Angular directives settings pattern - javascript

I'm looking for a good design pattern to provide angular directives render acording to some global specified parametrs.
For example, I have some factory called "Settings", that holds the value "directiveColor: red".
When i do the link in my directive, I ask the Settings about my directiveColor value. Everything is working fine - I got red and put element on the page. But I have hundreds of this elements on the page, and every directive before render ask for settings... I think it's not very good way.
What will you recomend?
UPD
factory
app.factory('Settings', function() {
var data = {
//...
directiveColor: red //set by user
}
//...
GetSettings : function () {return data}
}
directve
app.directive('wdMyDirective', ['Settings', function(Settings) {
return {
restrict: 'E',
link: function(scope, elem, attr) {
scope.data = {
//...
color: Settings.GetSettings().directiveColor
};
};
}]);
//later "color" used in template through the scope
That's how it works for now (works fine). But every time, when I render directive (many many times on the page, ngRepeat for table data), my directive ask for Settings to choose its color. I think, it is not good. Or maybe not?

There are two considerations here. First, you are right that it is not optimal, and directive actually provides a way to do that call once, read about Compile-PreLink-PostLink in angular directives. Basically you want this call in Compile step if it is the same for all directives in your app.
Second consideration is that Settings.GetSettings().directiveColor will give really really small overhead if GetSettings() returns just an object that you only create once ( and that is what happened as angular factories are singletons )
In your case you can do
app.factory('Settings', function() {
var data = {
directiveColor: 'red' //set by user
}
return {
GetSettings : function () {return data}
}
})
app.directive('wdMyDirective', ['Settings', function(Settings) {
return {
restrict: 'E',
compile: function(elem, attrs) {
var color = Settings.GetSettings().directiveColor
return function postLink(scope, elem, attr) {
scope.data = {
color: color
};
}
}
}
}])
instead of declaring link property on directive.

Related

passing defined object to another custom directive angularjs

so I have this custom directives that you could see below.
myApp.directive('myDirective', function (testService) {
return {
restrict:'EA',
link:function (scope, element, attr) {
//defined the object
var object = new object();
testService.setObject(object);
}
}
});
myApp.directive('mySecondDirective', function (testService) {
return {
restrict:'EA',
link:function (scope, element, attr) {
//call the variable from previous custom directive
console.log(testService.getobject()); -> always return undefined
}
}
});
and this is the html structure where I used the directives above.
<my-directive></my-directive>
<my-second-directive></my-second-directive>
there I want to retreive the object that contains new object() from previous custom directive, but it always return an undefined I wonder how could I do this without using require nor isolated scope as well.. could you guys help me ?
UPDATE
I create a service to provide the facility to set and retreive the object and apparently it returned undefined because I set the custom direcitve this way
<my-second-directive></my-second-directive>
<my-directive></my-directive>
and this is the service
define(
['services/services'],
function(services)
{
'use strict';
services.factory('testService', [function() {
var me = this;
var testObject = '';
return {
setObject: function(object) {
me.testObject = object;
},
getObject: function() {
return me.testObject;
}
}
}
]);
}
);
the thing is that I actually set the html markup like I already mentioned above which is
<my-second-directive></my-second-directive>
<my-directive></my-directive>
so could you give me some advice on how should I do this ?
note* that the passing object actually worked I prefer using services because it will easy to mantain latter. The question is how do I make the object accessible from another directive even though the initiate install of the object (set the object) in the directive that I defined at the html markup, as the last position of the html it self ?
UPDATE this is the PLUNKER that I've been made for you to understand the question it self
You could achieve this by firing a custom event and then listening for it in the second directive. Here's an updated plunker: http://plnkr.co/edit/512gi6mfepyc04JKfiep?p=info
Broadcast the event from the first directive:
app.directive('myDirective', function(testService) {
return {
restrict: 'EA',
link: function(scope, elm, attr) {
var object = {};
testService.setObject(object);
console.log('setting object');
scope.$broadcast('objectSet');
}
}
});
... and then listen for it on the second:
app.directive('mySecondDirective', function(testService) {
return {
restrict: 'EA',
link: function(scope, elm, attr) {
scope.$on('objectSet', function(){
console.log('retrieving object', testService.getObject());
})
}
}
});
You could also pass data along with the event, if you wanted to emit a specific piece of data to be picked up by the second directive.
1). Scope. Since you don't want to use controllers and isolated scope, then you can simply set this object as scope property.
myApp.directive('myDirective', function() {
return {
restrict: 'EA',
link: function(scope, element, attr) {
var object = {};
object.test = 21;
// set object as scope property
scope.object = object;
}
}
});
myApp.directive('mySecondDirective', function() {
return {
priority: 1, // priority is important here
restrict: 'EA',
link: function(scope, element, attr) {
console.log('Retrieve: ', scope.object);
}
}
});
Just make sure you are also defining priority on the second directive (only if both directive a applied to the same element) to make sure it's evaluated in proper turn (should be bigger then the one of myDirective, if omitted it's 0).
2). Service. Another simple solution is to use service. You can inject custom service into both directives and use it storage for you shared object.
Expanding from what #gmartellino said.
Anything that you wanted to do after listening to the event in second directive, can have a callBack method and use it.
app.directive('mySecondDirective', function(testService) {
return {
restrict: 'EA',
link: function(scope, elm, attr) {
// what if I created like this ?
// define the test variable
var test;
scope.$on('objectSet', function(){
//set the variable
test = testService.getObject();
console.log('retrieving object : ', testService.getObject());
//Anything that you wanted to do
//after listening to the event
//Write a callBack method and call it
codeToExecuteAsCallBack();
})
//then use this method to make a call back from the event
//and outside the event too.
var codeToExecuteAsCallBack = function(){
console.log(test);
}
codeToExecuteAsCallBack();
}
}
});
Updated plnkr link

