Angular.js updating SVG templates in directives

Question

A while ago I asked about "Angular.js rendering SVG templates in directives", where I was replacing the DOM nodes that angular makes when rendering templates, with SVG nodes. I got a response that answered it for me, but I realized that I lost all the databindings from angular.

See Plunkr (click update): http://plnkr.co/edit/HjOpqc?p=preview

How do I replace these DOM nodes with SVG nodes, and leave my angular bindings intact? I tried using $compile to make it work (as I've done with regular html), but its just not working.

code:

var svgNS = 'http://www.w3.org/2000/svg';
app.directive('path', ngSvg('path'));
app.directive('g', ngSvg('g'));

function ngSvg(type) {
  return function($timeout, $compile) {
    return {
      restrict: 'E',
      link: function(scope, el, attr) {
        //skip nodes if they are already svg
        if (el[0].namespaceURI === svgNS) {
          return;
        }

        // I would expect the chunk of code below to work,
        // but it does not with ng-repeat

        // var newAttr = {};
        // _.each(el[0].attributes, function(at) {
        //   newAttr[at.nodeName] = at.value;
        // });

        // var path = makeNode(type, el, newAttr);
        // var parent = path.cloneNode(true);

        // $compile(parent)(scope);

        // var children = el.children();
        // $(parent).append(children);

        // $timeout(function() {
        //   el.replaceWith(parent);
        // })


        // this works for rendering, but does not update the svg elements
        // when update is clicked
        $timeout(function() {
          var newAttr = {};
          _.each(el[0].attributes, function(at) {
            newAttr[at.nodeName] = at.value;
          });

          var path = makeNode(type, el, newAttr);
          var parent = path.cloneNode(true);


          var children = el.children();
          $(parent).append(children);
          el.replaceWith(parent);
        });
      }
    }
  }
}

/* Create a shape node with the given settings. */
function makeNode(name, element, settings) {
  // var ns = 'http://www.w3.org/2000/svg';
  var node = document.createElementNS(svgNS, name);
  for (var attribute in settings) {
    var value = settings[attribute];
    if (value !== null && value !== null && !attribute.match(/\$/) &&
      (typeof value !== 'string' || value !== '')) {
      node.setAttribute(attribute, value);
    }
  }
  return node;
}

Answer 1

This issue is solved in Angular 1.3 and here is an implementation of some custom svg directives with the behaviors you would expect from an Angular directive. There is now a special requirement is on the directive declaration as follows templateNamespace: 'svg'

Also notice I am overriding some reserved attributes, for example, x and height in regards to <rect/>. To retain more control over these you can leverage ng-attr as such '<rect ng-attr-width="{{ ngWidth }}" />

JSFiddle Link

Here is a custom <rect/> and <circle/>

app.directive('ngRect', [function () {
    return {
        templateNamespace: 'svg',
        replace: true,
        template: '<rect ng-attr-width="{{ ngWidth }}" ng-attr-height="{{ ngHeight }}" ng-attr-x="{{ ngX }}" ng-attr-y="{{ ngY }}" ng-click="ngRectClick()"/>',
        scope: {
            'ngHeight': '=',
            'ngWidth': '='
        },
        link: function (scope, elem, attrs) {
            scope.ngRectClick = function() {
                console.log(elem);
            }
        }
    }
}]);

app.directive('ngCircle', [function () {
    return {
        templateNamespace: 'svg',
        replace: true,
        template: '<circle ng-attr-cx="{{ ngCx }}" ng-attr-cy="{{ ngCy }}" ng-attr-r="{{ ngR }}" ng-attr-fill="{{ ngFill }}" ng-click="ngCircleClick()"/>',
        scope: {
            'ngCx': '=',
            'ngCy': '=',
            'ngR': '=',
            'ngFill': '='
        },
        link: function (scope, elem, attrs) {
            scope.ngCircleClick = function() {
                console.log(elem);
            }
        }
    }
}]);