Angular: ignore messages emitted by self

Issue

I have a directive that expands and closes the height of a div. Its used multiple times, so when the user opens one box I want to close other boxes that are open. I figured it would be best to emit an event, but the problem is that the directive then closes itself as well, so no div can be open.

Can I ignore a message that comes from the same directive?

angular.module('cinemaApp')
.directive('expand', function ($rootScope) {
 return {
  restrict: 'A',
  link: function postLink(scope, element, attrs) {
    $rootScope.$on('contract', function(payload) {
      element.css('height', attrs.fixedheight);
    });

    scope.$watch('open', function(value) {
        element.css('height', (value ? 'auto' : attrs.fixedheight));

      $rootScope.$emit('contract');
    });
    element.css('height', attrs.fixedheight);
  }
 };
});

Solution

When you emit the event, you can pass additional arguments that are given to the listeners. So you can emit like

$rootScope.$emit('contract', element);

And listen like

$rootScope.$on('contract', function(event, target) {
  if (target != element)
    element.css('height', attrs.fixedheight);
});

Answered By - Chris Bouchard