AngularJS : How to properly transclude child elements in custom directive? - angularjs

Here's some code : link
I'm trying to create a directive that wraps its children in some boilerplate. But if the children have ng-if controlling their appearance, the "transclusion" doesn't work. Well it sort of does, but as you can see the ng-if logic is not getting passed through correctly.
I'd like to know how to fix it, but also where (if anywhere) this is described in the Angular docs.

The problem is that Angular initially replaces ngIf with a comment that it uses to track where to place the conditional code. It's easiest to see with an example.
Your HTML:
<div control-group>
<label>Test</label>
<input type="text" ng-model="editing.name" />
<span class="text-error" ng-if="editing.name.length != 3"> Name must be 3 characters </span>
</div>
Looks like this inside your transclude function's cloned variable (transclude(function (cloned) {):
<div control-group>
<label>Test</label>
<input type="text" ng-model="editing.name" class="ng-valid ng-dirty">
<!-- ngIf: editing.name.length != 3 -->
</div>
So, the element with class text-error that you're filtering on (below) isn't in cloned. Just the comment is there.
var inputsAndMessages = cloned.filter('input, button, select, .text-error');
Since you're only transcluding elements that match the above filter the ngIf comment is lost.
The solution is to filter for comments as well and add them in your append (so Angular maintains it's reference point to the ngIf). One way to do that is to replace the above with this (using the fact that an html comment is node type 8)
var messages = cloned.filter(function(){ return this.nodeType == 8; }); //comments
var inputs = cloned.filter('input, button, select')
var inputsAndMessages = inputs.add(messages);
Working plunker

You need to tell the directive where to place child elements with the ng-transclude directive: (plnkr)
template: "<div class='control-group' ng-transclude>" +
"<label class='control-label' for=''></label>" +
"<div class='controls'></div>" +
"</div>",
From the docs:
Directive that marks the insertion point for the transcluded DOM of the nearest parent directive that uses transclusion.
Any existing content of the element that this directive is placed on will be removed before the transcluded content is inserted.
I wasn't sure what exactly your intent was since you have the input and label both in the template and as children in the HTML. You might want to place your ng-transclude elsewhere.

Related

Issue with isolated scope and "replace: true" in angular directive

I have been struggling with a scoping issue when making an error message directive using AngularJS.
I have an ng-if and ng-class directive as part of the directive template, but the expression in the ng-class directive always seemed to return a blank string, unless:
I removed the ng-if directive.
or, I removed the 'replace' key in the directive definition object.
Looking at the compiled output for my directive, it looks like an isolated scope is being created if the ng-if or the replace key is removed, but if they are both left in, then there are no ng-isolate-scope classes in the html output, just ng-scope.
I would really like to understand exactly what is going on here and would be grateful for any explanations.
Directive Definition
angular.module('myMessages')
.directive('pageMessages', function() {
return {
restrict: 'E',
replace: true,
scope: {
messages: '='
},
controller: function($scope) {
$scope.severity = 'alert-success';
},
template: '<div ng-if="messages.length > 0">' +
'<div class="alert" ng-class="severity">' +
'<ul>' +
'<li ng-repeat="m in messages">{{::m.message}}</li>' +
'</ul>' +
'</div>' +
'</div>'
};
});
Output (note no alert-danger class is added)
<!-- ngIf: messages.length > 0 -->
<div ng-if="messages.length > 0" messages="messages" class="ng-scope">
<div class="alert" ng-class="severity">
<ul>
<!-- ngRepeat: m in messages -->
<li ng-repeat="m in messages" class="ng-binding ng-scope">test error</li>
<!-- end ngRepeat: m in messages --></ul>
</div>
</div>
<!-- end ngIf: messages.length > 0 --></div>
alert-danger class is added after removing replace (removing ng-if would work as well)
<page-messages messages="messages" class="ng-isolate-scope">
<!-- ngIf: messages.length > 0 -->
<div ng-if="messages.length > 0" class="ng-scope">
<div class="alert alert-danger" ng-class="severity">
<ul>
<!-- ngRepeat: m in messages -->
<li ng-repeat="m in messages" class="ng-binding ng-scope">test error</li>
<!-- end ngRepeat: m in messages -->
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<!-- end ngIf: messages.length > 0 -->
</page-messages>
The job of truthy ng-if comes to cloning an original element and giving it inherited scope. It uses transclusion for that, this allows ng-if to get inherited scope on an element with isolated scope, avoiding $compile:multidir error with Multiple directives requesting new/isolated scope verdict.
The good thing is that it won't throw an error if it is used on an element with isolated scope. The bad thing is when used on a directive with higher priority (ng-if priority is 600) it will just replace it, ignoring its scope. And another bad thing is that when used on on root template element of a directive with isolated scope (like this one) it will just replace an element with cloned one that inherits its scope from parent scope (belonging to directive's parent element, because its own element was already replaced with replace).
So it just gets severity value from pageMessages parent scope and evaluates ng-class expression to empty string if it doesn't exist.
The solution is to not use ng-if on root element of a directive with replace flag. replace flag has got deprecation status, which means that issues won't be fixed. When directive's template gets an extra <div> wrapper (though it may serve against the purpose of replace), everything should work as intended.
By using replace=true and ng-if and isolate scope together, the code is attempting to directives with different scopes on the same element.
From the Docs:
In general it's possible to apply more than one directive to one element, but there might be limitations depending on the type of scope required by the directives. The following points will help explain these limitations. For simplicity only two directives are taken into account, but it is also applicable for several directives:
no scope + no scope => Two directives which don't require their own scope will use their parent's scope
child scope + no scope => Both directives will share one single child scope
child scope + child scope => Both directives will share one single child scope
isolated scope + no scope => The isolated directive will use it's own created isolated scope. The other directive will use its parent's scope
isolated scope + child scope => Won't work! Only one scope can be related to one element. Therefore these directives cannot be applied to the same element.
isolated scope + isolated scope => Won't work! Only one scope can be related to one element. Therefore these directives cannot be applied to the same element.
-- AngularJS Comprehensive Directive API - scope
replace:true is Deprecated1
From the Docs:
replace ([DEPRECATED!], will be removed in next major release - i.e. v2.0)
specify what the template should replace. Defaults to false.
true - the template will replace the directive's element.
false - the template will replace the contents of the directive's element.
-- AngularJS Comprehensive Directive API
From GitHub:
Caitp-- It's deprecated because there are known, very silly problems with replace: true, a number of which can't really be fixed in a reasonable fashion. If you're careful and avoid these problems, then more power to you, but for the benefit of new users, it's easier to just tell them "this will give you a headache, don't do it".
-- AngularJS Issue #7636

