AngularJS - Any way to call javascript after the template is linked?

Question

I'm trying to use a jQuery plugin (Plupload) with AngularJS. I have created a directive that will be my file upload "widget". The directive looks like this (The code in the link function is a very simplified version of the example on the Plupload site):

.directive('myFileUpload', function () {
    return {
        restrict: 'E',
        replace: true,
        link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
            scope.uploaderProperties = {
                    runtimes : 'html5,flash,html4',
                    url : 'media/upload',
                    max_file_size : '10mb',
                    container: 'fileUploadContainer',
                    drop_element: 'fileUploadDropArea'
            };

            scope.uploader = new plupload.Uploader(scope.uploaderProperties);

            scope.uploader.init();

            scope.uploader.bind('FilesAdded', function(up, files) {
                scope.$apply();
            });
        },
        templateUrl: 'upload.html'
    };
});

My upload.html file looks like this:

<div id="{{uploaderProperties.container}}">
    <div id="{{uploaderProperties.drop_element}}" style="border: 1px black dashed;">Drop files here<br><br><br></div>
    Files to upload:<br>
    <div ng-repeat="currFile in uploader.files">{{currFile.name}} ({{currFile.size}}) </div>
    <br><br>
    <!-- for debugging -->
    {{uploader.files}}
    <br><br>
</div>

When I include the directive on my page with a <my-file-upload> element, all the data bindings happen correctly. The problem is, when scope.uploader.init(); runs, the ids haven't been inserted into the DOM yet, and so Plupload complains and breaks since it can't select those elements. If I just hard-code the fileUploadContainer and fileUploadDropArea ids in the template, it works just fine. However, I'd really like to define those ids in only one place.

So, is there any way I can run the init() on the uploader after the template is linked in? I thought about using $timeout to delay when it runs, but that seems like a pretty big hack to me. Is there a more correct way of accomplishing this?

UPDATE

I wrapped the init() in a $timeout like this

$timeout(function() {
    scope.uploader.init();
}, 2000);

just to make sure it would behave the way I was thinking, and sure enough, with this delay the plugin gets set up correctly and works. However, I do not want to have to rely on the timing of the $timeout. If there was just some way I could call scope.uploader.init(); after the template is linked in, everything should work fine. Anyone know of a good way of doing this?

Answer 1

Your problem is actually the other way around - The link function happens after the template is put in. So in this case, scope.uploaderProperties isn't set when the template happens.

It looks like your template is too fancy for the templateUrl option, really. You could try manually setting your ids with jQuery, or setting everything up in the compile function.

http://docs.angularjs.org/guide/directive