Generate HTML string from AngularJS template string

Question

I have angularjs template as a string including "ng-repeat" and other directives. I want to compile it in the controller to produce the result HTML as string.

Example on what I want to apply in Angular:

Input:
-------
var template = '<div ng-repeat="item in items">{{item.data}}</div>';

Output:
--------
var result = '<div>1</div><div>2</div><div>3</div><div>4</div>';

I want this to be done in the controller I've and I tried the following:

var template = '<div ng-repeat="item in items">{{item.data}}</div>';
var linkFunction = $compile(template);
var result = linkFunction($scope);

console.log(result); // prints the template itself!

Thanks!

Answer 1

Give this a whirl:

var template = angular.element('<div ng-repeat="item in items">{{item.data}}</div>');
var linkFunction = $compile(template);
var result = linkFunction($scope);
$scope.$apply();

console.log(template.html());

Answer 2

For this purpose I made myself a directive couple of projects ago:

angular.module('myApp')

.directive('ngHtmlCompile', ["$compile", function ($compile) {
    return {
        restrict: 'A',
        link: function (scope, element, attrs) {
            scope.$watch(attrs.ngHtmlCompile, function (newValue, oldValue) {
                element.html(newValue);
                $compile(element.contents())(scope);
            });
        }
    }
}]);

and then for example:

<div ng-html-compile='<div ng-repeat="item in items">{{item.data}}</div>'></div>

or even the string can be dynamic:

<div ng-repeat="item in items" ng-html-compile="item.template">
</div>