Ember setupController and transient controllers - ember.js

Question

I'm trying to use setupController method to pass some data to the controller from the route and it only works if the controller is a singleton.
The setupController method is called in both situations but the variables are only set on the controller if it's a singleton.
How can I pass data from a route to a transient controller?
Here's a twiddle:
http://ember-twiddle.com/ba55734e925664e363f4
Uncomment/comment the following line to toggle between singleton/transient:
//application.register('controller:application', 'ApplicationController', { singleton: false });
I have not been able to find any information about whether or not this should work. I'm using Ember 1.13.6.
controllers/application.js:
import Ember from 'ember';
export default Ember.Controller.extend({
appName:'Ember Twiddle'
});
initializers/application.js:
export function initialize(container, application) {
//application.register('controller:application', 'ApplicationController', { singleton: false });
}
export default {
name: 'application-init',
initialize: initialize
};
routes/application.js:
import Ember from 'ember';
export default Ember.Route.extend({
setupController: function(controller,model) {
this._super(controller,model);
controller.var1 = "Variable 1";
}
});
templates/application.hbs:
<h1>Welcome to {{appName}}</h1>
<br>
<br>
{{var1}}
<br>

Answer 1

This appears to be an actual bug, since the instance of the controller is different from the instance you have in setupController and the one backing the view.
A workaround would be overriding the renderTemplate hook on your route to pass the instance of the controller versus a string reference which is looked up by default (and creating a new instance of the controller!).
export default Ember.Route.extend({
setupController(controller, model) {
this._super(...arguments);
controller.set('var1', 'foo');
},
renderTemplate(controller, model) {
// note: don't call super here
this.render('application', {
controller: controller,
model: model
});
}
});