AngularJS : How to get ng-repeat directive template before it gets compiled?

Question

I\'m trying to get the initial html template for the ng-repeat directive that is used inside my custom directive which trancludes nested content. But instead the actual html

Answer 1

ng-repeat directive has `transclude: "element", and so, when it is compiled, the entire element is taken out of DOM (in preparation for transclusion) and a comment is left.

So, the first console.log(element.html()) won't see anything, since the transclusion of your own directive hasn't happened.

But even if you examine the inner HTML at link-time, the ngRepeat will have been compiled, but its transclusion would not yet happen; it happens later, when scope.$watchCollection of ngRepeat fires.

So, the only way to see the content is to preempt the compilation of ngRepeat. You can either make your parent directive terminal: true, examine the contents and manually re-compile.

You can also add a directive that runs on a repeatable element with higher priority than ngRepeat and get the contents.

(You could even reuse the "ngRepeat" name)

app.directive("ngRepeat", function(){
  return {
    require: "?^parent", // optionally require your parent
    priority: 1010,
    compile: function(tElem){
      var template = tElem.html();
      return function link(scope, element, attrs, ctrls){
         var parentCtrl = ctrls;

         if (!parentCtrl) return;

         // hand it off to the parent controller
         parentCtrl.setTemplate(template);
      }
    }
  }
})

Demo