Directives isolated scope not working properly together with nested views? (AngularJS / UI Router)

Question

I'm using ui-router in a AngularJS project where I have a nested view that contains a custom directive. This directive renders an input field (lets say a filter-field) and its value should be in sync with the controller's scope.

---

This works well for this directive, when the view/state not is nested:

jsFiddle / not nested / working as expected

var myApp = angular.module('myApp', ['ui.router', 'myComponents'])
    .config(['$stateProvider', function ($stateProvider) {
        $stateProvider.
            state('home', {
                url: '',
                template: '<my-filter text-filter="theFilter"></my-filter><button ng-click="inspect()">inspect</button>{{ theFilter |json}}',
                controller: 'myController'
            });
    }]);

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

components.directive('myFilter', [function () {
    return {
        restrict: 'E',
        template: '<input type="text" name="filter" ng-model="textFilter">',
        scope: {
            textFilter: '='
        }
    };
}]);

components.controller('myController', ['$scope', function ($scope) {
    $scope.theFilter = 'initial filter';

    $scope.inspect = function () {
        alert($scope.theFilter);
    }
}]);

View:

<div ng-app="myApp">
    <div ui-View></div>
</div>

When I change the input field's text, it gets reflected on the scope...

---

...but when I nest the view/state, the value on the scope keeps it's initial value but I expect it to get changed according to the input field's value when overwriting.

var myApp = angular.module('myApp', ['ui.router', 'myComponents'])
    .config(['$stateProvider', function ($stateProvider) {
        $stateProvider.
            state('home', {
                abstract: true,
                url: '',
                template: 'Nested View:<div ui-view></div>',
                controller: 'myController'
            }).
            state('home.detail', {
                url: '',
                template: '<my-filter text-filter="theFilter"></my-filter><button ng-click="inspect()">inspect</button>{{ theFilter |json}}'
            });;
    }]);


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

components.directive('myFilter', [function () {
    return {
        restrict: 'E',
        template: '<input type="text" name="filter" ng-model="textFilter">',
        scope: {
            textFilter: '='
        }
    };
}]);

components.controller('myController', ['$scope', function ($scope) {
    $scope.theFilter = 'initial filter';

    $scope.inspect = function () {
        alert($scope.theFilter);
    }
}]);

View:

<div ng-app="myApp" >
    <div ui-View></div>
</div>

Here, the text on the scope (see controller) remains the same.

Any idea how I can get the same result with nested views as in the first example?

PS: The directive needs to remain reusable

jsFiddle / nested / not working as expected

Answer 1

This is related to a common issue. As mentioned in this video angular JS - best practice (29:19), and explained here: Nested Scopes in Angular JS

"Whenever you have ng-model there's gotta be a dot in there somewhere. If you don't have a dot, you're doing it wrong."

So the controller should be creating an object:

components.controller('myController', ['$scope', function($scope) {

    // here theFilter is an object
    // with property value
    $scope.theFilter =  { value : 'initial filter'};

    $scope.inspect = function() {
        alert($scope.theFilter.value);
    }    
}]);

and the template should work with an object having property value:

components.directive('myFilter', [function() {
    return {
        restrict: 'E',
        template: '<input type="text" name="filter" ng-model="textFilter.value">',
        scope: {
            textFilter: '='             
        }
    };          
}]);

The upated jsfiddle