Compiling dynamic HTML strings from database

ng-bind-html-unsafe only renders the content as HTML. It doesn't bind Angular scope to the resulted DOM. You have to use $compile service for that purpose. I created this plunker to demonstrate how to use $compile to create a directive rendering dynamic HTML entered by users and binding to the controller's scope. The source is posted below.

demo.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html ng-app="app">

  <head>
    <script data-require="[email protected]" data-semver="1.0.7" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.0.7/angular.js"></script>
    <script src="script.js"></script>
  </head>

  <body>
    <h1>Compile dynamic HTML</h1>
    <div ng-controller="MyController">
      <textarea ng-model="html"></textarea>
      <div dynamic="html"></div>
    </div>
  </body>

</html>

script.js

var app = angular.module('app', []);

app.directive('dynamic', function ($compile) {
  return {
    restrict: 'A',
    replace: true,
    link: function (scope, ele, attrs) {
      scope.$watch(attrs.dynamic, function(html) {
        ele.html(html);
        $compile(ele.contents())(scope);
      });
    }
  };
});

function MyController($scope) {
  $scope.click = function(arg) {
    alert('Clicked ' + arg);
  }
  $scope.html = '<a ng-click="click(1)" href="#">Click me</a>';
}

Found in a google discussion group. Works for me.

var $injector = angular.injector(['ng', 'myApp']);
$injector.invoke(function($rootScope, $compile) {
  $compile(element)($rootScope);
});

In angular 1.2.10 the line scope.$watch(attrs.dynamic, function(html) { was returning an invalid character error because it was trying to watch the value of attrs.dynamic which was html text.

I fixed that by fetching the attribute from the scope property

 scope: { dynamic: '=dynamic'}, 

My example

angular.module('app')
  .directive('dynamic', function ($compile) {
    return {
      restrict: 'A',
      replace: true,
      scope: { dynamic: '=dynamic'},
      link: function postLink(scope, element, attrs) {
        scope.$watch( 'dynamic' , function(html){
          element.html(html);
          $compile(element.contents())(scope);
        });
      }
    };
  });