I have created a little POC to demonstrate, how you can pass a function that resides on the scope, to be passed to a attribute directive without using isolated scope or eval in Angular 1.x.
The first button will be focused when the page is loaded.
When you tab on the first button, the default tab action is applied, so the second button is focused.
When you tab on the second button the function, that was passed to the “tab directive” is called. It will set a message on the scope.
namespace poc { 'use strict'; const app = angular.module('poc', []); class PocDirective implements ng.IDirective { public link: ($scope: IPocScope, $element: ng.IAugmentedJQuery, attrs: ng.IAttributes) => void; public restrict = 'E'; public template = `
<action-button>
<button id="button-1" type="button">Tab on this button</button>
</action-button>
<action-button>
<button poc-tab="{ fn: onTab }" type="button">Tab on this button</button>
</action-button>
<div ng-bind="message"></div>
`; constructor(public $timeout:ng.ITimeoutService) { const self: PocDirective = this; self.link = self.unboundLink.bind(self); } unboundLink($scope: IPocScope, $element: ng.IAugmentedJQuery, attrs: ng.IAttributes) { const self: PocDirective = this; function onTab(){ $scope.message = "Tabbed on button"; } self.$timeout(function() { const button1 = document.getElementById('button-1'); button1.focus(); }); $scope.onTab = onTab; } } interface IPocScope extends ng.IScope { message: string; onTab: () => void; } app.directive('poc', ['$timeout', ($timeout) => new PocDirective($timeout)]); function safeApply($scope: ng.IScope): boolean { var result = false; var phase = $scope.$root.$$phase; if (phase !== '$apply' && phase !== '$digest') { $scope.$apply(); result = true; } return result; } /** * We want to able to use this directive in association with other directives on the same element. * So we don't use isolated scope, to prevent the error: * "Multiple directives [..., ...] asking for new/isolated scope on: ...". * But we want to be able to pass a function to this directive from outside, * that's why we parse the value of the "poc-tab" attribute. */ class TabDirective implements ng.IDirective { public link: (scope: ng.IScope, element: ng.IAugmentedJQuery, attrs: ITabAttributes) => void; public restrict = 'A'; constructor(public $parse: ng.IParseService) { const self: TabDirective = this; self.link = self.unboundLink.bind(self); } unboundLink(scope: ng.IScope, element: ng.IAugmentedJQuery, attrs: ITabAttributes) { const self: TabDirective = this; element.bind('keydown keypress', function (event) { const tabKey = 9; const tabIsPressed = (event.which === tabKey); if (tabIsPressed) { const optionsAsString: string = attrs.pocTab; const optionsAsExpression: ng.ICompiledExpression = self.$parse(optionsAsString); const options: ITabOptions = optionsAsExpression(scope); options.fn(); safeApply(scope); event.preventDefault(); } }); } } interface ITabAttributes extends ng.IAttributes { pocTab: string; } export interface ITabOptions { fn: () => void; ignore?: boolean; // When true, given fn is NOT executed. } app.directive('pocTab', ['$parse', ($parse) => new TabDirective($parse)]); angular.bootstrap(document, ['poc']); }