$mdDialog passing the current $scope as option

[mohammedpascal]

There is no option to pass the current scope to dialog, in some cases there is no need to create controller for a dialog.

I would like to do something like this:

    $mdDialog.show({
      scope: $scope, //this $scope will be the scope of the enclosing controller
      templateUrl: 'dialog1.tmpl.html',
      targetEvent: ev,
    })

[PaulMougel]

Would one of the two solutions mentioned in #1413 do what you want?

[mohammedpascal]

Unfortunately no, checkout my code:

angular.module('xnotApp')
 .controller('MainCtrl', function ($scope, $mdDialog) {
    $scope.showAdvanced = function(ev) {
        $mdDialog.show({
            controller: function($scope, theScope){
                $scope.theScope = theScope;
            },
            templateUrl: 'views/dialog.html',
            targetEvent: ev,
            locals: {
                    theScope: $scope
                }
        })
        .then(function(answer) {
            $scope.alert = 'You said the information was "' + answer + '".';
        }, function() {
            $scope.alert = 'You cancelled the dialog.';
        });
    };

    $scope.answer = function(answer) {
        $scope.alert('nice');
        //$mdDialog.hide(answer);
    };
 });

All I want is to access MainCtrl $scope from the dialog template and I don't want to create controller just for the dialog

[PaulMougel]

I see what you mean. That feature would be similar to the scope option of UI-Bootrstrap's modal.

[gkalpak]

Option 1:

I seems like you can specify a scope property, passing in the scope to be used, but this option is not documented, so it might break in the future (e.g. if it is not intended as a public API).
_{(Although not necessary, if you chose to use Scope inheritance to access the parent scope's properties, make sure you understand how prototypal inheritance affects Scopes.)}

E.g.:

$mdDialog.show({
  targetEvent: evt,
  scope: $scope.$new(),   // Uses prototypal inheritance to gain access to parent scope
  template: '<md-dialog>...{{ someValue }}...</md-dialog>'
});

Demo fiddle 1

---

Option 2:

A more verbose (but certainly supported) approach is to use controller along with controllerAs, bindToController and locals (in order to automatically bind the necessary values to the controller instance).
Since you don't need any logic for the controller, you can use an empty function (e.g. angular.noop).

E.g.:

$mdDialog.show({
  targetEvent: evt,
  locals: {parent: $scope},
  controller: angular.noop,
  controllerAs: 'ctrl',
  bindToController: true,
  template: '<md-dialog>...{{ ctrl.parent.someValue }}...</md-dialog>' +

Demo fiddle 2

---

Option 3:

If you want to avoid the locals + bindToController boilerplate, you can create a minimal controller function that has access to $scope.

E.g.:

$mdDialog.show({
  targetEvent: evt,
  controller: function () { this.parent = $scope; },
  controllerAs: 'ctrl',
  template: '<md-dialog>...{{ ctrl.parent.someValue }}...</md-dialog>' +

Demo fiddle 3

[rschmukler]

The docs should specify the scope option. That is an officially supported way. You just pass it into the show object. As @gkalpak mentioned, there are also other (supported) ways to achieve what you want. Fantastic answer from @gkalpak. Either way, I'll update the docs.

[gkalpak]

@rschmukler, while you are at it (updating the docs), it is probably a good idea to explicitly mention that the scope will be destroyed upon hiding the dialog (so people shouldn't pass a controller's $scope directly).

[mohammedpascal]

Thanks @gkalpak for the options!
@rschmukler I think the good idea is not to destroy the $scope if you get it as parameter.

@PaulMougel thanks! this is exactly where the need came from, I wanted to migrate my app from ui-bootstrap to angular-material.

[gkalpak]

Besides the overhead of keeping track of whether a scope was supplied by the user or created by MD, not destroying the scope can easily lead to memory leaks and performance degradation.
IMO, automatically destorying the scope is safer.

Most importantly, either approach should be clearly documented so the user knows what they need to do.

[aeroxy]

@mohammedpascal agreed. Currently while using scope: $scope will destroy the $scope of parent controller. This makes the dynamic dialog only usable once.

[aeroxy]

@gkalpak you are the man.