Angular Directive with dynamically generated input fields not able to display validation

Question

After 3 days of scouring stackoverflow and other sites, I have found myself back at square one.

My task: I need to validate dynamically generated form fields.

The HTML:

 <form name="myForm">
    <form-field content="field" model="output[field.uniqueId]" ng-repeat="field in formFields"></form-field>
 </form>

The controller:

var myApp = angular.module('myApp',[]);

function MyCtrl($scope) {
$scope.formFields = [
    {
    "fieldName": "Your Name",
    "uniqueId": "your_name_0",
    "fieldType": "text",
    "isMandatory": true
    },
    {
    "fieldName": "Description",
    "uniqueId": "description_1",
    "fieldType": "textarea",
    "isMandatory": true,
    }
];

$scope.output={};
}

The directive:

myApp.directive("formField",function($compile){
var templates = {
    textTemplate:'<div class="form-group"><label for="{{content.uniqueId}}" >{{content.fieldName}}</label> <span ng-show="content.isMandatory" class="sub_reqText">*</span><span ng-show="form.content.fieldName.$invalid">Please check this field.</span><input type="text" ng-model="model" name="{{content.uniqueId}}" class="form-control" ng-required="content.isMandatory" id="{{content.uniqueId}}"/> </div><br>',
    textareaTemplate:'<div class="form-group"><label for="{{content.uniqueId}}" >{{content.fieldName}}</label> <span ng-show="content.isMandatory" class="sub_reqText">*</span> <span ng-show="form.content.fieldName.$invalid">Please check this field.</span> <textarea ng-model="model" name="{{content.uniqueId}}" id="{{content.uniqueId}}"  class="form-control" ng-required="content.isMandatory"></textarea> </div>' 
};

var getTemplate = function(content, attrs){
    var template = {};
    template = templates[content.fieldType+"Template"];
    if(typeof template != 'undefined' && template != null) {
            return template;
        }
        else {
            return '';
        }
};


var linker = function(scope, element, attrs){        
    element.html(getTemplate(scope.content, attrs)).show();        
    $compile(element.contents())(scope);
}

return {
    restrict:"E",        
    replace:true,        
    link:linker,
    scope:{
        content:'=',
        model:'=?'
    }
};
});

There is clearly some scope issue because I cannot access the form fields outside of the directive and I cannot access the form name inside the directive. I also know $scope.myForm.name property cannot be an angular binding expression but I am not sure how to rewrite it so that it works.

This is the jsfiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/scheedalla/57tt04ch/

Any guidance will be very useful, thank you!

Answer 1

While debugging the problem I found that, the name attribute is not properly compiled for form. It was showing {{content.uniqueId}} in name but actually it rendered properly on UI.

Eg. For below html.

<input type="text" ng-model="model" name="{{content.uniqueId}}" class="form-control" 
ng-required="content.isMandatory" id="{{content.uniqueId}}"/>

name rendered as name="your_name_0" but in form collection it was showing {{content.uniqueId}} with the interpolation directive.

Seems like name is not interpoluted properly.

Then found issue with AngularJS, "You can't set name attribute dynamically for form validation."

Note: Above mentioned issue has been fixed in Angular 1.3.(name attributes interpolates properly)

& If you wanted to work them inside ng-repeat, then you should always use nested ng-form. Members inside ng-repeat will have their own form, and using that inner form you can handle your validation. Link For Reference

CODE CHANGE

var templates = {
        textTemplate: '<ng-form name="form">'+
    '<div class="form-group">'+
        '<label for="{{content.uniqueId}}">{{content.fieldName}}</label> '+
          '<span ng-show="content.isMandatory" class="sub_reqText">*</span>'+
          '<span ng-show="form.input.$invalid">'+
          'Please check this field.'+
          '</span>'+
        '<input type="text" ng-model="model1" name="input" class="form-control" ng-required="content.isMandatory" id="{{content.uniqueId}}" /> '+
    '</div>'+
'</ng-form>'+
'<br>',
        textareaTemplate: '<ng-form name="form">'+
    '<div class="form-group">'+
        '<label for="{{content.uniqueId}}">{{content.fieldName}}</label>'+
          '<span ng-show="content.isMandatory" class="sub_reqText">*</span> '+
          '<span ng-show="form.textarea.$invalid">Please check this field.</span>'+
          '<textarea ng-model="model" name="textarea" id="{{content.uniqueId}}" class="form-control" ng-required="content.isMandatory"></textarea>'+
    '</div>'+
'</ng-form>'
    };

Only i changed the template html, basically added <ng-form></ng-form> for templates and handled the validation on basis it in inner form.

Here is your Working Fiddle

Hope this have cleared your understanding. Thanks.