javascript - How to re-render a template in an AngularJS directive?

Question

I've create a directive that generates Twitter buttons. Since the scope variables on those buttons may change, I need to rebuild the button when it happens. Currently, I'm using jQuery to empty() the linked element and rebuild the button.

app.directive 'twitterShare', ($timeout, $window) ->
    restrict: 'E'
    template: '<a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-text="{{ text }}" data-url="{{ url }}">Twitter</a>'
    scope:
        text: '@'
        url: '@'
    link: (scope, el, attrs) ->
        scope.$watch 'text', -> rebuild()
        scope.$watch 'url' , -> rebuild()

        rebuild = ->
            $(".twitter-share-button").remove()
            tweet = $ '<a>'
            .attr 'href', 'https://twitter.com/share'
            .attr 'id', 'tweet'
            .attr 'class', 'twitter-share-button'
            .attr 'data-lang', 'en'
            .attr 'data-count', 'none'
            .text 'Tweet'

            el.prepend tweet
            tweet.attr 'data-text', scope.text
            tweet.attr 'data-url', scope.url
            $window.twttr.widgets.load()

Is there any way to get the directive to completely re-render the template instead?

Answer 1

Here is a reusable directive you could use that will rebuild the transcluded content whenever an event is sent:

app.directive('relinkEvent', function($rootScope) {
    return {
        transclude: 'element',
        restrict: 'A',
        link: function(scope, element, attr, ctrl, transclude) {
            var previousContent = null;

            var triggerRelink = function() {
                if (previousContent) {
                    previousContent.remove();
                    previousContent = null;
                }

                transclude(function (clone) {
                    element.parent().append(clone);
                    previousContent = clone;
                });

            };

            triggerRelink();                
            $rootScope.$on(attr.relinkEvent, triggerRelink);

        }
    };

});

Here is a jsFiddle demoing how it works: http://jsfiddle.net/robianmcd/ZQeU5/

Notice how the content of the input box gets reset every time you click the "Trigger Relink" button. This is because the input box is being remove and added to the DOM whenever the event is triggered.

You could use this directive as is or modify it so that it is triggered by scope.$watch() instead of an event.