Trigger click event of another element in angular? - angularjs

Question

I have an input box and Its bound with datepicker. In my view, there is small calendar icon besides this input box. I want to trigger click event of an input box when user clicks on this calendar icon. I have done this using directive which I have applied to calendar icon. But its almost like jQuery. So is there any different way to achieve this? If my approach is wrong then please guide me to the right direction. I am new to angular and I have read some articles where I read that avoid use of jQuery. Thanks
My Directive
myApp.directive('openCal',function($compile,$filter) {
return {
link:function(scope,element,attrs) {
element.bind("click",function() {
element.siblings("input").trigger("click");
});
}
};
});
Its working fine. But I am not sure that is it right approach or not??

Answer 1

No, if I understand what you are trying to do you are over-complicating things a bit.
In your case it looks like you would have something like:
<img open-cal/>
<input ng-click="doSomething()">
Where click on the img triggers a click on the input, via the openCal directive. Instead considering doing something like this:
<div ng-click="doSomething()">
<img>
<input>
</div>
If doSomething() needs to get data from the input, use ng-model to bind data from your input to your scope.
ALTHOUGH!
If you ever need to do a directive, that is the right way to do it. Using element.bind is not a problem since that is included in Angular. What you want to avoid is using stuff like $('.calendar').click and such.

Answer 2

Another way to approach this would be to add a <label> element for your input field that contains the calendar. Then clicking the calendar would focus the input field. Then all you'd have to do is listen for the focus event on your input field to do your extra work. This has the added bonus of working if someone navigates to your input field via the keyboard by hitting the tab key.