It is possible to run javascript in a directive before returning anything, as well as in a directive's compile step before returning anything:
angular.module('foo').directive('fooDirective', [function(){
console.debug('before return');
return {
restrict: 'E',
controller: function($scope){
console.debug('controller');
},
compile: function(scope, elem){
console.debug('compile');
return {
pre: function(scope,elem, attr){
console.debug('pre');
},
post: function(scope,elem,attr){
console.debug('post');
}
}
}
}
}]);
<body ng-app="foo">
<foo-directive></foo-directive>
<foo-directive></foo-directive>
</body>
This produces the following console log order:
before return
compile
compile
controller
pre
post
controller
pre
post
I have several questions about this:
1) Why would I ever want to run code before returning the actual directive object? What would be a usecase?
2) Why would I ever want to run code before returning the pre/post link functions? How is the prelink step different from the compile step? What is a use case?
3) Why does compile run twice in succession when there is two items, while everything else runs iteratively in the same order irrelevantly of number of elements?
Plunk: http://plnkr.co/edit/1JPYLcPlMerXlwr0GnND?p=preview
