How to mock the Controller of an AngularJS Directive - angularjs

Question

Given a directive that has an external controller:
.directive('d1', function () {
return {
controller: 'd1controller',
restrict: 'E',
link: function ($scope, $element, $attributes, $controller) {
$controller.doStuff();
}
};
});
How do I mock the d1controller controller in the d1 directive's unit tests?
My attempts:
I tried with $provide as when mocking a service:
beforeEach(module('app', function ($provide) {
ctrlMock = jasmine.createSpyObj('ctrlMock', ['doStuff']);
$provide.value('d1controller', ctrlMock );
}));
And I also tried with $controllerProvider
beforeEach(module('app', function ($controllerProvider) {
ctrlMock = jasmine.createSpyObj('ctrlMock', ['doStuff']);
$controllerProvider.register('d1controller', ctrlMock);
}));

Answer 1

I'm the OP. It turns out that using $controllerProvider works. You have to pass it a constructor; not an instance.
beforeEach(module('app', function ($controllerProvider) {
$controllerProvider.register('d1controller', function Mock(){
this.doStuff = function(){};
});
}));

Answer 2

I have had decent luck creating a mock module, that contains all of my mocked services/controllers and then including that mock module after my app module. It will essentially override all of the services/controllers you have in your mock module.
Create your mock module, and your controller to mock in that module.
appMock = angular.module('appMock', []);
appMock.controller('ControllerToMockCtrl', ['$scope', function($scope) {
$scope.greeting = 'Hola!';
}]);
In your test.
beforeEach(function(){
module('app');
module('appMock');
});
This blog is a good example of this strategy. http://southdesign.de/blog/mock-angular-js-modules-for-test-di.html#using-the-mock