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I'm unit testing one of my directives. Its basic structure is like this

angular.module('MyApp')
.directive('barFoo', function () {
    return {
        restrict: 'E',
        scope: {},
        controller: function ($scope, $element) { 
              this.checkSomething = function() { .... }
        },
        link: function(scope, element) { .... }
    }
});

In my unit test I want to test the function 'checkSomething', so I tried

var element = $compile('<barFoo></barFoo>')(scope);
var controller = element.controller()
...

However, controller is undefined. Is it possible to access the controller of the directive ?

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1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote accepted

the glue is your scope so you can do 

controller: function ($scope, $element) { 
  this.checkSomething = function() { .... }
  $scope.controller = this;                
},

but i think it would be best practice to attach every function to the scope like

controller: function ($scope, $element) { 
  $scope.checkSomething = function() { .... }
},

and then its

var element = $compile('<barFoo></barFoo>')(scope);
var checksomthingResult = scope.checkSomething ()
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I wonder if attaching everything to the scope might influence performance. Or are only $scope properties checked/monitored which are bind/$watched ? –  Jeanluca Scaljeri 17 hours ago
1  
Not all of them. Only those which you have a $watch expression or a binding on them. –  Olivér Kovács 16 hours ago
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