$scope.items is not tied to the vis.Dataset's

[grtjn]

This line in the docs is incorrect: https://github.com/patrickmcelwee/ml-visjs-graph-ng#get-access-to-the-visjs-nodes-and-edges

items holds the arrays of nodes and edges as provided from outside, not the vis DataSet objects to hold them. Exposing the items themselves is less useful, it is just as easy to override, and intercept graphSearch/graphExpand. Instead, access to the datasets would give more possibilities to tweak the graph according to needs.