Angularjs directive with dynamic templates and string interpolation

angularjsangularjs-directive

The idea is to replace the directive element with the dynamic template which refers to interpolated strings.

If I use element.html() in my directive then the strings are interpolated fine but this leaves the original custom directive html element.

If I use element.replaceWith() then strings are not interpolated. I guess it has related to scope but can't figure out what's wrong.

Plunker: http://plnkr.co/edit/HyBP9d?p=preview

UPDATE

Found the solution. Using element.replaceWith($compile(html)(scope)); works.

Updated plunker: http://plnkr.co/edit/HyBP9d?p=preview

Best Answer

Not sure what objective is regarding replaceWIth. The problem is likely that when you replace an elememnt, you replace all events and data bound to it. This would include the angular scope for the element.

For demo provided could do it like this:

app.directive('status', function($compile) {       

        var linker = function(scope, element, attrs) {
            element.contents().wrap('<h'+attrs.value+'>')
        };

        return {
            restrict: 'E',
            replace: true,
            template:'<div>{{value}}</div>',
            transclude: true,
            link: linker,
            scope: {
                value: '='
            }
        };
    });

DEMO:http://plnkr.co/edit/QDxIwE?p=preview

Related Solutions

Angularjs – the difference between ‘@’ and ‘=’ in directive scope in AngularJS

Why do I have to use "{{title}}" with '@' and "title" with '='?

@ binds a local/directive scope property to the evaluated value of the DOM attribute. If you use title=title1 or title="title1", the value of DOM attribute "title" is simply the string title1. If you use title="{{title}}", the value of the DOM attribute "title" is the interpolated value of {{title}}, hence the string will be whatever parent scope property "title" is currently set to. Since attribute values are always strings, you will always end up with a string value for this property in the directive's scope when using @.

= binds a local/directive scope property to a parent scope property. So with =, you use the parent model/scope property name as the value of the DOM attribute. You can't use {{}}s with =.

With @, you can do things like title="{{title}} and then some" -- {{title}} is interpolated, then the string "and them some" is concatenated with it. The final concatenated string is what the local/directive scope property gets. (You can't do this with =, only @.)

With @, you will need to use attr.$observe('title', function(value) { ... }) if you need to use the value in your link(ing) function. E.g., if(scope.title == "...") won't work like you expect. Note that this means you can only access this attribute asynchronously. You don't need to use $observe() if you are only using the value in a template. E.g., template: '<div>{{title}}</div>'.

With =, you don't need to use $observe.

Can I also access the parent scope directly, without decorating my element with an attribute?

Yes, but only if you don't use an isolate scope. Remove this line from your directive

scope: { ... }

and then your directive will not create a new scope. It will use the parent scope. You can then access all of the parent scope properties directly.

The documentation says "Often it's desirable to pass data from the isolated scope via an expression and to the parent scope", but that seems to work fine with bidirectional binding too. Why would the expression route be better?

Yes, bidirectional binding allows the local/directive scope and the parent scope to share data. "Expression binding" allows the directive to call an expression (or function) defined by a DOM attribute -- and you can also pass data as arguments to the expression or function. So, if you don't need to share data with the parent -- you just want to call a function defined in the parent scope -- you can use the & syntax.

AngularJS – Create a directive that uses ng-model

EDIT: This answer is old and likely out of date. Just a heads up so it doesn't lead folks astray. I no longer use Angular so I'm not in a good position to make improvements.

It's actually pretty good logic but you can simplify things a bit.

Directive

var app = angular.module('plunker', []);

app.controller('MainCtrl', function($scope) {
  $scope.model = { name: 'World' };
  $scope.name = "Felipe";
});

app.directive('myDirective', function($compile) {
  return {
    restrict: 'AE', //attribute or element
    scope: {
      myDirectiveVar: '=',
     //bindAttr: '='
    },
    template: '<div class="some">' +
      '<input ng-model="myDirectiveVar"></div>',
    replace: true,
    //require: 'ngModel',
    link: function($scope, elem, attr, ctrl) {
      console.debug($scope);
      //var textField = $('input', elem).attr('ng-model', 'myDirectiveVar');
      // $compile(textField)($scope.$parent);
    }
  };
});

Html with directive

<body ng-controller="MainCtrl">
  This scope value <input ng-model="name">
  <my-directive my-directive-var="name"></my-directive>
</body>

CSS

.some {
  border: 1px solid #cacaca;
  padding: 10px;
}

You can see it in action with this Plunker.

Here's what I see:

I understand why you want to use 'ng-model' but in your case it's not necessary. ng-model is to link existing html elements with a value in the scope. Since you're creating a directive yourself you're creating a 'new' html element, so you don't need ng-model.

EDIT As mentioned by Mark in his comment, there's no reason that you can't use ng-model, just to keep with convention.

By explicitly creating a scope in your directive (an 'isolated' scope), the directive's scope cannot access the 'name' variable on the parent scope (which is why, I think, you wanted to use ng-model).
I removed ngModel from your directive and replaced it with a custom name that you can change to whatever.
The thing that makes it all still work is that '=' sign in the scope. Checkout the docs docs under the 'scope' header.

In general, your directives should use the isolated scope (which you did correctly) and use the '=' type scope if you want a value in your directive to always map to a value in the parent scope.