Angular Material $mdDialog does not show after hiding once

Question

My app has a chat button which opens an $mdDialog. I use $mdDialog.hide() to close the dialog window when a user name is clicked in the dialog window. This works but when I click on the chat button again, it no longer works.

Thanks for any help. Heres a link to my codepen.

HTML

<div ng-app="MyApp" ng-controller="AppCtrl">
  <div id="menubar">
    <div class="logo"><a href="#"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/yS9Ug9Z.png"/></a></div>
    <ul class="middle">
      <div class="r1">Project Name <i class="glyphicon glyphicon-pencil"></i></div>
      <ul class="r2">
        <li class="dropdown">
          <button href="#" data-toggle="dropdown" class="dropdown-btn">File</button>
          <ul class="dropdown-menu">
            <li><a href="#">Action 1</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Action 2</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Action 3</a></li>
          </ul>
        </li>
        <li class="dropdown">
          <button href="#" data-toggle="dropdown" class="dropdown-btn">Edit</button>
          <ul class="dropdown-menu">
            <li><a href="#">Action 1</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Action 2</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Action 3</a></li>
          </ul>
        </li>
        <li class="dropdown">
          <button href="#" data-toggle="dropdown" class="dropdown-btn">Help</button>
          <ul class="dropdown-menu">
            <li><a href="#">Action 1</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Action 2</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Action 3</a></li>
          </ul>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </ul>
    <div class="menu-btns">
      <button id="comment-btn"><i class="material-icons">assignment</i> <span>Comment</span></button>
      <button id="share-btn"><i class="material-icons">supervisor_account</i> <span>Share</span></button>
      <button id="chat-btn" ng-click="openChatDialog()"><i class="material-icons">chat</i> <span>Chat</span></button>
    </div>
    <button id="user-btn"></button>
    <div id="user-drop" class="shadow-1">
      <ul>
        <li>Smile</li>
        <li>You</li>
        <li>Goodlookin</li>
        <li>Get Shwify</li>
        <li>Cellar Door Is Beautiful</li>
        <hr/>
        <li>Your Profile</li>
        <ul class="links">
          <li>Link1</li>
          <li>Link2</li>
          <li>Link3</li>
        </ul>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div id="chat-cntnr">
    <div ng-repeat="chat in chat.openChats" class="chat-box">
      <div class="chat-header">
        <button ng-click="closeChat()" class="chat-h-btn chat-close"><i class="glyphicon glyphicon-remove"></i></button>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

JS

angular.module('MyApp', ['ngMaterial', 'ngMessages', 'material.svgAssetsCache'])

.controller('AppCtrl', function($scope, $mdDialog) {

  //CHAT
  $scope.chat = {};
  $scope.chat.openChats = [];
  $scope.collaborators = ['Dan', 'Miles', 'Ryan', 'kevin'];

  var chatCntnr = document.getElementById('chat-cntnr');

  // open a chat box
  var isChatOpen = function(user) {
    if ($scope.chat.openChats.indexOf(user) < 0) return false;
    else return true;
  };

  $scope.openChat = function(user) {
    if (!isChatOpen(user)) {
      if (chatCntnr.style.display !== 'flex') {
        chatCntnr.style.display = 'flex';
      }
      $scope.chat.openChats.push(user);
    }
    $mdDialog.hide();  
  };

  // close a chat box
  $scope.closeChat = function(user) {
    console.log('hi');
 //$scope.chat.openChats.splice($scope.openChats.indexOf(user), 1);
  };

  // CHAT DIALOG
  $scope.openChatDialog = function() {
    $mdDialog.show({
      scope: $scope,
      controller: 'AppCtrl',
      template: '<md-button ng-click="openChat(\'everybody\')">Everybody</md-button><md-button ng-repeat="user in collaborators" ng-click="openChat(user)"><svg class="status-light" height="17" width="17"><circle cx="8" cy="8" r="8" fill="lightGreen" /></svg>{{user}}</md-button>',
      hasBackdrop: false,
      clickOutsideToClose: true,
      openFrom: '#chat-btn',
      closeTo: '#chat-btn'
    })
  };
});
// chat dialog
// chat

