Custom form validation directive to compare two fields

angularjs, angularjs-directive

Solution

Many ways to skin a cat.

PLUNKER

app.directive('lowerThan', [
  function() {

    var link = function($scope, $element, $attrs, ctrl) {

      var validate = function(viewValue) {
        var comparisonModel = $attrs.lowerThan;

        if(!viewValue || !comparisonModel){
          // It's valid because we have nothing to compare against
          ctrl.$setValidity('lowerThan', true);
        }

        // It's valid if model is lower than the model we're comparing against
        ctrl.$setValidity('lowerThan', parseInt(viewValue, 10) < parseInt(comparisonModel, 10) );
        return viewValue;
      };

      ctrl.$parsers.unshift(validate);
      ctrl.$formatters.push(validate);

      $attrs.$observe('lowerThan', function(comparisonModel){
        // Whenever the comparison model changes we'll re-validate
        return validate(ctrl.$viewValue);
      });

    };

    return {
      require: 'ngModel',
      link: link
    };

  }
]);

Usage:

<input name="min" type="number" ng-model="field.min" lower-than="{{field.max}}" />
<span class="error" ng-show="form.min.$error.lowerThan">
  Min cannot exceed max.
</span>

Problem

I'm an angular newbie, and I'm stumbling over something in how angular's form validation directives work. I know that I can fairly easily add directives to individual fields, but I'm trying to add a validation which will compare two form fields (both of which are elements of a model). Here's a form skeleton: ``` <form name="edit_form" > <input name="min" type="number" ng-model="field.min"/> <input name="max" type="number" ng-model="field.max"/> </form> <div class="error" ng-show="edit_form.min.$dirty || edit_form.max.$dirty"> <small class="error" ng-show="(what goes here?)"> Min cannot exceed max </small> </div> ``` In short, I want to write a directive and use it to show/hide this `small.error` if `min` and `max` both have values but `min > max`. How can I access both fields inside one directive? Is a directive the right tool for this job?

Original source

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