Angular directive link vs controller? I have a very simple directive &lt;my-card&gt; that lists out some data.

Example Usage

my-card(ng-repeat="item in parentCtrl.items" item='item')


The only main functionality I have is a button that toggles some additional data.

Here is my directive/controller definition. Should I use the link function instead of creating a controller? The reason I moved the logic into the MyCardCtrl was so that I can easily unit test it.

MyCardCtrl

  function MyCardCtrl() {
    var vm = this;

    this.cardClass = 'my-card-' + vm.item.type;

    this.toggle = function() {
      vm.item.showMore = !vm.item.showMore;
    };

    this.init = function(element) {
      var img = angular.element(element[0].querySelector('.card-bg'));
      img.css('background-image', 'url(' + vm.item.image_url + ')');
    };
  }


myCard Directive

  function myCard() {
    return {
      restrict: 'E',
      replace: true,
      templateUrl: 'my-card.html'
      scope: {
        item: '='
      },
      link: function(scope, element, attrs, myCardCtrl) {
        myCardCtrl.init(element);
      },
      controller: 'MyCardCtrl',
      controllerAs: 'card',
      bindToController: true
    };
  }

  angular
    .module('components')
    .directive('myCard',      [myCard])
    .controller('MyCardCtrl', [MyCardCtrl]);


myCard template (written in Jade)

 .my-card(ng-class='class.cardClass')
    button(ng-click='card.toggleMeta()')
    .my-card-content(ng-show='card.item.showMore')
      // expose item object
      h1 {{::item.name}}
    .my-card-more(ng-show='!card.item.showMore')
    .my-card-bg
Just get rid of the link function entirely. You can set the background-image in the template with ng-style, and then you have one less function to worry about:

.my-card(ng-style='{"background-image": "url(" + card.item.image_url + ")"}', ng-class='card.cardClass')
  button(ng-click='card.toggle()')
  .my-card-content(ng-show='card.item.showMore')
    h1 {{::card.item.name}}
  .my-card-more(ng-show='!card.item.showMore')
  .my-card-bg


If you want to build up the url(card.item.image_url) string in the controller for easier testing, you can still use ng-style to apply the resulting variable. For example:

function MyCardCtrl() {
  var vm = this;

  vm.backgroundUrl = 'url("' + vm.item.image_url + '")';

  vm.cardClass = 'my-card-' + vm.item.type;

  vm.toggle = function() {
    vm.item.showMore = !vm.item.showMore;
  };
}




Also, if you're on Angular 1.5+, this directive can be written even more simply as a component:

angular
  .module('components')
  .component('myCard', {
    bindings: {
      item: '&lt;'
    },
    templateUrl: 'my-card.html',
    controller: 'MyCardCtrl',
    controllerAs: 'card'
  })
  .controller('MyCardCtrl', [MyCardCtrl]);