Ember: How to use link-to inside a component - ember.js

I have a component that contains a link-to. The component is more complicated, but for simplicity here:
//Component.hbs
{{#link-to link model}}{{yield}}{{/link-to}}
The problem is sometimes I will pass a model, sometimes I will not.
//Route.hbs
//providing the model
{{my-component link='chosenroute' model='chosenmodel'}}
//omitting a model - doesn't work
{{my-component link='otherroute'}}
How do I make the model argument optional?

Just put an if/else. undefined is not a good parameter for link-to.
//Component.hbs
{{#if model}}
{{#link-to link model}}{{yield}}{{/link-to}}
{{else}}
{{#link-to link}}{{yield}}{{/link-to}}
{{/if}}

Related

How to set specific view in emberJS with itemcontroller

I have the following code:
{{#each categories.items itemController="item"}}
When I open the Ember inspector, it shows the view to be "virtual". I want to set the view to be "item" so that it follows the ember view I set out called itemView. I know we can set an itemController: is it possible to set an item view?
Yes it is possible using the optional 'itemViewClass' parameter.
{{#each categories.items itemController="item" itemViewClass="otherView"}}
Though I would recommend discontinuing using that and itemController as the latest Best Practice is to use a component within the each block.
So for your example:
// Ember 1.10+
{{#each categories.items as |item|}}
{{some-component item=item}}
{{/each}}
// Ember 1.9-
{{#each item in categories.items}}
{{some-component item=item}}
{{/each}}
Then you put your logic needed in the component object instead of the item controller.

How do I render a collection of models each with variable view and controller?

I have a collection of models in my Ember.js app, which I would like to render. The catch is that I want to be able to specify a specialized view and controller for each of the models.
The controller part seems to be easy: I would just wrap the array in an ArrayController and implement itemController method. The view part is where it gets tricky. I don't see an obvious idiomatic way of doing this.
The best way we came up with is the combination of ArrayController and CollectionView with an overridden createChildView. For instance:
createChildView: function(viewClass, attrs) {
var viewInstance,
widgetType = attrs.content.get('type');
// lookup view, if found, use it, if not, pass empty view
var viewDefined = this.container.lookup('view:' + widgetType);
var createWidgetType = viewDefined ? widgetType : 'empty';
// create view instance from widgetType name
// it causes lookup in controller
viewInstance = this._super(createWidgetType, attrs);
// if `attrs.content` is controller (item of `ComponentsController`)
// set it as controller of newly created view
if(attrs.content.get('isController')) {
viewInstance.set('controller', attrs.content);
}
return viewInstance;
}
This feels unnecessarily convoluted, I don't like that I have to connect the view with the controller manually like that. Is there a cleaner way?
You can create a component, which will act as controller and have a view associated with it:
App.XItemComponent = Ember.Component.extend({
controllerProperty: '!',
tagName: 'li'
});
Then, you can just do:
<script type="text/x-handlebars" data-template-name="index">
<ul>
{{#each model }}
{{ x-item item=this }}
{{/each}}
</ul>
</script>
http://emberjs.jsbin.com/wehevixolu/1/edit?html,js,output
I'd use the {{render}} helper. It'll create a view and controller for each instance.
{{#each item in model}}
{{render "item" item}}
{{/each}}
Example: http://emberjs.jsbin.com/vuwimu/2/edit?html,js,output
Render helper guide: http://emberjs.com/guides/templates/rendering-with-helpers/#toc_the-code-render-code-helper
Additionally:
In your comment you mentioned you want different controller/view types for particular model types. This could be done like this:
{{#each item in model}}
{{#if item.typeX}}
{{render "itemX" item}}
{{/if}}
{{#if item.typeY}}
{{render "itemY" item}}
{{/if}}
{{/each}}
or if you'd choose to go with components:
{{#each item in model}}
{{#if item.typeX}}
{{component-x item=item}}
{{/if}}
{{#if item.typeY}}
{{component-y item=item}}
{{/if}}
{{/each}}
Without knowing what you are trying to accomplish in more detail it’s hard to tell what the best solution is.

how to set an itemView for an itemController in Ember?

