In this post, we will look into an approach for exchanging the definition of an AngularJS directive, i.e. the template, controller, compile/link functions etc., after the application has been bootstrapped whereby carrying out a full reload is not an option.
Assume that you have an application that allows the user to have multiple accounts to switch between. Depending on the currently active account, the application establishes a connection to different servers that in turn have different definitions for the same AngularJS directive.
Here is a simplified example:
<my-directive message="'Hello World'" />
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<my-directive>
<div>Coming from the Server A</div>
</my-directive>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<my-directive>
<span>And now from Server B: Hello World</span>
</my-directive>
To be able to exchange the entire definition of an AngularJS directive after the application has started we need to address the following problems:
- Lazy loading
- Directive definition exchange
- On-demand recompilation
Let’s have a look at each point in more detail now.
1) Lazy loading
Problem: The usual way to register a directive does not work after the application has bootstrapped.
// the usual way to register a directive
angular.module('app').directive('myDirective', MyDirective);
For the registration of an AngularJS directive after the application has started, we need the $compileProvider. We can get a hold of the $compileProvider during the configuration phase, and save the reference somewhere we get access to later, like in a service (in our example it will be the dynamicDirectiveManager).
// grab the $compileProvider
angular.module('app')
.config(function ($compileProvider, dynamicDirectiveManagerProvider) {
dynamicDirectiveManagerProvider.setCompileProvider($compileProvider);
});
// Later on, we are able to register new directives using the $compileProvider
$compileProvider.directive.apply(null, [name, constructor]);
$compileProvider.directive
.apply(null, [ 'myDirective', function() { return { template: 'Template A', … } } ]);
// … some time later …
$compileProvider.directive
.apply(null, [ 'myDirective', function() { return { template: 'Other template', … } } ]);
// the previous statement won’t overwrite the directive
Due to caching in AngularJS, the directives that we are trying to overwrite are not going to be exchanged by a new one. To remedy this problem, we have no other choice but to change the name in some way, for example by appending a suffix. Luckily, we can hide this renaming in the previously mentioned dynamicDirectiveManager.
// will compile to <my-directive-optionalsuffix>
dynamicDirectiveManager.registerDirective('myDirective', function() { return { template: 'Template', … } }, 'optionalsuffix');
// … some time later …
// will compile to <my-directive-randomsuffix>
dynamicDirectiveManager.registerDirective('myDirective', function() { return { template: 'Other template', … } });
3) On-demand recompilation
Problem: Now, we are able to exchange a directive definition by a new one but the corresponding directives on our HTML page will not recompile themselves, especially if the directives (except for markup in the page) did not exist at all a moment ago.
To be able to recompile the directives on demand, the desired directive will be created by another one (say ) that we have full control over. That way we can call $compile() every time a directive has been overwritten.
<dynamic-directive element-name="my-directive" message="'Hello World'"></dynamic-directive>
<dynamic-directive element-name="{{getDirectiveName()}}" message="'Hello World'"></dynamic-directive>
<dynamic-directive element-name="my-directive" message="'Hello World'">
<my-directive message="'Hello World'" />
</dynamic-directive>
<dynamic-directive element-name="my-directive" message="'Hello World'">
<my-directive-someprefix message="'Hello World'" />
</dynamic-directive>
By using the $compile service, we solved one problem but created a memory leak. If the inner directive () requests an isolated or child scope, then we get a deserted scope on each recompile thereby slowing the whole application bit by bit.
To solve this issue, we need to check whether the scope of the inner directive is different than the scope of the . If so, then the inner scope will be disposed of by calling $destroy().
var innerScope = currentInnerElement.isolateScope() || currentInnerElement.scope();
if (innerScope && (innerScope !== scope)) {
innerScope.$destroy();
}
Voilà!
Conclusion
This is a quite special case and it requires quite some code just to overwrite a directive without restarting the application. Luckily, the bulk of the work is done either by the or by dynamicDirectiveManager.
Live working example
http://jsfiddle.net/Pawel_Gerr/y22ZK/