Require fields from a directive field type

Reference this example: http://jsbin.com/cenugiziju/edit?html,js,output
I have created a directive: example-directive
This directive is made up of a templateUrl which has a label and an input within this html file. This field is marked as required within vm.formFields.
If you take a peek down within the Form section, you will notice that $valid is already set to true even though the required directive is not populated. I would have expected this to be false.
Is there a way to make Formly require fields that are brought in from a custom directive which has fields on it?
ok
sorry about the mixup and delay.
I have created the answer you were looking for.
because you are entering a directive you actually need to send the options to that directive with the values you need...
this is the working example... this means though you will need to handle all the validations and so on yourself since you are not generating the element via FormalyJS but in your own directive.(make sure there is no other way to do it...)
this is the corrected code with required/ maxlength /minlength:
jsbin
what I actually did was pass the options for the Formly to my directive and add the validations to it
app.directive('exampleDirective', function() {
return {
templateUrl: 'example-directive.html',
scope:{
options:'=options',
ngModel:'=ngModel'
},
link:function(scope, element, attrs){
scope.isRequired = scope.options.templateOptions.required;
scope.minValue = scope.options.templateOptions.min;
scope.maxValue = scope.options.templateOptions.max;
}
};
});
<script type="text/ng-template" id="example-directive.html">
<div class="form-group">
<label for="{{::id}}">{{options.templateOptions.label}}</label>
<input id="{{::id}}" name="{{::id}}" class="form-control" ng-model="ngModel" ng-required="isRequired" ng-minLength="{{minValue}} ng-maxLength={{maxValue}}"/>
</div>
</script>
this is the addition to the template in the vm.formFields
template: ''
so now when you want to add a field you will need to pass the data to the directive and in the directive add the corresponding code...
I am not hugely familiar with Formly, but this is the solution that I can give you
NOTE:
I pass the option item to the directive because this is how FormalyJS constructs it.... you can always use your own... but since it renders after the formly directive, figured it would be easier
EDIT
here is an updated JSBIN
you can see that I had to add to the directive the ngModel... you can also do it by require and then use it, I prefer to do it like this... but you have to pass it to the div defining the directive...
checkout the updated code

Variable value as directive/controller name inside template (with $compile/$interpolate)?

