This answer inspired me to create a directive that allows me to interrupt the chain of events that end up changing state. For convenience and other uses also prevents the execution of ng-click on the same element.
javascript
module.directive('eatClickIf', ['$parse', '$rootScope',
function($parse, $rootScope) {
return {
// this ensure eatClickIf be compiled before ngClick
priority: 100,
restrict: 'A',
compile: function($element, attr) {
var fn = $parse(attr.eatClickIf);
return {
pre: function link(scope, element) {
var eventName="click";
element.on(eventName, function(event) {
var callback = function() {
if (fn(scope, {$event: event})) {
// prevents ng-click to be executed
event.stopImmediatePropagation();
// prevents href
event.preventDefault();
return false;
}
};
if ($rootScope.$$phase) {
scope.$evalAsync(callback);
} else {
scope.$apply(callback);
}
});
},
post: function() {}
}
}
}
}
]);
html
<li ui-sref-active="active">
<a ui-sref="somestate" eat-click-if="!model.isValid()">Go Somestate</a>
</li>