>Didn't have time to look through all that but I see you are not using 'ng-form'
>From angular docs:
>
>"Nestable alias of form directive. HTML does not allow nesting of form elements. It is useful to nest forms, for example if the validity of a sub-group of controls needs to be determined."
>
>If you're not using ng-form your fighting an uphill battle for no reason.
>Did you try my example ?

I don't think in my case it's relevant if I am using form or ng-form for the main form container. I think I tried ng-form with the same result.

The problem here is that my SelectView method seem to happen prior to the directive being hit. In other words, it looks like when I select a new row from the list, first my SelectView method is firing (and the form is obviously in the pristine state already) and then the directive checks for the form.$dirty state which is false at this moment.

In other words, I added this code into my selectView method:

if ($scope.form && $scope.form.$dirty)
                {
                    $scope.selections.somethingChanged = true;
                }

So, when I start from the General tab, change something and go to another tab, I can see that form.$dirty flag is properly set.

But when I select the different row, this code is being executed first before the directive.

So, it seems like my problem is that the directive fires after I already switched to a different row.

I am thinking - may be I can try introducing that check from the directive inside the controller of the index page instead.