Adding and retrieving metadata from Ember routes - ember.js

Question

For reporting purposes, I want to associate some metadata with an Ember route, and would prefer to do it as follows:
this.route('list', { path: '/list', description: 'Master List' });
then access this description property from places like the route itself, or from elsewhere, such as the didTransition hook on the application router. I've reviewed the source for Router and Route and cannot say I really understand it, certainly not well enough to understand how to retrieve custom properties specified in this way. I see there is an object called DSL, which is apparently the this of the this.route specified in the map method on Router, but cannot see how to get from here to there. From within a subclass of Ember.Route, I see properties called this.router, and this.router.router, but am unclear on what these point to.
Or, the following would also work if that allowed me to do what I wanted:
this.route('list', { path: '/list' }, function() {
this.description = "Master List";
});
Can I associate custom properties with a route specified in Router#map, and if so how?

Answer 1

There doesn't appear to be an elegant way to set metadata about a route when it is defined in the router, but maybe try this ugly solution within your application controller:
currentPathChange: function () {
switch(this.get('currentPath')){
case 'test.index':
console.log('test.index is the foo!');
break;
case 'test.new':
console.log('test.new is the bar!');
break;
}
}.observes('currentPath')
JSBin DEMO

Answer 2

Without extending Ember's Router, one option is to have a separate object that maintains route metadata. Simple example:
this.route('list', { path: '/list' });
routeMetaData['list'] = 'Master List';
To access the metadata in the didTransition hook:
didTransition: function() {
var metadata = routeMetaData[this.routeName];
}

Answer 3

I ended up solving this along the following lines, writing my own "route" function which records data I need, then passes it along to the DSL:
var myRouteData = {};
function route(dsl, name, options, fn) {
if (typeof options === 'function') fn = options, options = {};
var routeName = dsl.parent ? dsl.parent + '.' + name : name;
myRouteData[routeName] = { options.myRouteOption };
dsl.route(name, options.fn);
}
Usage:
this.resource('foo', function() {
route(this, 'bar', {myRouteOption: true});
});