One form element updating multiple pieces of the model? - angularjs

I am looking at using angular for a project at work but I have a question first. We have a single page application that's pretty intricate. We do have a basic model set up but some fields in the model are redundant. If I couldn't reduce the redundancy, what steps could I take in angular so that one form element changes two variables in the model?
I've put together a bare bones jsfiddle of what I'm hoping to do:
<div ng-app>
<input type="text" ng-model="yourName" placeholder="Enter a name here" /><br/>
<span>Hello {{yourName}}!</span><br/>
<span>Hello {{altName}}!</span>
</div>
How could I change this around so that the input would assign it's value to both yourName as well as altName? I've tried what I thought would be obvious such as comma or pipe delimiting the ng-model attribute to no avail. Is it possible?

You could set a $watch on the yourname-Variable within your controller and then change the altName in its callback. Should look like this:
$scope.$watch('yourName', function(){
$scope.altName = $scope.newName;
});

Related

Relative model reference?

I'm writing a few components for a form, these will be included (via Grails <g:include> tags) in multiple places (a registration page, and an account page). The way Angular works, I have to specify the form name in order to get a reference to a particular field. For example:
<form name="myForm">
<input ng-model="username"/>
{{myForm.username}} -- right here
</form>
In the example above, I must use myForm in order to access username. This will not work when using the same field in multiple forms, as the form name will change.
Is there a way to access the field relatively, or maybe figure out the enclosing form name and inject that?
You shouldn't have to reference your form's name. Just bind it to a property on your controller's $scope and you should be good to go. Doing it this way, you won't have to care what your form name is, only that the controller has the property you need.
<form ng-controller="yourController">
<input ng-model="username"/>
{{ username }}
</form>
angular.controller('yourController', ['$scope', function($scope){
$scope.username = 'keanu reeves';
}]);
Here's a code pen.
You have to use some sort of dynamic form name code. e.g.
<div ng-repeat="myForm in forms">
<form name="myForm{{$index}}">
<input ng-model="myForm.username"/>
{{myForm.username}} -- right here
</form>
</div>
Although it's difficult to solve your exact problem without example code. Create a plunker or codepen that we can analyze.

AngularJS ng-required better implement from controller?

I'm thinking of a good way to implement ng-required.
Let's say I have a bunch of inputs with ng-required in my app.
<input type="text" id="one" />
<input type="date" id="two" />
<input type="radio" id="three" />
<input type="checkbox" id="four" />
I would like to do something in a controller, where I could pass an array of required fields. I'm thinking that if I made an array of elements such as:
var myEl = angular.element( document.querySelector( '#some-id' ) );
and some how set the required property that way.
I write a directive which would decide from an array if the field is required, if it does not exist in the array, it's not required if it does, it's required.
Ultimately, I would like to have an array that allows passing of fields in such a way:
var reqArray = ('#id', ('#id1' || 'id2')) etc.
Works the same as conditional logic operators:
#id is required
#id1 || #id2 is required, but not both.
Not sure where to begin, or if it's feasible in Angular.
This would make it easier to modify required fields in large applications without having to modify the actual html.
It can be done, but angular already provides its own ways to validate forms. Some brief details:
The form tag must have a novalidate attribute in order to prevent HTML5 validation. <form name="myForm" novalidate>
With that, now angular can take charge of the validation by adding a "required" attribute to your inputs <input ng-model="myModel" type="text" required>
By this point, angular has taken control of your validation, it can also validate other HTML5 attributes like pattern. <input pattern="[0-9][A-Z]{3}" type="text" title="Single digit followed by three uppercase letters."/>
I suggest you take look at this official guide (also take a look at the directives guide on that same site, I wanted to link it but I don't yet have the rep).
That being said, what you are trying to accomplish is also possible, but rather redundant since you would have to add an attribute to your inputs anyway (the directive, and angular is able to validate already) and also require ngModel in the directive.
I made this plunkr to show you how to do it, but take notice of the extra work needed in order to validate something that angular already does natively, I'd leave this kind of work for expanding on validations, like comparing items or models.
Also, querying a selector directly like in your suggestion is not considered "the angular way". A better way would be to add the directive to your form element and access the element through the 'element' parameter in the directive.
Hope this helps.

How do I access the child ngModel from a directive?

