Displaying different content within a single view based on the user’s role

The solution is in this fiddle:

http://jsfiddle.net/BmQuY/3/

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

app.service('authService', function(){

  var user = {};
  user.role="guest";
  return{
    getUser: function(){
      return user;
    },
    generateRoleData: function(){
      /* this is resolved before the 
         router loads the view and model.
         It needs to return a promise. */
      /* ... */
    }
  }
});

app.directive('restrict', function(authService){
    return{
        restrict: 'A',
        priority: 100000,
        scope: false,
        compile:  function(element, attr, linker){
            var accessDenied = true;
            var user = authService.getUser();

            var attributes = attr.access.split(" ");
            for(var i in attributes){
                if(user.role == attributes[i]){
                    accessDenied = false;
                }
            }


            if(accessDenied){
                element.children().remove();
                element.remove();           
            }


            return function linkFn() {
                /* Optional */
            }
        }
    }
});

if you want to use this directive with IE 7 or 8, you’ll need to remove the element’s children manually, otherwise an error will be throw:

  angular.forEach(element.children(), function(elm){
    try{
      elm.remove();
    }
    catch(ignore){}
  });

Example of possible usage:

<div data-restrict access="superuser admin moderator"><a href="#">Administrative options</a></div>

Unit test using Karma + Jasmine:
Attention: the done callback function is only available for Jasmine 2.0, if you are using 1.3, you should use waitsFor instead.

  describe('restrict-remove', function(){
    var scope, compile, html, elem, authService, timeout;
    html="<span data-restrict data-access="admin recruiter scouter"></span>";
    beforeEach(function(){
      module('myApp.directives');
      module('myApp.services');
      inject(function($compile, $rootScope, $injector){
        authService = $injector.get('authService');
        authService.setRole('guest');
        scope = $rootScope.$new();
        // compile = $compile;
        timeout = $injector.get('$timeout');
        elem = $compile(html)(scope);
        elem.scope().$apply();
      });
    });
    it('should allow basic role-based content discretion', function(done){
        timeout(function(){
          expect(elem).toBeUndefined(); 
          done(); //might need a longer timeout;
        }, 0);
    });
  });
  describe('restrict-keep', function(){
    var scope, compile, html, elem, authService, timeout;
    html="<span data-restrict data-access="admin recruiter">";
    beforeEach(function(){
      module('myApp.directives');
      module('myApp.services');
      inject(function($compile, $rootScope, $injector){
        authService = $injector.get('authService');
        timeout = $injector.get('$timeout');
        authService.setRole('admin');
        scope = $rootScope.$new();
        elem = $compile(html)(scope);
        elem.scope().$apply();
      });
    });

    it('should allow users with sufficient priviledsges to view role-restricted content', function(done){
      timeout(function(){
        expect(elem).toBeDefined();
        expect(elem.length).toEqual(1);
        done(); //might need a longer timeout;
      }, 0)
    })
  });

A generic access control directive for elements, without using ng-if(only since V1.2 – currently unstable), or ng-show which doesn’t actually remove the element from the DOM.