AngularJS : How to run JavaScript from inside Directive after directive is compiled and linked

Question

I have a responsive template that I am trying to use with my Angularjs app. This is also my first Angular app so I know I have many mistakes and re-factoring in my future.

I have read enough about angular that I know DOM manipulations are suppose to go inside a directive.

I have a javascript object responsible for template re-sizes the side menu and basically the outer shell of the template. I moved all of this code into a directive and named it responsive-theme.

First I added all the methods that are being used and then I defined the App object at the bottom. I removed the function bodies to shorten the code.

Basically the object at the bottom is a helper object to use with all the methods.

var directive = angular.module('bac.directive-manager');

directive.directive('responsiveTheme', function() {

return {
    restrict: "A",

    link: function($scope, element, attrs) {


        // IE mode
        var isRTL = false;
        var isIE8 = false;
        var isIE9 = false;
        var isIE10 = false;

        var sidebarWidth = 225;
        var sidebarCollapsedWidth = 35;

        var responsiveHandlers = [];

        // theme layout color set
        var layoutColorCodes = {

        };

        // last popep popover
        var lastPopedPopover;

        var handleInit = function() {
        };

        var handleDesktopTabletContents = function () {
        };

        var handleSidebarState = function () {
        };

        var runResponsiveHandlers = function () {
        };

        var handleResponsive = function () {
        };

        var handleResponsiveOnInit = function () {
        };

        var handleResponsiveOnResize = function () {
        };

        var handleSidebarAndContentHeight = function () {        
        };

        var handleSidebarMenu = function () {
        };

        var _calculateFixedSidebarViewportHeight = function () {
        };

        var handleFixedSidebar = function () {
        };

        var handleFixedSidebarHoverable = function () {
        };

        var handleSidebarToggler = function () {
        };

        var handleHorizontalMenu = function () {
        };

        var handleGoTop = function () {
        };

        var handlePortletTools = function () {
        };

        var handleUniform = function () {
        };

        var handleAccordions = function () {
        };

        var handleTabs = function () {
        };

        var handleScrollers = function () {
        };

        var handleTooltips = function () {
        };

        var handleDropdowns = function () {
        };

        var handleModal = function () {
        };

        var handlePopovers = function () {
        };

        var handleChoosenSelect = function () {
        };

        var handleFancybox = function () {
        };

        var handleTheme = function () {
        };

        var handleFixInputPlaceholderForIE = function () {
        };

        var handleFullScreenMode = function() {
        };

        $scope.App = {

            //main function to initiate template pages
            init: function () {

                //IMPORTANT!!!: Do not modify the core handlers call order.

                //core handlers
                handleInit();
                handleResponsiveOnResize(); // set and handle responsive    
                handleUniform();        
                handleScrollers(); // handles slim scrolling contents 
                handleResponsiveOnInit(); // handler responsive elements on page load

                //layout handlers
                handleFixedSidebar(); // handles fixed sidebar menu
                handleFixedSidebarHoverable(); // handles fixed sidebar on hover effect 
                handleSidebarMenu(); // handles main menu
                handleHorizontalMenu(); // handles horizontal menu
                handleSidebarToggler(); // handles sidebar hide/show            
                handleFixInputPlaceholderForIE(); // fixes/enables html5 placeholder attribute for IE9, IE8
                handleGoTop(); //handles scroll to top functionality in the footer
                handleTheme(); // handles style customer tool

                //ui component handlers
                handlePortletTools(); // handles portlet action bar functionality(refresh, configure, toggle, remove)
                handleDropdowns(); // handle dropdowns
                handleTabs(); // handle tabs
                handleTooltips(); // handle bootstrap tooltips
                handlePopovers(); // handles bootstrap popovers
                handleAccordions(); //handles accordions
                handleChoosenSelect(); // handles bootstrap chosen dropdowns     
                handleModal();

                $scope.App.addResponsiveHandler(handleChoosenSelect); // reinitiate chosen dropdown on main content resize. disable this line if you don't really use chosen dropdowns.
                handleFullScreenMode(); // handles full screen
            },

            fixContentHeight: function () {
                handleSidebarAndContentHeight();
            },

            setLastPopedPopover: function (el) {
                lastPopedPopover = el;
            },

            addResponsiveHandler: function (func) {
                responsiveHandlers.push(func);
            },

            // useful function to make equal height for contacts stand side by side
            setEqualHeight: function (els) {
                var tallestEl = 0;
                els = jQuery(els);
                els.each(function () {
                        var currentHeight = $(this).height();
                        if (currentHeight > tallestEl) {
                            tallestColumn = currentHeight;
                        }
                    });
                els.height(tallestEl);
            },

            // wrapper function to scroll to an element
            scrollTo: function (el, offeset) {
                pos = el ? el.offset().top : 0;
                jQuery('html,body').animate({
                        scrollTop: pos + (offeset ? offeset : 0)
                    }, 'slow');
            },

            scrollTop: function () {
                App.scrollTo();
            },

            // wrapper function to  block element(indicate loading)
            blockUI: function (ele, centerY) {
                var el = jQuery(ele); 
                el.block({
                        message: '<img src="./assets/img/ajax-loading.gif" align="">',
                        centerY: centerY !== undefined ? centerY : true,
                        css: {
                            top: '10%',
                            border: 'none',
                            padding: '2px',
                            backgroundColor: 'none'
                        },
                        overlayCSS: {
                            backgroundColor: '#000',
                            opacity: 0.05,
                            cursor: 'wait'
                        }
                    });
            },