Like in this question, I want to add .error on a form field's parent .control-group when scope.$invalid is true.
However, hardcoding the form name like in ng-class="{ error: formName.fieldModel.$invalid }" means that I can't reuse this in different forms, plus I'd rather not repeat this declaration everywhere.
I figured that a directive that looks something like this could work:
<div class="control-group" error-on="model1, model2">
<input ng-model="model1">
<input ng-model="model2">
</div>
So when either model1 or model2 is not valid, .control-group gets .error added.
My attempt here. Is it possible to access the models from the directive, given the model names?
If there's a better approach, I'd love to hear it too.
I don't think that writing a custom directive is necessery for this use-case as the ng-form directive was created exactly for situations like those. From the directive's documentation:
It is useful to nest forms, for example if the validity of a sub-group
of controls needs to be determined.
Taking your code as an example one would write:
<div class="control-group" ng-class="{ error: myControlGroup1.$invalid }>
<ng-form name="myControlGroup1">
<input ng-model="model1">
<input ng-model="model2">
</ng-form>
</div>
By using this technique you don't need to repeat expressions used in ng-model and can reuse this fragment inside any form.
You can also change the markup in the accepted answer to do without the nesting, since ng-form is also a class directive:
<div class="control-group ng-form" name="controlGroup11" ng-class="{ error: controlGroup1.$invalid }>
<input ng-model="model1">
<input ng-model="model2">
</div>
Final solution Fiddle
Inside your link function, you can get access to the formController. It has all of the controls. So the following will give your directive access to .$valid:
el.controller('form')[attrs.errorOn].$valid
However, I don't know how to watch that for changes. I tried watching attrs.errorOn (i.e., watch the ng-model property), but the watch doesn't trigger unless a valid value is input (because of the way Angular forms work... unless that value is valid, it is not assigned to the scope property set by ng-model.)
Fiddle.
Maybe someone can take this further...

Angular databinding as a function argument not working

<input type="text" value="{{codes[0].code}}" ng-click="newNumber(0)" />
<input type="text" value="{{codes[1].code}}" ng-click="newNumber({{codes[1].id}})" />
The first ng-click event fires in my controller just fine but the second one does nothing.
I tried concat'ing as well ... is there some other way I should do this?
ng-click
The value of ng-click is already evaluated as an angular expression. As such, you don't need the {{ }}. Read http://docs.angularjs.org/guide/expression for more information. Take a look at the second example, it will help clarify this.
ng-model
Also, ng-model should be used for data-binding. For example, take a look at this jsfiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/bCpW9/8/ and the notes below.
<li ng-repeat="code in codes">
This loops through the codes collection which was defined in the controller. It creates a <li> for each element in the codes collection.
<input ng-model="codes[$index].code" />
Inside each <li>, an <input> for the current code is created. Each input is bound to it's corresponding element in the codes array by setting ng-model to it. For instance, type a new code into the first input field. It automatically updates the corresponding code model with what you typed, as you can see to the right.
I hope that helps.

Dynamic data-binding in AngularJS

I'm building an AngularJS app and I have ran into an issue. I have been playing with the framework for a while and I have yet to see documentation for something like this or any examples. I'm not sure which path to go down, Directive, Module, or something that I haven't heard of yet...
Problem:
Basically my app allows the user to add objects, we will say spans for this example, that have certain attribute's that are editable: height and an associated label. Rather than every span have its own dedicated input fields for height and label manipulation I would like to use one set of input fields that are able to control all iterations of our span object.
So my approx. working code is something like this:
<span ng-repeat="widget in chart.object">
<label>{{widget.label}}</label>
<span id="obj-js" class="obj" style="height:{{widget.amt}}px"></span>
</span>
<button ng-click="addObject()" class="add">ADD</button>
<input type="text" class="builder-input" ng-model="chart.object[0]['label']"/>
<input type="range" class="slider" ng-model="chart.object[0]['amt']"/>
The above code will let users add new objects, but the UI is obviously hardcoded to the first object in the array.
Desired Functionality:
When a user clicks on an object it updates the value of the input's ng-model to bind to the object clicked. So if "object_2" is clicked the input's ng-model updates to sync with the object_2's value. If the user clicks on "object_4" it updates the input's ng-model, you get the idea. Smart UI, essentially.
I've thought about writing a directive attribute called "sync" that could push the ng-model status to the bound UI. I've though about completely creating a new tag called <object> and construct these in the controller. And I've thought about using ng-click="someFn()" that updates the input fields. All of these are 'possibilities' that have their own pros and cons, but I thought before I either spin out on something or go down the wrong road I would ask the community.
Has anyone done this before (if so, examples)? If not, what would be the cleanest, AngularJS way to perform this? Cheers.
I don't think you need to use a custom directive specifically for this situation - although that may be helpful in your app once your controls are more involved.
Take as look at this possible solution, with a bit of formatting added:
http://jsfiddle.net/tLfYt/
I think the simplest way to solve this requires:
- Store 'selected' index in scope
- Bind ng-click to each repeated span, and use this to update the index.
From there, you can do exactly as you proposed: update the model on your inputs. This way of declarative thinking is something I love about Angular - your application can flow the way you would logically think about the problem.
In your controller:
$scope.selectedObjectIndex = null;
$scope.selectObject = function($index) {
$scope.selectedObjectIndex = $index;
}
In your ng-repeat:
<span ng-repeat="widget in chart.object" ng-click="selectObject($index)">
Your inputs:
<input type="text" class="builder-input" ng-model="chart.object[selectedObjectIndex]['label']"/>
<input type="range" class="slider" ng-model="chart.object[selectedObjectIndex]['amt']"/>

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