/**
 * MENUBAR
 */
var dropdownBtns = document.querySelectorAll('.middle .dropdown-btn');
var dropdowns = document.querySelectorAll('.middle .dropdown');
var userBtn = document.getElementById('user-btn');
var userDrop = document.getElementById('user-drop');

document.addEventListener('click', (e) => {
  if (userDrop.classList.contains('open')) {
    userDrop.classList.toggle('open');
  }
});

userBtn.addEventListener('click', (e) => {
  userDrop.classList.toggle('open');
  e.stopPropagation();
})

for (var i = 0; i < dropdownBtns.length; i++) {
  (function() {
    var dropdownBtn = dropdownBtns[i];
    var k = i;
    dropdownBtn.addEventListener('mouseover', () => {
      var x = isDropOpen();
      if (x > -1 && x !== k) {
        dropdowns[x].classList.toggle('open');
        dropdowns[k].classList.toggle('open');
      }
    })
  })();
}

var isDropOpen = () => {
  for (var i = 0; i < dropdowns.length; i++) {
    var dropdownClasses = dropdowns[i].classList;
    if (dropdownClasses.contains('open')) return i;
  }
  return -1;
}

/**
 * menubar
 */

CSS

html, body {
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  height: 100%;
  width: 100%;
}
html ul, body ul {
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
}

#menubar {
  font-family: sans-serif;
  background-color: black;
  display: flex;
  position: relative;
  white-space: nowrap;
}
#menubar .logo {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  padding: 10px;
  background-color: lightGrey;
}
#menubar .logo img {
  height: 40px;
}
#menubar .middle {
  padding: 10px;
  padding-top: 8px;
  padding-bottom: 0px;
  color: white;
  width: 100%;
  position: relative;
  font-family: inherit;
  margin-left: 8px;
  margin-right: 20px;
}
#menubar .middle .r1 {
  font-size: 20px;
}
#menubar .middle .r1 i {
  position: relative;
  top: -1px;
  font-size: 12px;
  font-weight: 700;
  margin-left: 2px;
  cursor: pointer;
}
#menubar .middle .r1 i:hover {
  color: lightGrey;
}
#menubar .middle .r2 {
  margin-top: 2px;
  margin-left: -6px;
  font-size: 15px;
  padding-bottom: 6px;
}
#menubar .middle .r2 li {
  display: inline-block;
}
#menubar .middle .dropdown-btn {
  position: relative;
  outline: 0;
  background-color: transparent;
  border: none;
  cursor: pointer;
  padding: 2px 6px;
  z-index: 100;
  margin: 0 1px;
  margin-top: 1px;
}
#menubar .middle .dropdown-btn:hover {
  background-color: grey;
}
#menubar .middle .open .dropdown-btn {
  background-color: black;
  margin: 0 !important;
  border: white 1px solid;
  border-bottom: none;
}
#menubar .middle .dropdown-menu {
  background-color: black;
  border: white 1px solid;
  border-radius: 0;
  margin-top: -1px;
  z-index: 10;
}
#menubar .middle .dropdown-menu li {
  display: block;
}
#menubar .middle .dropdown-menu a {
  color: white;
}
#menubar .middle .dropdown-menu a:hover {
  background-color: dodgerBlue;
}
#menubar .menu-btns {
  display: flex;
  margin: 12px;
  margin-right: 0px;
  color: white;
  right: 0;
}
#menubar .menu-btns button {
  outline: 0;
  position: relative;
  background-color: transparent;
  border-radius: 2px;
  border: #343436 3px solid;
  margin: 0 5px;
  padding: 2px 12px;
  font-size: 15px;
  white-space: nowrap;
}
#menubar .menu-btns button:hover {
  background-color: #4d4d50;
}
#menubar .menu-btns button i {
  position: relative;
  top: 5px;
  color: #aeaeae;
}
#menubar .menu-btns button span {
  position: relative;
  top: -3px;
}

