Question

I want to achieve read/write access control for select input using angularjs and angular-ui (particularly ui-select2 feature).
Scenario is simple: by using ng-readonly attribute I can control whether given input value can be changed by user or not.

<input id="clientShortName" class="span4" type="text" ng-readonly="readOnly" ng-model="client.shortName" />
<input ui-select2="{ tags: sometags}" id="clientTagsSelection" class="span4" type="text" ng-readonly="readOnly" ng-model="client.tagsSelection"/>
<input type="button" value="Edit" ng-click="readOnly = !readOnly"/>

This works fine for standard angularjs but when I’m trying to use inputs defined by angular-ui it doesn’t work (doesn’t change the read/write state of input).

Full scenario is covered here: http://plnkr.co/edit/pKs4Tq

Answer 1

Unfortunately the AngularUI ui-select2 directive has no integration with the angularJS ng-readonly directive.

One way for you to overcome this is to create your own directive and watch for changes on the readOnly property, like this:

app.directive('csReadonly', function() {
  return {
    restrict: "A",
    link: function(scope, iElement, iAttrs, controller) {
      scope.$watch(iAttrs.csReadonly, function(readonly) {
        iElement.select2(readonly ? 'disable' : 'enable');
      });
    }
  }
});

And use it like this:

<input ui-select2="{ tags: sometags }" cs-readonly="readOnly" ... />

Plunker: http://plnkr.co/edit/LBFDg2

The advantage of the approach is that, if in the future AngularUI decides to include support for the ng-readonly, you will only have to replace cs- with ng- and you’re done.