Can an angularjs Directive require Itself?

Question

Can a directive require itself? Here's an example:

app.directive('menu', function () {
  return {
    restrict: 'E',
    require: '?^menu',
    link: function(scope, element, attrs, ctrl) {
      console.log('ctrl: ', ctrl);

      if (ctrl) {
        element.addClass('nested');
      } else {
        element.addClass('notnested');
      }
    }
  };
});

In my test it doesn't seem to work (ctrl is always undefined). See the plunk

---

BTW, after this question was answered I discovered that in this case the caret (^) has no effect and the controller passed to the link function is always the instance's own controller. [ plunk ]

Answer 1

You should directly define controller function to expose directive API to other directives:

app.directive('menu', function () {
  return {
    restrict: 'E',
    require: '?^menu',
    controller: function($scope){  },
    link: function(scope, element, attrs, ctrl) {
      console.log('ctrl: ', ctrl);

      if (ctrl) {
        element.addClass('nested');
      } else {
        element.addClass('notnested');
      }
    }
  };
}); 

See http://plnkr.co/edit/cKFuS1lET56VOOYD5rrd?p=preview