I have successfully implemented an ArrayController an defined an ItemController for it like this:
export default Ember.ArrayController.extend(InboxTab, {
itemController: 'messages.message-list-item'
});
then in the template for the array controller I just do
{{#each}}
<li {{action 'someActionFromItemController'}}>{{someComputedPropertyFromItemController}}</li>
{{/each}}
This works great and I can handle a lot of actions and computed for each item, but I'm running into difficulties associating a view to each item. The docs are not helpful. The only instance of itemView is in this article:
http://emberjs.com/api/classes/Ember.CollectionView.html#sts=Specifying itemViewClass
and here the example seems to revolve around adding the view to the template and specifying the content from there and I'm not sure how that applies to the way I'm doing it.
A different way you could do it:
{{#each itemController='messages.message-list-item'}}
{{#view your-view}}
{{action}}{{computed property from view/controller}}
{{/view}}
{{/each}}
specify the item controller in the loop and wrap the actions and properties in the view - which means either of these could also be called or set in the view.
I think way to do this best is with itemViewClass, see the api for the full details.
{{#each message itemController='messageListItem' itemViewClass='messageListItem'}}
{{! Assumes you have view defined in an App.MessageListItemView defined in your JavaScript}}
{{action}}
{{/each}}

how can I use a link-to helper to point to a property of controller (instead of route)?

I am willing to do as follows :
{{#if location_resource_is_present}}
{{#link-to location_resource_link }} {{location_resource_name}}
{{/if}}
The problem here is that location_resource_link is a property which stores the route name at the run-time. How can I use it in link-to helper?

In templates in Ember.js, how do you refer to a value in the parent context when you are inside an #each block?

I have a situation in a template where I want to use an if block on a value in the parent context while inside an each block.
The code:
App = Ember.Application.create({});
App.view = Ember.View.extend({
foo: [1, 2, 3],
bar: true
});
The template:
<script type="text/x-handlebars">
{{#view App.view}}
{{#each foo}}
{{#if bar}}
{{this}}
{{/if}}
{{/each}}
{{/view}}
</script>
This does not work because names referenced inside an each loop are scoped to the element of iteration. How do you refer to things in the parent context?
Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/hekevintran/sMeyC/1/
I found a better solution.
From the Ember.js View Layer guide (http://emberjs.com/guides/understanding-ember/the-view-layer/):
Handlebars helpers in Ember may also specify variables. For example, the {{#with controller.person as tom}} form specifies a tom variable that descendent scopes can access. Even if a child context has a tom property, the tom variable will supersede it.
This form has one major benefit: it allows you to shorten long paths without losing access to the parent scope.
It is especially important in the {{#each}} helper, which provides a {{#each person in people}} form. In this form, descendent context have access to the person variable, but remain in the same scope as where the template invoked the each.
The template:
<script type="text/x-handlebars" >
{{#view App.view}}
{{#each number in view.foo}}
{{#if view.bar}}
{{number}}
{{/if}}
{{/each}}
{{/view}}
</script>​
Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/hekevintran/hpcJv/1/
What hekevintran's answer means is that you can rename any variable using #with. We have a similar problem in JavaScript with this. In JavaScript, sometimes you'll see code like this to work around it.
var self = this;
doSomething(function() {
// Here, `this` has changed.
if (self.bar) {
console.log(this);
}
});
In Ember flavored Handlebars, something similar is happening with view. Say you have App.MyOuterView and another view inside it. You can work around it like this.
{{#with view as myOuterView}}
{{#each foo}}
{{#if myOuterView.bar}}
{{this}}
{{/if}}
{{/each}}
{{/with}}
Similar to the JavaScript, you can essentially rename view to something else so it doesn't get shadowed by the inner view. {{#each person in people}} is just a special case of that. But renaming using {{#with view as myView}} is the more general solution/workaround to this problem that also works with nested calls to the view helper.
I was also stumped on this. This thread and this other thread (Using a container view in ember.js - how to access parent variables from child view) helped me with the solution. I used Jonathan's suggestion to do {#with} and also figured out that I should access my variable by calling the controller. Mine worked like this:
// I use the #which command to preserve access to the outer context once inside the #each
{{#with view as myOuterView}}
{{#each myInnerArray}}
//here, i get my 'name' property from the *controller* of myOuterView
{{myOuterView.controller.name}}
// stuff i did in inner array
{{/each}
{{/with}
No need to place the if inside each in the first place:
<script type="text/x-handlebars">
{{#view App.view}}
{{#if view.bar}}
{{#each view.foo}}
{{this}}
{{/each}}
{{/if}}
{{/view}}
</script>
Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/ppanagi/NQKvy/35/