Preloading data in a Directive using promises in a service using AngularJS

I hope someone can help me. I have not been able to figure this one out.
I wrote a directive (see below) to dump a pre-written ul-list on a page based on html data that I retrieved async from a database server. Both the Directive and The Service work.
I assumed that the "then" in "MenuService.getMenuData().then" would force a wait until the data arrived to the directive but some how the directive completes and shows the '3empty' message before the data arrived, which indicates that the directive completed earlier. I know I could put a timeout delay but that is not good. Do you have a suggestion as to what could the problem be?
The other technique I used was to put a ng-show="dataarrived" and set the dataarrived to true only when the promised completed. But same issue.
The purpose of this directive is to retrieve the Nav menu list from the serve and display it on the index.html but It does Not matter if I put this code in a controller or in a service or directive I get the same result. It shows nothing. It is particular to displaying it in the index.html before any other view is displayed.
Here is my directive if it make sense.
TBApp.directive('tbnavMenu', function ($compile, MenuService) {
var tbTemplate = '3empty';
MenuService.getMenuData().then(function (val) {
tbTemplate = val;
});
var getTemplate = function () {
return tbTemplate;
}
var linker = function (scope, element, attrs) {
element.html(tbTemplate).show();
$compile(element.contents())(scope);
}
return {
restrict: "E",
replace: true,
link: linker,
controller: function ($scope, $element) {
$scope.selectedNavMenu = GlobalService.appData.currentNavMenu;
$scope.menuClicked = function ($event, menuClicked) {
$event.preventDefault();
$scope.selectedNavMenu = menuClicked;
$scope.tbnavMenuHander({ navMenuChanged: menuClicked });
};
$scope.isSelected = function (menuClicked) {
return $scope.selectedNavMenu === menuClicked;
}
},
scope: {
tbnavMenuHander: '&'
}
}
}
I could be incredibly wrong but if your service is returning an $http object at the getMenuData method then these lines:
MenuService.getMenuData().then(function (val) {
tbTemplate = val;
});
should change to either:
MenuService.getMenuData().then(function (val) {
tbTemplate = val.data;
});
or
MenuService.getMenuData().success(function (val) {
tbTemplate = val;
});
My personal recomendation is to use the .then option as it enables the concatenation of more promises.

