Recursion in Angular directives

Question

There are a couple of popular recursive angular directive Q&A's out there, which all come down to one of the following solutions:

• manually incrementally 'compile' HTML based on runtime scope state
  • example 1 [stackoverflow]
  • example 2 [angular jsfiddles page]
• don't use a directive at all, but a <script> template which refers to itself
  • example 1 [google groups]

The first one has the problem that you can't remove previously compiled code unless you comprehensibly manage the manual compile process. The second approach has the problem of... not being a directive and missing out on its powerful capabilities, but more urgently, it can't be parameterised the same way a directive can be; it's simply bound to a new controller instance.

I've been playing with manually doing an angular.bootstrap or @compile() in the link function, but that leaves me with the problem of manually keeping track of elements to remove and add.

Is there a good way to have a parameterized recursive pattern that manages adding/removing elements to reflect runtime state? That is to say, a tree with a add/delete node button and some input field whose value is passed down a node's child nodes. Perhaps a combination of the second approach with chained scopes (but I have no idea how to do this)?

Answer 1

You can use angular-recursion-injector for that: https://github.com/knyga/angular-recursion-injector

Allows you to do unlimited depth nesting with conditioning. Does recompilation only if needed and compiles only right elements. No magic in code.

<div class="node">
  <span>{{name}}</span>

  <node--recursion recursion-if="subNode" ng-model="subNode"></node--recursion>
</div>

One of the things that allows it to work faster and simpler then the other solutions is "--recursion" suffix.

Answer 2

Manually adding elements and compiling them is definitely a perfect approach. If you use ng-repeat then you will not have to manually remove elements.

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/KNM4q/113/

.directive('tree', function ($compile) {
return {
    restrict: 'E',
    terminal: true,
    scope: { val: '=', parentData:'=' },
    link: function (scope, element, attrs) {
        var template = '<span>{{val.text}}</span>';
        template += '<button ng-click="deleteMe()" ng-show="val.text">delete</button>';

        if (angular.isArray(scope.val.items)) {
            template += '<ul class="indent"><li ng-repeat="item in val.items"><tree val="item" parent-data="val.items"></tree></li></ul>';
        }
        scope.deleteMe = function(index) {
            if(scope.parentData) {
                var itemIndex = scope.parentData.indexOf(scope.val);
                scope.parentData.splice(itemIndex,1);
            }
            scope.val = {};
        };
        var newElement = angular.element(template);
        $compile(newElement)(scope);
        element.replaceWith(newElement);
    }
}
});

Answer 3

After using several workarounds for a while, I've repeatedly come back to this issue.

I'm not satisfied by the service solution since it works for directives that can inject the service but does not work for anonymous template fragments.

Similarly, solutions which depend upon specific template structure by doing DOM manipulation in the directive are too specific and brittle.

I have what I believe is a generic solution that encapsulates the recursion as a directive of its own that interferes minimally with any other directives and can be used anonymously.

Below is a demonstration that you can also play around with at plnkr: http://plnkr.co/edit/MSiwnDFD81HAOXWvQWIM

var hCollapseDirective = function () {
  return {
    link: function (scope, elem, attrs, ctrl) {
      scope.collapsed = false;
      scope.$watch('collapse', function (collapsed) {
        elem.toggleClass('collapse', !!collapsed);
      });
    },
    scope: {},
    templateUrl: 'collapse.html',
    transclude: true
  }
}

var hRecursiveDirective = function ($compile) {
  return {
    link: function (scope, elem, attrs, ctrl) {
      ctrl.transclude(scope, function (content) {
        elem.after(content);
      });
    },
    controller: function ($element, $transclude) {
      var parent = $element.parent().controller('hRecursive');
      this.transclude = angular.isObject(parent)
        ? parent.transclude
        : $transclude;
    },
    priority: 500,  // ngInclude < hRecursive < ngIf < ngRepeat < ngSwitch
    require: 'hRecursive',
    terminal: true,
    transclude: 'element',
    $$tlb: true  // Hack: allow multiple transclusion (ngRepeat and ngIf)
  }
}

angular.module('h', [])
.directive('hCollapse', hCollapseDirective)
.directive('hRecursive', hRecursiveDirective)

