Angular JS - get selected text as ng model (without ng-options)

Question

In my code behind, I fill up a DropDownList as follows (using VB)

ddlCountries.DataSource = dt ' dt is DataTable with columns "CountryCode" and "CountryName"
ddlCountries.DataTextField = "CountryName"
ddlCountries.DataValueField = "CountryCode"
ddlCountries.DataBind()
ddlCountries.Attributes.Add("ng-model", "CountryName")

Then client side, I have a select tag, which is filled with options from server side as below:

<select ng-model="CountryName">
    <option value="IN">India</option>
    <option value="US">United States</option>
    <option value="ML">Malaysia</option>
    <!-- and other 200+ records -->
</select>

I can't use ng-options here! Now, whenever I change the value from select, I get CountryName as IN, US, ML etc.. Moreover, I can't edit values of options because they're used in server side code.

Here I want CountryName as India, United States or Malaysia instead! What can I do?

Answer 1

What data is the server sending you?

Is it some array of objects like this?

var countries = [ 
    { name: 'India', code: 'IN'},
    { name: 'United States', code: 'US'},
    { name: 'Malaysia', code: 'ML'}
];

If yes, then you can easily use ng-options (even though you dont have to, its just better).

<select ng-model="CountryName"
    ng-options="c.code as c.name for c in countries">
</select>

Or in the case that you actually are working with server side generated html page and no javascript objects, then its a little bit tricker: (Supposing you can use JQuery):

view:

<select id="countryNameSelect" ng-change="setCountryName()">
    <option value="IN">India</option>
    <option value="US">United States</option>
    <option value="ML">Malaysia</option>
    <!-- and other 200+ records -->
</select>

controller:

$scope.countryName = '';
$scope.setCountryName = function() {
  $scope.countryName = $("#countryNameSelect option:selected").html();
};