Directive listen to controller variable change

Just starting out in AngularJS and trying to figure out the best practice for listening to events when a variable within a controller changes. The only way I have gotten it to work is with an emit, as follows.
For example:
var app = angular.module("sampleApp", [])
app.controller("AppCtrl", function($scope){
$scope.elements = [
{
name: "test"
}
]
$scope.addElement = function() {
$scope.elements.push({
name: "test" + $scope.elements.length
})
$scope.$emit('elementsChanged', $scope.elements);
}
})
app.directive('render', function() {
var renderFunc = function() {
console.log("model updated");
}
return {
restrict: 'E',
link: function(scope, element, attrs, ngModel) {
scope.$on('elementsChanged', function(event, args) {
renderFunc();
})
}
}
})
This seems a bit wonky, and I feel like I'm working against the point of angular. I've tried to have a $watch on a model, but that doesn't seem to be working. Any help on this would be very appreciated, thanks!
I'm going to assume you're using unstable Angular, because $watchCollection is only in the unstable branch.
$watchCollection(obj, listener)
Shallow watches the properties of an object and fires whenever any of the properties change (for arrays, this implies watching the array items; for object maps, this implies watching the properties). If a change is detected, the listener callback is fired.
The 'Angular' way of doing this would be to watch an attribute in your directive.
<render collection='elements'></render>
Your directive
app.directive('render', function() {
var renderFunc = function() {
console.log("model updated");
}
return {
restrict: 'E',
link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
scope.$watchCollection(attrs.collection, function(val) {
renderFunc();
});
}
}
})
If you're doing this on stable angular, you can pass true as the last argument to scope.$watch, which will watch for equality rather than reference.
$watch(watchExpression, listener, objectEquality)
objectEquality (optional) boolean
Compare object for equality rather than for reference.
What's happening here is the collection attribute on the DOM element specifies which property on our scope we should watch. The $watchCollection function callback will be executed anytime that value changes on the scope, so we can safely fire the renderFunc().
Events in Angular should really not be used that often. You were right in thinking there was a better way. Hopefully this helps.

Differences between returning an object vs a function in a directive definition?

What is the functional difference between the following code (in Widget Uno) using a directive definition object (I think it's called..?)...
angular.module("app").
directive("widgetUno", ["$http", function ($http) {
return {
// A whole bunch of crap going on here
},
templateUrl: "widgetUno.html"
};
}]);
...And this code in Widget Dos?
angular.module("app").directive('widgetDos', function($http) {
return function(scope, element, attrs) {
// A whole bunch of crap going on here
};
});
I'm trying to convert a directive that's like Widget Uno into Widget Dos, but where do I reference the templateUrl? Is this possible in Widget Dos?
Returning only a function in a directive is just a shorthand for the link function in the full definition.
If you are specifying something other than a link function (like templateUrl) then you need to write it the long way:
angular.module("app").
directive("widgetUno", ["$http", function ($http) {
return {
link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
// A whole bunch of crap going on here
},
templateUrl: "widgetUno.html"
};
}]);
This difference is actually documented here - http://docs.angularjs.org/guide/directive
The one returning the function is actually the shortcut for:
angular.module("app").directive('widgetDos', function($http) {
return {
link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
//...
};
}
});
Use it in case your directive doesn't need template, controller etc. Other than that, there's absolutely no functional difference between those two calling approaches.
It should work like this:
angular.module("app").directive('widgetDos', function($http) {
return {
templateUrl: "....",
link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
// A whole bunch of crap going on here
};
}
});
See also http://docs.angularjs.org/guide/directive (long version). There is an example.