            // wrapper function to  un-block element(finish loading)
            unblockUI: function (el) {
                jQuery(el).unblock({
                        onUnblock: function () {
                            jQuery(el).removeAttr("style");
                        }
                    });
            },

            // initializes uniform elements
            initUniform: function (els) {

                if (els) {
                    jQuery(els).each(function () {
                            if ($(this).parents(".checker").size() === 0) {
                                $(this).show();
                                $(this).uniform();
                            }
                        });
                } else {
                    handleUniform();
                }

            },

            updateUniform : function(els) {
                $.uniform.update(els);
            },

            // initializes choosen dropdowns
            initChosenSelect: function (els) {
                $(els).chosen({
                        allow_single_deselect: true
                    });
            },

            initFancybox: function () {
                handleFancybox();
            },

            getActualVal: function (ele) {
                var el = jQuery(ele);
                if (el.val() === el.attr("placeholder")) {
                    return "";
                }

                return el.val();
            },

            getURLParameter: function (paramName) {
                var searchString = window.location.search.substring(1),
                    i, val, params = searchString.split("&");

                for (i = 0; i < params.length; i++) {
                    val = params[i].split("=");
                    if (val[0] == paramName) {
                        return unescape(val[1]);
                    }
                }
                return null;
            },

            // check for device touch support
            isTouchDevice: function () {
                try {
                    document.createEvent("TouchEvent");
                    return true;
                } catch (e) {
                    return false;
                }
            },

            isIE8: function () {
                return isIE8;
            },

            isRTL: function () {
                return isRTL;
            },

            getLayoutColorCode: function (name) {
                if (layoutColorCodes[name]) {
                    return layoutColorCodes[name];
                } else {
                    return '';
                }
            }

        };

    }

};           
}); 

Originally the App.init() object method would be called at the bottom of any regular html page, and I have others that do certain things also that would be used on specific pages like Login.init() for the login page and so forth.

I did read that stackoverflow post "Thinking in AngularJS" if I have a jQuery background? and realize that I am trying to go backwards in a sense, but I want to use this template that I have so I need to retro fit this solution.

I am trying to use this directive on my body tag.

<body ui-view="dashboard-shell" responsive-theme>
    <div class="page-container">
        <div class="page-sidebar nav-collapse collapse" ng-controller="SidemenuController">

            <sidemenu></sidemenu>

        </div>

        <div class="page-content" ui-view="dashboard">
        </div>
    </div>
</body>

So here is my problem. This kinda sorta works. I don't get any console errors but when I try to use my side menu which the javascript for it is in the directive it doesn't work until I go inside the console and type App.init(). After that all of the template javascript works. I want to know how to do responsive theme stuff in these directives. I have tried using it both in the compile and link sections. I have tried putting the code in compile and link and calling the $scope.App.init() from a controller and also at the bottom after defining everything. I also tried putting this in jsfiddle but can't show a true example without having the console to call App.init().

My end design would be having some way to switch the pages through ui-router and when a route gets switched it calls the appropriate methods or re-runs the directive or something. The only method that will run on every page is the App.init() method and everything else is really page specific. And technically since this is a single page app the App.init() only needs to run once for the application. I have it tied to a parent template inside ui-router and the pages that will switch all use this shell template. There are some objects that need to access other to call their methods.

Im sorry in advance for maybe a confusing post. I am struggling right now trying to put together some of the ways that you do things from an angular perspective. I will continue to edit the post as I get responses to give further examples.

Answer 1

You said I have read enough about angular that I know DOM manipulations are suppose to go inside a directive but it sounds like you missed the point of a directive. A directive should handle DOM manipulation, yes, but not one directive for the entire page. Each element (or segment) of the page should have its own directive (assuming DOM manip needs to be done on that element) and then the $controller should handle the interactions between those elements and your data (or model).

You've created one gigantic directive and are trying to have it do way too much. Thankfully, you've kinda sorta designed your code in such a way that it shouldn't be too hard to break it up into several directives. Basically, each of your handle functions should be its own directive.

So you'd have something like:

.directive('sidebarMenu', function(){
    return {
        template: 'path/to/sidebar/partial.html',
        link: function(scope, elem, attrs){
            // insert the code for your 'handleSidebarMenu()' function here
        }
    };
})
.directive('horizontalMenu', function(){
    return {
        template: 'path/to/horizontal/partial.html',
        link: function(scope, elem, attrs){
            // insert the code for your 'handleHorizontalMenu()' function here
        }
    };
})

and then your view would look something like:

<body ui-view="dashboard-shell" responsive-theme>
    <div class="page-container">
        <div class="page-sidebar nav-collapse collapse">

            <horizontal-menu></horizontal-menu>

            <sidebar-menu></sidebar-menu>

        </div>

        <div class="page-content" ui-view="dashboard">
        </div>
    </div>
</body>

And then you don't need a SidebarmenuController because your controller functions shouldn't be handling DOM elements like the sidebar. The controller should just handling the data that you're going to display in your view, and then the view (or .html file) will handle the displaying and manipulation of that data by its use of the directives you've written.

Does that make sense? Just try breaking that huge directive up into many smaller directives that handle specific elements or specific tasks in the DOM.