Check existence of attribute in Angular Directive

Question

Is is possible to check whether a given attribute is present in a directive, ideally using isolate scope or in a worst case scenario the attributes object.

With a directive that looked something like this <project status></project>, I want to conditionally render a status icon, but only if the status attribute is present.

return {
  restrict: 'AE',
  scope: {
    status: '@'
  },
  link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
    scope.status === 'undefined'
  }
}

Ideally, it would be bound straight to the scope, so that it could be used in the template. However, the bound variable's value is undefined. The same goes for & read-only and = two-way bindings.

I know that it's trivially solved by adding a <project status='true'></project>, but for directives that I will use frequently, I'd rather not have to. (XHTML validity, is not an issue).

Answer 1

The way to do this is to check for the existence of the attributes within the link function's attrs parameter, and assign this to variables within your directive's isolate scope.

scope:{},
link: function(scope, element, attrs){
  scope.status = 'status' in attrs;
},

This should work without having to use an if statement within your link function.

Answer 2

The way to do what you want is by looking at the attribute object in the link function:

link: 
  function(scope, element, attrs) {
    if("status" in attrs)
       //do something
  }

Answer 3

To Check for attributes when using angular 1.5+ components you can use the $postLink lifecycle hook and the $element service like this:

constructor(private $element) {}

$postLink() {
  if(!this.$element.attr('attr-name')){
    // do something
  }
}

Answer 4

Since the attrs value is type of javascript object. To check attribute existence we can also using hasOwnProperty() method instead in keyword.

So, it could be :

link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
  var is_key_exist = attrs.hasOwnProperty('status');//Will return true if exist
}

You can read further the difference between in keyword and hasOwnProperty() method at this link