Angularjs passing object to directive - angularjs

Question

Angular newbie here. I am trying to figure out what's going wrong while passing objects to directives.
here's my directive:
app.directive('walkmap', function() {
return {
restrict: 'A',
transclude: true,
scope: { walks: '=walkmap' },
template: '<div id="map_canvas"></div>',
link: function(scope, element, attrs)
{
console.log(scope);
console.log(scope.walks);
}
};
});
and this is the template where I call the directive:
<div walkmap="store.walks"></div>
store.walks is an array of objects.
When I run this, scope.walks logs as undefined while scope logs fine as an Scope and even has a walks child with all the data that I am looking for.
I am not sure what I am doing wrong here because this exact method has worked previously for me.
EDIT:
I've created a plunker with all the required code: http://plnkr.co/edit/uJCxrG
As you can see the {{walks}} is available in the scope but I need to access it in the link function where it is still logging as undefined.

Answer 1

Since you are using $resource to obtain your data, the directive's link function is running before the data is available (because the results from $resource are asynchronous), so the first time in the link function scope.walks will be empty/undefined. Since your directive template contains {{}}s, Angular sets up a $watch on walks, so when the $resource populates the data, the $watch triggers and the display updates. This also explains why you see the walks data in the console -- by the time you click the link to expand the scope, the data is populated.
To solve your issue, in your link function $watch to know when the data is available:
scope.$watch('walks', function(walks) {
console.log(scope.walks, walks);
})
In your production code, just guard against it being undefined:
scope.$watch('walks', function(walks) {
if(walks) { ... }
})
Update: If you are using a version of Angular where $resource supports promises, see also #sawe's answer.

Answer 2

you may also use
scope.walks.$promise.then(function(walks) {
if(walks) {
console.log(walks);
}
});

Answer 3

Another solution would be to add ControllerAs to the directive by which you can access the directive's variables.
app.directive('walkmap', function() {
return {
restrict: 'A',
transclude: true,
controllerAs: 'dir',
scope: { walks: '=walkmap' },
template: '<div id="map_canvas"></div>',
link: function(scope, element, attrs)
{
console.log(scope);
console.log(scope.walks);
}
};
});
And then, in your view, pass the variable using the controllerAs variable.
<div walkmap="store.walks" ng-init="dir.store.walks"></div>

Answer 4

Try:
<div walk-map="{{store.walks}}"></div>
angular.module('app').directive('walkMap', function($parse) {
return {
link: function(scope, el, attrs) {
console.log($parse(attrs.walkMap)(scope));
}
}
});

Answer 5

your declared $scope.store is not visible from the controller..you declare it inside a function..so it's only visible in the scope of that function, you need declare this outside:
app.controller('MainCtrl', function($scope, $resource, ClientData) {
$scope.store=[]; // <- declared in the "javascript" controller scope
ClientData.get({}, function(clientData) {
self.original = clientData;
$scope.clientData = new ClientData(self.original);
var storeToGet = "150-001 KT";
angular.forEach(clientData.stores, function(store){
if(store.name == storeToGet ) {
$scope.store = store; //declared here it's only visible inside the forEach
}
});
});
});