I am creating a directive in which template I need to use the a scope's variable value as the name of the directive (or alternatively controller) to load.
Say I have a directive widget that has a template called widget.html which looks like:
<div class="widget widget.type" {{widget.type}} ng-controller="widget.type">
<div class="navBar">
<div ng-include="widget.type + '-t.html'"></div>
<i class="fa fa-close"></i>
<hr>
</div>
<div ng-include="widget.type + '-f.html'"></div>
</div>
Now widget.type is not getting evaluated in the first line. It works fine for ng-include. Say widget.type's value is weather. The first line should then be interpolated first to look like (doesn't matter if class attribute, widget.type-attr or ng-controller is interpolated)
<div class="widget" weather>
and then compiled to include the weather directive.
How can I get widget.type interpolated in the template?
Not an option is to use ng-include to load the directive. I need to use one common template for the widget and want to add/override/extend the base directive with additonal functionality/Variables.
If this is not the way to achieve that, is there a way to extend a directive the OOP-way?
See the plunkr
You can only place interpolation expressions in text nodes and attribute values. AngularJS evaluates your template by first turning it into DOM and then invoking directive compilation, etc. If you try to place {{...}} instead of attribute name, you'll just end up with messed-up DOM.
If you really need to replace a whole directive based on $scope variable value, you'll need to create a directive for application of other directives and do some heavy lifting with $compile (you'll have to completely re-compile the template each time the value changes). I'd recommend trying to find other designs solving your situation before attempting this.
For adjusting your template based on element attributes, see this answer.

Why ngIf has higher priority than {{ }} (interpolate)?

What is the reasoning behind setting ngIf priority (600) higher than {{ }}(100)? Shouldn't it have a lower priority to allow {{ }} inside ng-if attribute value?
I would like to have a condition inside a $scope variable:
Controller:
app.controller('MainCtrl', function($scope, $http, $parse) {
$scope.hide = "check === 'hidden'";
$scope.parsecond = function (cond) {
return $parse(cond)($scope);
};
});
Template:
<body ng-controller="MainCtrl">
<div ng-if="!{{hide}}">funky ng-if div</div>
<div ng-hide="{{hide}}">ng-hide div</div>
<div ng-if="!parsecond(hide)">ng-if div</div>
<input type="input" ng-model="check" />
</body>
ng-hide works fine since it parses the contents of the hide variable and returns "check === 'hidden'" which then gets evaluated by ng-hide directive.
But ng-if tries to evaluate {{hide}} before interpolate has had a chance to parse the string hence ng-if throws an exception.
The only solution I've found is call a function that basically does the job of the interpolate directive and returns the parsed content.
Plnkr showing the issue: link
EDIT:
After reading documentation I've found better way of doing it without the need of a custom method on the $scope since angularjs has already a method that parses a variable against its current $scope ($eval).
So my solution would be:
<body ng-controller="MainCtrl">
<div ng-if="!$eval(hide)">funky ng-if div</div>
<div ng-hide="{{hide}}">ng-hide div</div>
<div ng-if="!parsecond(hide)">ng-if div</div>
<input type="input" ng-model="check" />
</body>
Updated plnkr: link
Although this still doesn't explain why ngIf has higher priority.
EDIT 2:
Just so people understand that it's not the same:
For example:
Controller:
$scope.value = "hi";
$scope.condition = "value === 'bye'";
HTML:
<div ng-hide="condition"></div> <!--This will be evaluated to true since !!"value ==='bye'" = true. -->
<div ng-hide="{{condition}}"></div> <!--This will be evaluated to false since value !== 'bye' = false -->
<div ng-if="condition"></div> <!--This will be evaluated to true since !!"value === 'bye'" = true. -->
<div ng-if="{{condition}}"></div> <!--This will give an exception since ngIf directive ran before interpolation directive in the $compile step. -->
<div ng-if="$eval(condition)"></div> <!--This will be evaluated to false since value !== 'bye' = false. -->
My conclusion is that it safer to use $parse if you want the directive to evaluate/set a watch in the string rather than in the property on the scope. Although it's true that I could use {{ }} for ng-hide/ng-show or any directive that has a lower priority than 100 but I'm guessing it's not safe since I'm depending in the compiling order and it's not 100% clear that it won't change in future patches.
ng-if expects its value to be an angular expression - under the hood it just makes use of $scope.$watch. Therefore, if you want to condition including content of ng-if on some variable defined on the scope (let say: scope.hide), you put ng-if="hide" in your mark-up. No double curly braces here.
Now back to your question: it is true that ng-if has priority of 600, but $interpolate is angular's service - not a directive. As such $interpolate does not define priority. Where did you get 100 from?
UPDATE
You can always condition including content of ng-if on some function (let say scope.conditionFn) by putting in your mark-up: ng-if="conditionFn()".
UPDATE 2
I updated your PLNKR to make it working. The inconsistencies between ng-if and ng-hide in your plunker had nothing to do with priority of interpolation taking place in $compile.
UPDATE 3
It seems that you are right that order of interpolation plays a role here, but... I really do not see any good reason to interpolate inside of angular's expression. The reason why ng-if has relatively high priority is that it removes/adds transcluded content from/to DOM, whereas ng-hide just shows/hides the transcluded content. I think it is a pure coincidence that one directive seems to work and the other not. But if you do not use unnecessary, superfluous tricks, both do work as intended, what my plunker shows.
To understand why it's doing that, observe the console of this sample here, where the custom directive, similar to ngIf, sits this time at priority 0. The directive is meant to remove the element and, without waiting, to add it back. You'll see however an error which is caused by the attempt to set the attributes back onto what remained due to transclude: elementwhich, in this case and that of the ngIf, is just a marker for where the element has been, in the form of a comment.
To avoid that from happening, ngIf terminates the process early by having a higher priority, terminal:true and by monitoring directly its expression grabbed straight from $tAttrs. Interpolation will execute, but this is done at a later stage, by calling the transclusion function the moment the ngIf expression turns true, on a clone of the original element, now under its control. The new element will show nice and dandy under the comment element.
Here is the same sample but fixed. The error condition is avoided.

