Dealing with DOM Manipulations in AngularJS

Question

When I perform DOM manipulation (add new HTML) using jQuery, AngularJS doesn't automatically detect variables in the new HTML and replace them with their values. For example:

$scope.showSummary = function($event){      $($event.currentTarget).html("<div>{{row}}</div>");  }; 

This is a simple example, but after changing the HTML in the element (this function was called by ng-click), the output it still {{row}} instead of what row should mean in the context/scope.

Answer 1

You have to inject $compile (http://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng.$compile) and use it so angular knows about the new html.

$compile('<div>{{row}}</div')($scope).appendTo($event.currentTarget);

However, it is frowned upon in angular to do DOM manipulation in your controllers. You want your controllers to handle business and your views to handle the view.

Try a directive to do what you want. http://docs.angularjs.org/guide/directive

Answer 2

If you use fragments for new elements (e.g. $("<" + "div>").appendTo("body")), using a wrapper like the following for the JQuery prepend/append methods lets you avoid having to change your element-adding code:

// run angular-compile command on new content // (also works for prependTo/appendTo, since they use these methods internally) var oldPrepend = $.fn.prepend; $.fn.prepend = function() {     var isFragment = arguments[0][0] && arguments[0][0].parentNode && arguments[0][0].parentNode.nodeName == "#document-fragment";     var result = oldPrepend.apply(this, arguments);     if (isFragment)         AngularCompile(arguments[0]);     return result; }; var oldAppend = $.fn.append; $.fn.append = function() {     var isFragment = arguments[0][0] && arguments[0][0].parentNode && arguments[0][0].parentNode.nodeName == "#document-fragment";     var result = oldAppend.apply(this, arguments);     if (isFragment)         AngularCompile(arguments[0]);     return result; };  function AngularCompile(root) {     var injector = angular.element($('[ng-app]')[0]).injector();     var $compile = injector.get('$compile');     var $rootScope = injector.get('$rootScope');     var result = $compile(root)($rootScope);     $rootScope.$digest();     return result; }