$watch'ing for data changes in an Angular directive

How can I trigger a $watch variable in an Angular directive when manipulating the data inside (e.g., inserting or removing data), but not assign a new object to that variable?

I have a simple dataset currently being loaded from a JSON file. My Angular controller does this, as well as define a few functions:

App.controller('AppCtrl', function AppCtrl($scope, JsonService) {
    // load the initial data model
    if (!$scope.data) {
        JsonService.getData(function(data) {
            $scope.data = data;
            $scope.records = data.children.length;
        });
    } else {
        console.log("I have data already... " + $scope.data);
    }

    // adds a resource to the 'data' object
    $scope.add = function() {
        $scope.data.children.push({ "name": "!Insert This!" });
    };
    
    // removes the resource from the 'data' object
    $scope.remove = function(resource) {
        console.log("I'm going to remove this!");
        console.log(resource);
    };
    
    $scope.highlight = function() {
        
    };
});

I have a <button> that properly called the $scope.add function, and the new object is properly inserted into the $scope.data set. A table I have set up does update each time I hit the "add" button.

<table class="table table-striped table-condensed">
  <tbody>
    <tr ng-repeat="child in data.children | filter:search | orderBy:'name'">
      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
      <td>{{child.name}}</td>
      <td><button class="btn btn-small" ng-click="remove(child)" ng-mouseover="highlight()"><i class="icon-remove-sign"></i> remove</button></td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

However, a directive I set set up to watch $scope.data is not being fired when all this happens.

I define my tag in HTML:

<d3-visualization val="data"></d3-visualization>

Which is associated with the following directive (trimmed for question sanity):

App.directive('d3Visualization', function() {
    return {
        restrict: 'E',
        scope: {
            val: '='
        },
        link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
            scope.$watch('val', function(newValue, oldValue) {
                if (newValue)
                    console.log("I see a data change!");
            });
        }
    }
});

I get the "I see a data change!" message at the very beginning, but never after as I hit the "add" button.

How can I trigger the $watch event when I'm just adding/removing objects from the data object, not getting a whole new dataset to assign to the data object?

You need to enable deep object dirty checking. By default angular only checks the reference of the top level variable that you watch.

App.directive('d3Visualization', function() {
    return {
        restrict: 'E',
        scope: {
            val: '='
        },
        link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
            scope.$watch('val', function(newValue, oldValue) {
                if (newValue)
                    console.log("I see a data change!");
            }, true);
        }
    }
});

see Scope. The third parameter of the $watch function enables deep dirty checking if it's set to true.

Take note that deep dirty checking is expensive. So if you just need to watch the children array instead of the whole data variable the watch the variable directly.

scope.$watch('val.children', function(newValue, oldValue) {}, true);

version 1.2.x introduced $watchCollection

> Shallow watches the properties of an object and fires whenever any of the properties change (for arrays, this implies watching the array items; for object maps, this implies watching the properties)

scope.$watchCollection('val.children', function(newValue, oldValue) {});

Because if you want to trigger your data with deep of it,you have to pass 3th argument true of your listener.By default it's false and it meens that you function will trigger,only when your variable will change not it's field.

My version for a directive that uses jqplot to plot the data once it becomes available:

    app.directive('lineChart', function() {
    	$.jqplot.config.enablePlugins = true;
    
    	return function(scope, element, attrs) {
    		scope.$watch(attrs.lineChart, function(newValue, oldValue) {
    			if (newValue) {
    				// alert(scope.$eval(attrs.lineChart));
    				var plot = $.jqplot(element[0].id, scope.$eval(attrs.lineChart), scope.$eval(attrs.options));
    			}
    		});
    	}
});