Cannot get textarea value in angularjs

Here is my plnkr: http://plnkr.co/edit/n8cRXwIpHJw3jUpL8PX5?p=preview You have to click on a li element and the form will appear. Enter a random string and hit 'add notice'. Instead of the textarea text you will get undefined.
Markup:
<ul>
<li ng-repeat="ticket in tickets" ng-click="select(ticket)">
{{ ticket.text }}
</li>
</ul>
<div ui-if="selectedTicket != null">
<form ng-submit="createNotice(selectedTicket)">
<textarea ng-model="noticeText"></textarea>
<button type="submit">add notice</button>
</form>
</div>
JS part:
$scope.createNotice = function(ticket){
alert($scope.noticeText);
}
returns 'undefined'. I noticed that this does not work when using ui-if of angular-ui. Any ideas why this does not work? How to fix it?
Your problem lies in the ui-if part. Angular-ui creates a new scope for anything within that directive so in order to access the parent scope, you must do something like this:
<textarea ng-model="$parent.noticeText"></textarea>
Instead of
<textarea ng-model="noticeText"></textarea>
This issue happened to me while not using the ng-if directive on elements surrounding the textarea element. While the solution of Mathew is correct, the reason seems to be another. Searching for that issue points to this post, so I decided to share this.
If you look at the AngularJS documentation here https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng/directive/textarea , you can see that Angular adds its own directive called <textarea> that "overrides" the default HTML textarea element. This is the new scope that causes the whole mess.
If you have a variable like
$scope.myText = 'Dummy text';
in your controller and bind that to the textarea element like this
<textarea ng-model="myText"></textarea>
AngularJS will look for that variable in the scope of the directive. It is not there and thus he walks down to $parent. The variable is present there and the text is inserted into the textarea. When changing the text in the textarea, Angular does NOT change the parent's variable. Instead it creates a new variable in the directive's scope and thus the original variable is not updated. If you bind the textarea to the parent's variable, as suggested by Mathew, Angular will always bind to the correct variable and the issue is gone.
<textarea ng-model="$parent.myText"></textarea>
Hope this will clear things up for other people coming to this question and and think "WTF, I am not using ng-if or any other directive in my case!" like I did when I first landed here ;)
Update: Use controller-as syntax
Wanted to add this long before but didn't find time to do it. This is the modern style of building controllers and should be used instead of the $parent stuff above. Read on to find out how and why.
Since AngularJS 1.2 there is the ability to reference the controller object directly instead of using the $scope object. This may be achieved by using this syntax in HTML markup:
<div ng-controller="MyController as myc"> [...] </div>
Popular routing modules (i.e. UI Router) provide similar properties for their states. For UI Router you use the following in your state definition:
[...]
controller: "MyController",
controllerAs: "myc",
[...]
This helps us to circumvent the problem with nested or incorrectly addressed scopes. The above example would be constructed this way. First the JavaScript part. Straight forward, you simple do not use the $scope reference to set your text, just use this to attach the property directly to the controller object.
angular.module('myApp').controller('MyController', function () {
this.myText = 'Dummy text';
});
The markup for the textarea with controller-as syntax would look like this:
<textarea ng-model="myc.myText"></textarea>
This is the most efficient way to do things like this today, because it solves the problem with nested scopes making us count how many layers deep we are at a certain point. Using multiple nested directives inside elements with an ng-controller directive could have lead to something like this when using the old way of referencing scopes. And no one really wants to do that all day!
<textarea ng-model="$parent.$parent.$parent.$parent.myText"></textarea>
Bind the textarea to a scope variable's property rather than directly to a scope variable:
controller:
$scope.notice = {text: ""}
template:
<textarea ng-model="notice.text"></textarea>
It is, indeed, ui-if that creates the problem. Angular if directives destroy and recreate portions of the dom tree based on the expression. This is was creates the new scope and not the textarea directive as marandus suggested.
Here's a post on the differences between ngIf and ngShow that describes this well—what is the difference between ng-if and ng-show/ng-hide.

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