#user-btn {
  margin: 10px;
  margin-bottom: 8px;
  outline: 0;
  width: 70px;
  background: url("https://www.fillmurray.com/70/92");
  border: none;
  border-radius: 2px;
}

#chat-btn {
  background-color: #343436 !important;
}
#chat-btn:hover {
  background-color: #4d4d50 !important;
}

.shadow-1 {
  box-shadow: 0 2px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.12), 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.24);
  transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;
}

#user-drop {
  display: none;
  position: absolute;
  right: 0;
  top: 100%;
  background-color: white;
}
#user-drop ul {
  list-style-type: none;
  padding: 6px 0;
  padding-bottom: 2px;
  font-size: 15px;
  font-weight: 500;
}
#user-drop ul li {
  cursor: pointer;
  padding: 4px 16px;
  padding-right: 38px;
}
#user-drop ul li:hover {
  background-color: #e7e7e7;
}
#user-drop ul hr {
  margin: 8px 0;
  border-top: black 1px solid;
}
#user-drop ul .links {
  padding-top: 0;
}
#user-drop ul .links li {
  display: inline-block;
  padding-right: 2px;
  font-size: 11px;
  color: darkGrey;
}
#user-drop ul .links li:hover {
  background-color: white;
  color: black;
}

#user-drop.open {
  display: initial;
}

md-dialog {
  position: absolute;
  right: 25px;
  top: 80px;
}
md-dialog svg {
  position: absolute;
  left: 16px;
  top: 11px;
}

#chat-cntnr {
  display: none;
  position: fixed;
  bottom: 0;
  right: 0;
}
#chat-cntnr .chat-box {
  height: 150px;
  width: 150px;
  background-color: blue;
  border: 1px solid black;
  margin: 0 4px;
}
#chat-cntnr .chat-box:last-child {
  margin-right: 0;
}

Answer 1

I checked out your codepen, and after trying a few things, I noticed the issue is resolved the moment you remove the "scope: $scope" line.
When I looked at the docs for $ngDialog, I found an example that shares the parent scope like you do, but it added an extra option "preserveScope: true". See example from docs below.

// Dialog #3 - Demonstrate use of ControllerAs and passing $scope to dialog
//             Here we used ng-controller="GreetingController as vm" and
//             $scope.vm === <controller instance="">
function showCustomGreeting() {
   $mdDialog.show({
      clickOutsideToClose: true,
      scope: $scope,        // use parent scope in template
      preserveScope: true,  // do not forget this if use parent scope
      // Since GreetingController is instantiated with ControllerAs syntax
      // AND we are passing the parent '$scope' to the dialog, we MUST
      // use 'vm.<xxx>' in the template markup
      template: '<md-dialog>' +
                '  <md-dialog-content>' +
                '     Hi There {{vm.employee}}' +
                '  </md-dialog-content>' +
                '</md-dialog>',
      controller: function DialogController($scope, $mdDialog) {
        $scope.closeDialog = function() {
          $mdDialog.hide();
        }
      }
   });
}

And more details on the scope options from the docs.

scope - {object=}: the scope to link the template / controller to. If none is specified, it will create a new isolate scope. This scope will be destroyed when the dialog is removed unless preserveScope is set to true.

This seems to make your chatDialog too. See updated codepen.

---

You are using the 'AppCtrl' controller for your dialog. This will re-instantiate the controller inside the dialog. It should look like the following now.

$scope.openChatDialog = function() {
    $mdDialog.show({
      scope: $scope,
      preserveScope: true,
      template: '<md-button ng-click="openChat(\'everybody\')">Everybody</md-button><md-button ng-repeat="user in collaborators" ng-click="openChat(user)"><svg class="status-light" height="17" width="17"><circle cx="8" cy="8" r="8" fill="lightGreen" /></svg>{{user}}</md-button>',
      hasBackdrop: false,
      clickOutsideToClose: true,
      openFrom: '#chat-btn',
      closeTo: '#chat-btn'
    })
  };