Here's a plnkr that demonstrates using the angular + ui-bootstrap to launch a dialog with it's own template and controller.
It sounds like you are a bit confused about the relationship between a controller and the DOM. The controller doesn't live inside the DOM, in fact, we are trying to keep the 2 things distinct. Rather, the DOM is associated with a $scope which is controlled by a... (you guessed it...) controller.
So, in the example, the controller is loaded when the dialog elements are added to the DOM, but, the controller isn't "opened in the dialog" in any meaningful way. The dialog could just as easily use the same controller that the main app is using, by replacing "DialogCtl"
with "DemoCtl"
on line 17 of the demo. What I'm trying to say is that the controller, and the dialog are independent. Dialogs aren't executing controllers, rather, they are consuming $scope
manged by one.
UPDATE: I just found out the example is a bit buggy, if you dismiss the dialog and then try re-opening it, the modal is displayed but not the dialog. I'm trying to sort that out now, i'm not really sure what's going on...
UPDATE 2: I think the inability to reload the dialog has to do with template caching. In this plnkr you see that I add a 'cache buster' onto the querystring, and the dialog reloads, but the modal backdrop doesn't. The example on the ui-bootstrap page can be loaded & reloaded without issue, but they are using a hard-coded template (rather than a template url). I wasn't able to get that working in plnkr either. Oh, the joys of working on the bleeding edge :-/
UPDATE 3: I can't figure out what's going on, but posted this question for help Opening the same dialog multiple times with $dialog