I have an AngularJS directive that renders a collection of entities in the following template:

<table class=table>

  <thead>

    <tr>

      <th><input type=checkbox ng-click=selectAll()></th>

      <th>Title</th>

    </tr>

  </thead>

  <tbody>

    <tr ng-repeat=e in entities>

      <td><input type=checkbox name=selected ng-click=updateSelection($event, e.id)></td>

      <td>{{e.title}}</td>

    </tr>

  </tbody>

</table>

As you can see, it's a <table> where each row can be selected individually with its own checkbox, or all rows can be selected at once with a master checkbox located in the <thead>. Pretty classic UI.

What is the best way to:

• Select a single row (i.e. when the checkbox is checked, add the id of the selected entity to an internal array, and add a CSS class to the <tr> containing the entity to reflect its selected state)?


• Select all rows at once? (i.e. do the previously described actions for all rows in the <table>)

My current implementation is to add a custom controller to my directive:

controller: function($scope) {



    // Array of currently selected IDs.

    var selected = $scope.selected = [];



    // Update the selection when a checkbox is clicked.

    $scope.updateSelection = function($event, id) {



        var checkbox = $event.target;

        var action = (checkbox.checked ? 'add' : 'remove');

        if (action == 'add' & selected.indexOf(id) == -1) selected.push(id);

        if (action == 'remove' && selected.indexOf(id) != -1) selected.splice(selected.indexOf(id), 1);



        // Highlight selected row. HOW??

        // $(checkbox).parents('tr').addClass('selected_row', checkbox.checked);

    };



    // Check (or uncheck) all checkboxes.

    $scope.selectAll = function() {

        // Iterate on all checkboxes and call updateSelection() on them??

    };

}

More specifically, I wonder:

• Does the code above belong in a controller or should it go in a link function?


• Given that jQuery is not necessarily present (AngularJS doesn't require it), what's the best way to do DOM traversal? Without jQuery, I'm having a hard time just selecting the parent <tr> of a given checkbox, or selecting all checkboxes in the template.


• Passing $event to updateSelection() doesn't seem very elegant. Isn't there a better way to retrieve the state (checked/unchecked) of an element that was just clicked?

Thank you.