function () {
return {
restrict : 'A',
transclude : true,
replace : true,
templateUrl : 'component.html',
scope : {
title : '#',
loadingVisible : '#'
},
link : function (scope, elem, attrs) {
if (!scope.title) {
throw 'must specify a title!';
}
if (!attrs.loadingVisible) {
scope.loadingVisible = false;
}
}
};
});
If you need to get access to any of your transcluded content, you can use the elem value that gets injected into your link function, like so:
elem.find('#a');
an (updated) working plnkr: http://embed.plnkr.co/JVZjQAG8gGhcV2tz1ImK/preview

Answer 2

The problem is that directive structure is like this:
<div component>
<div id="a"></div>
</div>
The directive is used somewhere like this:
asd
The test directive uses a "a" element in its controller (or link) function. The problem is that the test controller code is run before the div is transcluded and it cannot see the content :/ A simple workaround is that the component should be before the test directive. Do you have any other solutions to this problem?