/* Demo CSS */
* { box-sizing: border-box }

html { line-height: 1.4em }

.task h4, .task h5 { margin: 0 }

.task { background-color: white }

.task.collapse {
  max-height: 1.4em;
  overflow: hidden;
}

.task.collapse h4::after {
  content: '...';
}

.task-list {
  padding: 0;
  list-style: none;
}


/* Collapse directive */
.h-collapse-expander {
  background: inherit;
  position: absolute;
  left: .5px;
  padding: 0 .2em;
}

.h-collapse-expander::before {
  content: '•';
}

.h-collapse-item {
  border-left: 1px dotted black;
  padding-left: .5em;
}

.h-collapse-wrapper {
  background: inherit;
  padding-left: .5em;
  position: relative;
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

  <head>
    <link href="collapse.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script data-require="angular.js@1.3.15" data-semver="1.3.15" src="https://code.angularjs.org/1.3.15/angular.js"></script>
    <script src="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js" data-semver="2.1.1" data-require="jquery@*"></script>
    <script src="script.js"></script>
    <script>
      function AppController($scope) {
        $scope.toggleCollapsed = function ($event) {
          $event.preventDefault();
          $event.stopPropagation();
          this.collapsed = !this.collapsed;
        }
        
        $scope.task = {
          name: 'All tasks',
          assignees: ['Citizens'],
          children: [
            {
              name: 'Gardening',
              assignees: ['Gardeners', 'Horticulture Students'],
              children: [
                {
                  name: 'Pull weeds',
                  assignees: ['Weeding Sub-committee']
                }
              ],
            },
            {
              name: 'Cleaning',
              assignees: ['Cleaners', 'Guests']
            }
          ]
        }
      }
      
      angular.module('app', ['h'])
      .controller('AppController', AppController)
    </script>
  </head>

  <body ng-app="app" ng-controller="AppController">
    <h1>Task Application</h1>
    
    <p>This is an AngularJS application that demonstrates a generalized
    recursive templating directive. Use it to quickly produce recursive
    structures in templates.</p>
    
    <p>The recursive directive was developed in order to avoid the need for
    recursive structures to be given their own templates and be explicitly
    self-referential, as would be required with ngInclude. Owing to its high
    priority, it should also be possible to use it for recursive directives
    (directives that have templates which include the directive) that would
    otherwise send the compiler into infinite recursion.</p>
    
    <p>The directive can be used alongside ng-if
    and ng-repeat to create recursive structures without the need for
    additional container elements.</p>
    
    <p>Since the directive does not request a scope (either isolated or not)
    it should not impair reasoning about scope visibility, which continues to
    behave as the template suggests.</p>
    
    <p>Try playing around with the demonstration, below, where the input at
    the top provides a way to modify a scope attribute. Observe how the value
    is visible at all levels.</p>
    
    <p>The collapse directive is included to further demonstrate that the
    recursion can co-exist with other transclusions (not just ngIf, et al)
    and that sibling directives are included on the recursive due to the
    recursion using whole 'element' transclusion.</p>
    
    <label for="volunteer">Citizen name:</label>
    <input id="volunteer" ng-model="you" placeholder="your name">
    <h2>Tasks</h2>
    <ul class="task-list">
      <li class="task" h-collapse h-recursive>
        <h4>{{task.name}}</h4>
        <h5>Volunteers</h5>
        <ul>
          <li ng-repeat="who in task.assignees">{{who}}</li>
          <li>{{you}} (you)</li>
        </ul>
        <ul class="task-list">
          <li h-recursive ng-repeat="task in task.children"></li>
        </ul>
      <li>
    </ul>
    
    <script type="text/ng-template" id="collapse.html">
      <div class="h-collapse-wrapper">
        <a class="h-collapse-expander" href="#" ng-click="collapse = !collapse"></a>
        <div class="h-collapse-item" ng-transclude></div>
      </div>
    </script>
  </body>

</html>