Collection of AngularJS directives to work with scope and DOM events in a convenient way
##Getting Started
- Just download, clone or fork it, or install it using bower
$ bower install angular-event-utils - Include angular-event-utils.js (or angular-event-utils.min.js) in your index.html, after including Angular itself
- Add 'eventUtils' to your main module's list of dependencies
When you are done, your setup should look similar to the following:
<!doctype html>
<html ng-app="myApp">
<head>
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.3.6/angular.min.js"></script>
<script src="js/angular-event-utils.min.js"></script>
<script>
var myApp = angular.module('myApp', ['eventUtils']);
</script>
...
</head>
<body>
...
</body>
</html>##Basic Usage
###Capturing events Capture 'saved' scope event in a div element and display a success message:
<div ev-on="'saved' : showMessage = true" ng-show="showMessage" class="alert alert-success">
Your changes have been saved!
</div>###Translating events Translate 'click' events into a more meaningful 'sort items' scope event:
<button ev-as="'click' : 'sort items'">Sort</button>Note: ev-as does not stop the propagation of the original event (in this case, button's 'click' event)
###Replacing events Replace form's 'submit' events with the 'save' scope event:
<form ev-replace="'submit' : 'save'">
...
</form>Note: ev-replace stops the propagation of the original event (in this case, form's 'submit' event)
##Motivation angular-event-utils aims to simplify and promote the use of custom events to implement the communication between elements, directives, services and other components inside an Angular application. Using custom events to capture and represent user's intention provides some benefits over the use of low level events such as 'click' or 'scroll':
- Better semantics: Low level events such as 'click' or 'mousedown' do a poor job describing the actual user intention. On the other hand, custom events like 'enable' or 'sort' are more representative of what the user expects when clicking an element. E.g.:
// Compare this:
<a ng-click="enable = true">Enable</a>
// With this:
<a ev-as="'click': 'enable'">Enable</a>- Loosely coupled components: Elements and directives that communicate with the scope and other elements using events don't require the injection of dependencies or any data to be passed using attribute bindings. These components make no assumption about the context and hence, they can be used anywhere. E.g.:
// 1. Compare this pseudo-directive (callback attribute is bound to scope's callback var):
<switch callback="=">
<a ng-click="callback(true)">Enable</a>
</switch>
// 2. With this (clicking the link triggers the 'enable' event):
<switch>
<a ev-replace="'click' : 'enable'">Enable</a>
</switch>
// The 2nd directive can be included in any scope and trigger
// several functions/handlers upon emitting the 'enable' event
// whereas the first directive can only notify its parent scope
// and requires it to have a single handler function defined.##Directives Reference
###Summary
- ev-as="..." : Translate or alias events
- ev-echo="..." : Propagate events to child scopes
- ev-init="..." : Trigger custom events on upon initialization
- ev-on="..." : Capture events and evaluate expression
- ev-replace="..." : Replace events
- ev-stop="..." : Stop events propagation
- ev-when="..." : Trigger events when condition is met
When translating Angular's scope events, this directive will use scope.$emit to propagate the new event if the original event was emitted by any of the parent scopes, and will use scope.$broadcast instead if the original event was broadcasted by any of the child scopes. If the original event was emitted or broadcasted in the same scope, scope.$emit is used to propagate it.
####Translate single event E.g.: translate link's 'click' event into a scope event named 'enable':
<a ev-as="'click' : 'enable'">Enable</a>####Translate multiple events
<a ev-as="'click' : 'enable'; 'hover': 'enable hovered' ">Enable</a>####Translate event with additional data
<a ev-as="'click' : 'enable', { foo: 'bar' }">Enable</a>
<a ev-as="'click' : 'disable', { foo: 'bar' }">Disable</a>####Access original event and arguments You can reference the original DOM or scope event and its arguments using the follwing vars:
$eventReference to aliased DOM or scope event$argsReference to an array containing the arguments of the aliased DOM or scope event$dataReference to the first element of the $args array (equivalent to $args[0])
<a ev-as="'click' : 'enable', { foo: 'bar' } ">Enable</a>
<a ev-as="'click' : 'disable', { foo: 'bar', data: $data, clickEvent: $event } ">Disable</a>Note: ev-as does not stop the propagation of the original event
E.g.: Assuming #div1 and #div2 have isolated scopes, the ev-echo directive in #main will broadcast the 'save' events coming from #div2 to #div1.
<div id="main" ev-echo="'save'">
<div id="div1" isolated-scope>
...
<div ev-on="'save': showMessage" ng-show="showMessage">
Saved was clicked!
</div>
</div>
<div id="div2" isolated-scope>
...
<button ev-on="'click' : 'save'">Save</button>
</div>
</div>E.g.: Broadcast the 'populate' event to the component along with some initialization data once it has been compiled and linked:
<login-form ev-init="'populate' : { name: '[email protected]' }">
</login-form>####Capture single event E.g.: Capture 'success' event and display a message to the user:
<div ev-on="'success' : showMessage = true" ng-show="showMessage">
Your are awesome!
</div>####Capture multiple events E.g.: Capture 'stopped' and 'paused' events and display a message to the user:
<div ev-on="'stopped' : status = 'Stopped';
'paused' : status = 'Paused';" ng-show="status">
Current status is {{status}}
</div>####Access original event and arguments You can reference the original DOM or scope event and its arguments using the follwing vars:
$eventReference to aliased DOM or scope event$argsReference to an array containing the arguments of the aliased DOM or scope event$dataReference to the first element of the $args array (equivalent to $args[0])
E.g.: Capture 'success' event and show the message passed in the event's arguments:
<div ev-on="'success' : msg = $data" ng-show="msg">
{{msg}}
</div>When replacing Angular's scope events, this directive will use scope.$emit to propagate the new event if the original event was emitted by any of the parent scopes, and will use scope.$broadcast instead if the original event was broadcasted by any of the child scopes. If the original event was emitted or broadcasted in the same scope, scope.$emit is used to propagate it.
####Replace single event E.g.: replace link's 'click' event with a scope event named 'enable':
<a ev-replace="'click' : 'enable'">Enable</a>####Replace multiple events
<a ev-replace="'click' : 'enable'; 'hover': 'enable hovered' ">Enable</a>####Replace event with additional data
<a ev-replace="'click' : 'enable', { foo: 'bar' }">Enable</a>
<a ev-replace="'click' : 'disable', { foo: 'bar' }">Disable</a>####Access original event and arguments You can reference the original DOM or scope event and its arguments using the follwing vars:
$eventReference to aliased DOM or scope event$argsReference to an array containing the arguments of the aliased DOM or scope event$dataReference to the first element of the $args array (equivalent to $args[0])
<a ev-replace="'click' : 'enable', { foo: 'bar' } ">Enable</a>
<a ev-replace="'click' : 'disable', { foo: 'bar', data: $data, clickEvent: $event } ">Disable</a>Note: ev-replace stops the propagation of the original event
E.g.: Stop the 'saved' event in a div to prevent it from reaching parent scopes:
<div ev-stop="'saved'">
...
</div>E.g.: Emit the 'completed' event when counter reaches 5:
<div ev-when="counter >= 5 : 'completed'">
...
</div>##Issues
Discovered a bug? Please create an issue here on GitHub!
##License
Licensed under MIT.