feat($compile): support modifying the DOM structure in postlink fn

Support modifying the DOM structure in the post link function of a directive
by creating a defensive copy of the node list, as opposed to a live DOM list.
This is useful for directives to actually replace their entire DOM fragment,
e.g. with the HTML fragment generated by a 3rd party component (Closure, Bootstrap ...).
Fix the indentation of the compileNodes function (was one too little).

Author: mprobst

src/ng/compile.js

@@ -394,10 +394,16 @@ function $CompileProvider($provide) {
       return linkFnFound ? compositeLinkFn : null;
 
       function compositeLinkFn(scope, nodeList, $rootElement, boundTranscludeFn) {
-        var nodeLinkFn, childLinkFn, node, childScope, childTranscludeFn;
+        var nodeLinkFn, childLinkFn, node, childScope, childTranscludeFn, i, ii, n;
 
-        for(var i = 0, n = 0, ii = linkFns.length; i < ii; n++) {
-          node = nodeList[n];
+        // copy nodeList so that linking doesn't break due to live list updates.
+        var stableNodeList = [];
+        for (i = 0, ii = nodeList.length; i < ii; i++) {
+          stableNodeList.push(nodeList[i]);
+        }
+
+        for(i = 0, n = 0, ii = linkFns.length; i < ii; n++) {
+          node = stableNodeList[n];
           nodeLinkFn = linkFns[i++];
           childLinkFn = linkFns[i++];
 

test/ng/compileSpec.js

@@ -285,6 +285,25 @@ describe('$compile', function() {
           expect(log).toEqual('LOG; LOG');
         });
       });
+
+
+      it('should allow modifying the DOM structure in post link fn', function() {
+        module(function() {
+          directive('removeNode', valueFn({
+            link: function($scope, $element) {
+              $element.remove();
+            }
+          }));
+        });
+        inject(function($compile, $rootScope) {
+          element = jqLite('<div><div remove-node></div><div>{{test}}</div></div>');
+          $rootScope.test = 'Hello';
+          $compile(element)($rootScope);
+          $rootScope.$digest();
+          expect(element.children().length).toBe(1);
+          expect(element.text()).toBe('Hello');
+        });
+      })
     });
 
     describe('compiler control', function() {