Angularjs Directive to make HTML element draggable and HTML fields within it selectable or modifiable

Question

I tried many things but none of them are working. Hence, posting the same.

Here is the background:

I have this HTML element which will create a rectangular box based on ng-repeat dynamically. Within each of this Rectangular box there are various HTML elements such as HTML select and input text etc and these fields can be edited by the user. I want to make this rectangular box draggable so the user can move it around.

Hence, I have written an angularjs directive to do it and its working fine But if I add the directive then the select field and all the fields within the rectangular box are no more editable as it applies the draggable directive to the whole rectangular. If I remove this directive then it would work fine. How can I make the rectangular box draggable, as well as fields within it, are selectable or editable?

HTML CODE:

<div ng-repeat="NewField in NewFieldValues">
    <div style="width:250px;height:120px;border:1px solid #000;" draggable draggable="true">
        <select ng-model="Dynamic.BusinessStep[NewField.ID]" ng-change="BusinessStepChange(NewField.ID,'BusinessStep')" class="form-control">
            <option class="dropdown-item" value="" selected> Choose Business Step</option>
            <option class="dropdown-item" ng-repeat="businessStep in businessSteps" value="{{ businessStep.value }}"> {{ businessStep.text }} </option>
        </select>
        <br/>
        <input type="text" ng-model="Dynamic.ObjectCount[NewField.ID]" ng-blur="BusinessStepChange(NewField.ID,'EventCount')" placeholder="number of objects" class="form-control"></input>
    </div>
    <br/>
</div>

Angularjs Directive:

app.directive('draggable', function($document) {
    return function(scope, element, attr) {
        var startX = 0, startY = 0, x = 0, y = 0;
        
        element.css({
            position: 'relative',
            border: '1px solid red',
            backgroundColor: 'lightgrey',
            cursor: 'pointer',
            display: 'block'
        });
        
        element.on('mousedown', function(event) {
            console.log("MOUSE DOWN");
            // Prevent default dragging of selected content
            event.preventDefault();
            startX = event.screenX - x;
            startY = event.screenY - y;
            $document.on('mousemove', mousemove);
            $document.on('mouseup', mouseup);
            return true;
        });

        function mousemove(event) {
            console.log("MOUSE MOVE");
            y = event.screenY - startY;
            x = event.screenX - startX;
            element.css({
              top   : y + 'px',
              left  : x + 'px'
            });
            return true;
        }

        function mouseup() {
            $document.off('mousemove', mousemove);
            $document.off('mouseup', mouseup);
            return true;
        }
    };
});

I tried to change a few things but none of them are working. As I trying to add the draggable to the rectangular box the fields within that by default get the draggable directive and hence their default behavior is overridden by the angularjs directive. I would appreciate it if someone can provide me some guidance here.

Answer 1

The issue you're facing is called Event-Bubbling. The click event is bubbling up to the container rectangle triggering the drag event.

The solution is simply to implement $event.stopPropagation();, what this does is prevent the related $event from bubbling up and triggering other similar events.