AngularJS - Setting a variable on scope from directive

Question

I'm trying to set a variable, selected.child, on the $scope so that I can use it elsewhere. I'm still new to scopes in Angular, but not sure why I can't set something on the scope from within the directive. I can call scope functions.

I have a JSfiddle for it and code is posted below.

Thanks for the help in advance.

The HTML:

<div ng-controller="DashCtrl">
     <h3>{{selected.child}}<h3>

   <div ng-repeat="child in children" select={{child}}>
      {{child.username}}
    </div>
</div>

The javascript:

var dash = angular.module('dash', []);

dash.directive('select', function () {
  return {
    restrict: "A",
    scope: false,
    link: function (scope, element, attrs) {
      element.bind('click', function () {
        scope.selected.child = jQuery.parseJSON(attrs.select); //Neither this
        scope.setSelected(jQuery.parseJSON(attrs.select));  //Nor this is working

          if (attrs.select != scope.selected) {
            other_elements = angular.element(document.querySelectorAll('[select]'));
                for (var i = 0; i < other_elements.length; i++) {
                    elm = jQuery(other_elements[i]);
                    elm.css('background', 'none');
                }
                element.css('background', '#F3E2A9');
          }
      });
    }
  };
});

dash.controller('DashCtrl', function ($scope) {
  $scope.setSelected = function (child) {
    $scope.selected.child = child;
  };

  $scope.children = [{
    "age_group": "6-8",
        "username": "my_child"
  }, {
    "age_group": "8-10",
        "username": "another_child"
  }];

  $scope.selected = {
    child: "none"
  };


});

Solution

You are missing a call to $apply Just modify your code as below

         scope.selected.child = jQuery.parseJSON(attrs.select); //Neither this
            //    scope.setSelected(jQuery.parseJSON(attrs.select)); //Nor this is working
scope.$apply();