As a big project developper, I want to use only $digest instead of $apply

[XavierBoubert]

In a big project containing a central page with many features, it's not possible to refresh the entire page with $apply everytime because of working time for filters, $watchers, etc. We need to refresh just parts of the UI and it's okay because we are the developers and have the control of these. $apply is not designed for big projects.
So, maybe I'm wrong but I think we really need to change the behavior of AngularJS dirty-checking updates. We need to use $digest most of the time and $apply rarely. For me, ng-click should call the $digest of the current scope and not for the $rootScope, like all of the ng- directives and $http, ectc.

I have wrote a big post on the subject with examples to explain why: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/angular/tswtLq9xbwU

[quantizor]

Have you checked out $evalAsync? I've used it in the past to avoid $apply and it propagates changes nicely without thrashing all the watchers.

[XavierBoubert]

It does not solves the problem with directives ng-* that call $apply.
It does not solves the problem with second $digest in other part of view because $evalAsync call only $eval inside the next $digest().

So if we call a $digest() inside a directive and we want to digest an other directive, $evalAsync will only be used to refresh the first directive.

Try this fork of my example with $evalAsync : http://jsfiddle.net/xavierboubert/NB6YS/

[darlanalves]

I was thinking about a flag on $apply() to restrict the scope where it starts. What about a $apply(true) to keep the functionality of $apply (e.g. error handling) and restrict the scope where it starts firing, like $digest would do?

It's just an example. I know $apply receives an expression to evaluate before start the $digest cycle, which can be both a string or a function. It would only work if the first parameter is strictly true (e.g. === true).

What do you think? Pros and cons?

[XavierBoubert]

Would not it be better than when starting a digest it does not block the $$phase of its parents?

I don't understand the differences between tour $apply(false) and $digest().

[caitp]

$apply is just $rootScope.$digest, nothing more, there is no difference (with the exception that it will optionally eval an expression first)

[XavierBoubert]

@caitp Do you have ideas for the subject of this post?

[mebibou]

@darlanalves I don't understand what you're proposing, if you only want to put a flag in $apply to behave like a $digest, what's the point of using $apply instead of $digest?

[XavierBoubert]

For more informations, we are talking about the subject with Ben Nadel: http://www.bennadel.com/blog/2625-triggering-digest-phases-in-related-directives-in-angularjs.htm

[darlanalves]

@mebibou Sorry, I misunderstood it. I was assuming that $digest would not have error handling, but it's only needed if you actually evaluate something, which in turn is the only difference from $apply and $digest. As @caitp said, there's no difference, except that $apply starts on the $rootScope, so back to $digest instead of $apply.

[caitp]

In particular, it's more like

try {
  scope.$eval(someExpression); // if you want to evaluate an expression first
} catch (e) {
  // tell $exceptionHandler if you want to, otherwise you could just ignore it or log it
} finally {
  // digest regardless of whether there was an error or not.
  scope.$digest();
}

That's pretty much an exact match for $apply(), without touching scopes that you don't consider important