alternative of 'getElementById' in angularjs

Question

Check this PLNKR, i have one list with id myMenuList, this id am accessing in script.js to display Numer of li and UL width by $scope.mml = angular.element(document.getElementById('myMenuList'));. But as per requirement I should not be accessing it in controller like this. Is there any alternative we can do by keeping the same behaviour?

HTML CODE

  <div class="menucontainer left">
   <ul id="myMenuList" ng-style="myStyle">
     <li ng-repeat="item in items"> <a href="#">{{item.name}}</a>        </li>
   </ul>
 </div>

JavaScript

 $scope.mml = angular.element(document.getElementById('myMenuList'));
 $timeout(function() {
   $scope.numerofli = $scope.mml.find('li').length;
    $scope.ulwidth = $scope.mml[0].clientWidth;
 }, 1000);

Answer 1

Use only

 var ele = angular.element('#id');
 var ulwidth = ele[0].clientWidth;

Answer 2

Demo Plunker

Implement a directive with isolated scope to encourage modularity and re-use:

app.directive('myMenuList', function($timeout) {
  return {
    restrict: 'A',
    scope: { 
      myMenuList: '='
    },
    link:function($scope, $element, $attr) {
      $timeout(function(){
          $scope.myMenuList.numerofli= $element.find('li').length  ;
          $scope.myMenuList.ulwidth= $element[0].clientWidth;
      }, 1000);
    }
  }
});

To use it, initialize an output model from inside your parent controller:

app.controller('scrollController', function($scope, $timeout) {
  $scope.output = {};
  ...
});

Place the my-menu-list attribute on the ul element, and pass it the model defined earlier:

  <ul my-menu-list="output" ng-style="myStyle">
    <li ng-repeat="item in items"> <a href="#">{{item.name}}</a>
    </li>
  </ul>

When the directive executes it will populate the model with two properties, which you can then reference in your HTML:

<p><b>Numer of 'li': {{output.numerofli}}</b></p>
<p><b>Width: {{output.ulwidth}}</b></p>