Callback function inside directive attr defined in different attr

So I have this directive called say, mySave, it's pretty much just this
app.directive('mySave', function($http) {
return function(scope, element, attrs) {
element.bind("click", function() {
$http.post('/save', scope.data).success(returnedData) {
// callback defined on my utils service here
// user defined callback here, from my-save-callback perhaps?
}
});
}
});
the element itself looks like this
<button my-save my-save-callback="callbackFunctionInController()">save</button>
callbackFunctionInController is for now just
$scope.callbackFunctionInController = function() {
alert("callback");
}
when I console.log() attrs.mySaveCallback inside my-save directive, it just gives me a string callbackFunctionInController(), I read somewhere that I should $parse this and it would be fine, so I tried to $parse(attrs.mySaveCallback) which gave me back some function, but hardly the one I was looking for, it gave me back
function (a,b){return m(a,b)}
What am I doing wrong? Is this approach flawed from the beginning?
So what seems like the best way is using the isolated scope as suggested by ProLoser
app.directive('mySave', function($http) {
return {
scope: {
callback: '&mySaveCallback'
}
link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
element.on("click", function() {
$http.post('/save', scope.$parent.data).success(returnedData) {
// callback defined on my utils service here
scope.callback(); // fires alert
}
});
}
}
});
For passing parameters back to controller do this
[11:28] <revolunet> you have to send named parameters
[11:28] <revolunet> eg my-attr="callback(a, b)"
[11:29] <revolunet> in the directive: scope.callback({a:xxx, b:yyy})
There are a lot of ways to go about what you're doing. The FIRST thing you should know is that the $http.post() is going to be called as soon as that DOM element is rendered out by the template engine, and that's it. If you put it inside a repeat, the call will be done for each new item in the repeater, so my guess is this is definitely not what you want. And if it is then you really aren't designing things correctly because the existence of DOM alone should not dictate queries to the backend.
Anyway, directly answering your question; if you read the albeit crappy docs on $parse, it returns you an evaluation expression. When you execute this function by passing the scope to evaluate on, the current state of that expression on the scope you passed will be returned, this means your function will be executed.
var expression = $parse(attrs.mySave);
results = expression($scope); // call on demand when needed
expression.assign($scope, 'newValu'); // the major reason to leverage $parse, setting vals
Yes, it's a little confusing at first, but you must understand that a $scope changes constantly in asynchronous apps and it's all about WHEN you want the value determined, not just how. $parse is more useful for a reference to a model that you want to be able to assign a value to, not just read from.
Of course, you may want to read up on creating an isolate scope or on how to $eval() an expression.
$scope.$eval(attrs.mySave);
You can use .$eval to execute a statement in the given scope
app.directive('mySave', function($http) {
return function(scope, element, attrs) {
$http.post('/save', scope.data).success(returnedData) {
// callback defined on my utils service here
// user defined callback here, from my-save-callback perhaps?
scope.$eval(attrs.mySaveCallback)
}
}
});
TD: Demo
If you want to share data between a directive and a controller you can use the two way binding
app.controller('AppController', function ($scope) {
$scope.callbackFunctionInController = function() {
console.log('do something')
};
$scope.$watch('somedata', function(data) {
console.log('controller', data);
}, true);
});
app.directive('mySave', function($http, $parse) {
return {
scope: {
data: '=mySaveData',
callback: '&mySaveCallback' //the callback
},
link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
$http.get('data.json').success(function(data) {
console.log('data', data);
scope.data = data;
scope.callback(); //calling callback, this may not be required
});
}
};
});
Demo: Fiddle
scope: {
callback: '&mySaveCallback'
}
Setting the scope explicitly could be a good solution but if you want the reach other parts of the original scope you can't because you have just overwritten it. For some reason, I needed to reach other parts of the scope too so I used the same implementation as ng-click do.
The use of my directive in HTML:
<div my-data-table my-source="dataSource" refresh="refresh(data)">
Inside the directive (without setting the scope explicitly):
var refreshHandler = $parse(attrs.refresh);
scope.$apply(function () {
refreshHandler( {data : conditions}, scope, { $event: event });
});
With this I can call the function in controller and pass parameters to it.
In the controller:
$scope.refresh= function(data){
console.log(data);
}
And it prints the conditions correctly out.
This worked for me
Inside the view script
<tag mycallbackattrib="scopemethod">
Inside the directive
$scope[attrs.mycallbackattrib](params....);
It is correctly called and params are passed, but maybe is not a best 'angular way' to work.
You should be using ng-click instead of creating your own directive.
app.directive('mySave', function($http, $parse) {
return {
scope: {
data: '=mySaveData',
callback: '&' //the callback
},
link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
$http.get('data.json').success(function(data) {
console.log('data', data);
if (scope.callback()) scope.callback().apply(data);
});
}
};
});

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