angularjs Error: No controller: ngModel-Collection of common programming errors

I’ve been working with AngularJS for a few days now, and I’m declaring two directives which work if I don’t require anything. But I need the ngModel to use the $setViewValue method.

My directives look like this :

The directives are defined like :

var Application = Application || {};

;(function(window, document, undefined) {

    "use strict";

    var CorinaJSDialog = {};

    Application.CorinaJSDialog = angular.module("CorinaJSDialog", ["ngSanitize"]);

    Application.CorinaJSDialog.constant("CorinaJSAPI", {

        document : {
            load : "/corina/api/loaddocument",
            save : "/corina/api/savedocument"
        }
    });    

    Application.CorinaJSDialog.directive("corina", ["$timeout", function($timeout){

        var object = {

            restrict : "E",
            require : "ngModel",

            transclude : true,
            replace : true,
            priority : 1,
            templateUrl : "corina.html",
            controller : function($scope) {},
            link : function(scope, element, attrs, controller) { console.log(controller); }
        };

        return object;
    }]);

    Application.CorinaJSDialog.directive("properties", ["$timeout", function($timeout){

        var object = {

            restrict : "E",
            require : "?corina",
            transclude : true,
            replace : true,
            priority : 2,
            terminal : true,
            templateUrl : "properties.html",
            controller : function($scope) {},
            link : function(scope, element, attrs, controller) {

                var loadXeditable = function() {

                    $(element).editable({
                        mode: "inline",
                        display: function(value) {

                            controller.$setViewValue(value);

                            scope.$apply();

                            $(this).html(value);
                        }
                    });
                };

                $timeout(function() {
                    loadXeditable();
                }, 10);

            }
        };

        return object;
    }]);

})(window, document);

And the templates that are loaded :

corina.html :

properties.html :

    
        {{property.Name}}

        
            
                
            
        
    

Each time I run the above I get this error :

Error: No controller: ngModel
at Error ()
at i (https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.1.3/angular.min.js:41:165)
at l (https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.1.3/angular.min.js:43:252)
at https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.1.3/angular.min.js:47:425
at https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.1.3/angular.min.js:96:330
at h (https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.1.3/angular.min.js:78:207)
at https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.1.3/angular.min.js:78:440
at Object.e.$eval (https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.1.3/angular.min.js:89:272)
at Object.e.$digest (https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.1.3/angular.min.js:87:124)
at Object.e.$apply (https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.1.3/angular.min.js:89:431)  angular.min.js:62

Also, if I require the directive like ^mydir, I get the same error, or simply like mydir. Only if I use ?mydir I get no error, but then I cannot use ngModule directive. I would appreciate some input on what is it that I’m doing wrong.

1. As I interpret it, you have two element directives, corina and properties, where properties wants the controller from corina. That will always fail because because they need to be on the same element for require: 'corina' to work. But I see now in your template that properties are inside of corina, so what you should do in properties is this: require : "^?corina" instead. That tells Angular to look for the corina controller in parent elements as well.

   Requiring ngModel in corina won’t work though, since ng-model isn’t set on the corina element. Your ng-model is set on an element inside the corina replacement template, so there’s no way for the corina directive to get that ngModelController. You can only ask for controllers from the same element or from parent elements, not from child elements. If you really need ngModelController you should add your own directive on the same element that has ng-model and require ngModelController there. That directive can require the corina controller (since the corina controller is on a parent element) and pass the ngModelController to the corina controller.

   But I’m not really sure why you want to use ng-model here in the first place? You’ve placed it on an anchor element which won’t do anything. What is the effect that your after of having ng-model on an anchor element?