What is the AngularJS way of handling a modal like this

Question

I know you're not supposed to put your display logic inside of a controller and I'm struggling with the proper AngularJS way to approach this.

I'm presenting forms inside modals. I'm using Zurb Foundation's reveal for the modal.

Markup:

<div class="button" ng-click="modalAddWidget">Add Widget</div>
<div id="modalAddWidget" class="reveal-modal">
  <h6>New Widget</h6>
  <form>
    <fieldset>
      <legend>Widget Name</legend>
      <input type="text" ng-model="ui.add_widget_value" />
    </fieldset>
    <div class="small button right" ng-click="addWidget()">Add Widget</div>
    <div class="small button right secondary" ng-click="addWidgetCancel()">Cancel</div>
  </form>
</div>

Controller:

  ...
  $scope.modalAddWidget = function() {
    $("#modalAddWidget").reveal();
  }
  $scope.addWidget = function() {
    $scope.myobject.widgets.push({"name": $scope.ui.add_widget_value});
    $scope.ui.add_widget_value = '';
    $('#modalAddWidget').trigger('reveal:close');
  }
  $scope.addBudgetCancel = function() {
    $scope.ui.add_widget_value = '';
    $('#modalAddWidget').trigger('reveal:close');
  }
  ...

Note: $scope.ui is an object I am using to store UI values that shouldn't be bound to my object until the user actually clicks "Add Widget"

$scope.myobj is where my data is stored.

Foundation's $("#modalAddWidget").reveal(); function presents the modal overlay.

Since I shouldn't be putting my display code inside the controller, what is the proper way to approach this?

Answer 1

You don't want to manipulate the DOM (or even reference it) from your controllers.

A directive is best here.

app.directive('revealModal', function (){
   return function(scope, elem, attrs) {
     scope.$watch(attrs.revealModal, function(val) {
        if(val) {           
           elem.trigger('reveal:open');
        } else {
           elem.trigger('reveal:close');
        }
     });
     elem.reveal();
   }
});

then in your controller:

$scope.modalAddWidget = function (){
   $scope.ui = { add_widget_value: '' };
   $scope.showModal = true;
};

$scope.addWidget = function (){
    $scope.myobject.widgets.push({"name": $scope.ui.add_widget_value});
    $scope.ui.add_widget_value = '';
    $scope.showModal = true;
};

And in your HTML

<div class="button" ng-click="modalAddWidget()">Add Widget</div>
<div id="modalAddWidget" class="reveal-modal" reveal-modal="showModal">
  <h6>New Widget</h6>
  <form name="addWidgetForm" ng-submit="addWidget()">
    <fieldset>
      <legend>Widget Name</legend>
      <input type="text" name="widgetValue" ng-model="ui.add_widget_value" required />
      <span ng-show="addWidgetForm.widgetValue.$error.required">required</span>
    </fieldset>
    <button type="submit" class="small button right">Add Widget</button>
    <div class="small button right secondary" ng-click="showModal = false;">Cancel</div>
  </form>
</div>

Basically you'd set a boolean in your scope to show and hide your modal. (I'm not sure of reveal modal's open/close mechanism, so I'm guessing in my code above).

ALSO: I went through the effort of adding some validation in there.