Can the controller of a modal window access functions in parent controller

Question

Suppose you launch a modal window using $modal.open from within an angular directive.

Does the modal window have access to functions defined with the parent directive?

Directive controller code

..
function parentFunction()
{
     return 5;
}

$scope.showDialog = function()
{
     var dialog = $modal.open({
     controller: 'modalController',
     ...
}

'modalController' code

var val = parentFunction();

Answer 1

It won't have lexical scope access, but there are 2 ways (that I know of) to "pass data" to the controller, depending on what makes more sense to you:

1) via $scope:

$scope.parentFn = function parentFn(){
};

var dialog = $modal.open({
     controller: 'modalController',
     scope: $scope,
     //...
});

2) via resolve:

function parentFn(){
}

var dialog = $modal.open({
     controller: 'modalController',
     resolve: {
       parentFn: function(){
         return parentFn;
       }
     },
     // ...
});

then you could get parentFn as a local injectable into the modalController:

.controller("modalController", function(parentFn){
   parentFn();
});

Or...

if you defined your controller inline, then it would have lexical scope access:

function parentFn(){
}

var dialog = $modal.open({
     controller: function modalController(){
        parentFn();
     },
     // ...
});