For several of my projects I required a list where input items could be dynamically added and removed. Because i saw uses for this over and over i created a component which i'm sharing with you here. The component ended up like the code below. Where i used a template generation function in order to create the ul and li elements. I'm using the angular.element function to create nodes as a method of preference.

function mpExpandableListController(){
    var vm = this;

    vm.add = add;
    vm.manipulatable = true;
    vm.remove = remove;

    // If items was not declared, create new array.
    if(!vm.items) {
        vm.items = [];
    }

    // If the items array is empty, create first item.
    if(vm.items.length === 0) {
        add();
    }

    /**
     * Add an item to the item list.
     */
    function add(){
        vm.items.push({});
        setManipulatable();
    }

    /**
     * Remove an item from the item list.
     * @param item The item to remove
     */
    function remove(item){
        vm.items.splice(vm.items.indexOf(item), 1);
        setManipulatable();
    }

    /**
     * Set the flag which designates that the list may be manipulated.
     */
    function setManipulatable() {
        vm.manipulatable = vm.items.length > 1;
    }
}

/**
 *
 * @param $element The element as declared in the HTML
 * @param $attrs The attributes for said element
 * @returns {string} A template for this component.
 */
function template($element, $attrs){
    var container = angular.element('<ul>'),
        item = angular.element('<li ng-repeat="item in list.items">'),
        footer = angular.element('<li>');

    container.addClass($attrs.universalClass);
    item.addClass($attrs.itemClass);
    footer.addClass($attrs.footerClass);

    item.html($element.find('item').html());
    footer.html($element.find('footer').html());

    container.append(item);
    container.append(footer);

    return container[0].outerHTML;
}

var mpExpandableList = {
    bindings: {
        footerClass: '@',
        itemClass: '@',
        items: '=',
        universalClass: '@'
    },
    controller: mpExpandableListController,
    controllerAs: 'list',
    template: template
};

angular
    .module('my.project')
    .component('mpExpandableList', mpExpandableList);

As you can see the template function adds information such as class names from the attributes and also creates the item li tag with the ng-repeat needed to populate our list. And after this it appends the footer li tag which should ideally contain the add item link/button. So now we have our list, which we can use as such:

<mp-expandable-list items="main.model" universal-class="list-main" item-class="list-item" footer-class="list-footer">
  <item>
    <span>{ {item.key}}</span>
    <input type="text" ng-model="item.value">
    <a href="#" ng-click="list.remove(item)" ng-if="list.manipulatable"></a>
  </item>
  <footer>
    <a href="#" class="add-line" ng-click="list.add()">
      Add an item
    </a>
  </footer>
</mp-expandable-list>

As you can see there are bindings for both list and item.

  • The list binding is for the controller for the expandable list.
    • has two functions (add & remove) for adding and removing lines.
    • has a flag called manipulatable which is true as long as the list may add/remove items.
  • The item binding is for the individual items in the list.

Note that this is not a best practice, nor is it necessarily the best solution for you or your project. It is just a component that may help you, or be the basis for something else. You can play with this component on plunker.

shadow-left