I am building my first EmberJS app, and am still trying to wrap my head around the best practices & conventions. I'm using ember-data to talk to a RESTful API, and have ember-auth working well enough to log in and save a user's ID & OAuth2 access token. However, I'd now like to maintain additional user information (e.g. name, email, etc) for use in the navbar and in various other areas of the app.
To do this, I am thinking it would be helpful to have a User object (model) that is read from a separate endpoint (e.g. /users/<id>). Since this info would be needed throughout the app, I'm inclined to store it on the ApplicationController, somewhat like this example from Ember's docs:
App.ApplicationController = Ember.Controller.extend({
// the initial value of the `search` property
search: '',
query: function() {
// the current value of the text field
var query = this.get('search');
this.transitionToRoute('search', { query: query });
}
});
However, my user object wouldn't quite be an action like query or a property like search, so I'm not sure this example applies.
I think I'll eventually want to call something like:
this.get('store').find('user', App.Auth.get('userId'));
but I'm just not sure where in the app that would go.
Main question: is the ApplicationController the right place for this information per Ember conventions, and if so, what might the code look like to retrieve it from the REST API?
Appreciate any thoughts to put me on the right track.
The general approach that I've taken before is to store the currently logged in user as App.CurrentUser. Then you can use it in any template. Once I've pulled the User object I call Ember.set('App.CurrentUser',user) to store it, and then Ember.get('App.CurrentUser') to retrieve it in other routes or controllers.
Here's a short jsbin with the general idea : http://jsbin.com/ucanam/994/edit
Related
I am new to ember and am trying to migrate an existing application, and would like to know what the recommendation is for modeling a single object that will be reused in multiple components on every page. ie: As part of the initial load, I would like to perform a GET request against a URL like 'https://example.com/currentUser' and get an object back like:
{
name: "Users Name"
email: "user#email.com",
profileImg: "http://example.com/pictureOfUser.png"
... snip ...
}
This object will then be used in components for menus, toolbars, and a form for updating it via a post to the same URL.
What is the best way to model this workflow in ember? Given that this is an incidental object and not the focus of most routes, it does not seem to make sense to specify it as the model of them. Also, does ember data handle cases where a model is a singleton and does not have an ID, or would I need to use something like Ember.$.ajax ?
What do you mean by "where a model is a singleton"?
If you use the ember-data default adapter, then yes, a model needs to have an ID, it's part of the JSONAPI spec. If you already have a backend with different conventions, take a look at extending or swapping out the default adapter.
A service is a singleton, and there is nothing preventing you from making an AJAX call there. You would be losing out on all the nice things that come along with ember-data, but, you can do it.
I am attempting to learn ember.js to produce a simple-ish web application. I have read around the subject and completed the basic tutorial on emberjs.com . So far, I have managed to create the beginnings of an API using PHP and I have been able to retrieve that data into my fledgling application. So far so good.
As a starter, I wish to retrieve a list of users from the server and populate a select with these values. The select is to sit on the menu bar and the selection from this drives the rest of the data for the application. I have placed the model in models/users.js. The application menu I have defined in templates/application.hbs (not sure if this is considered correct or not).
I am unable to get the users data for the select retrieved from the server unless I visit the users route that I have also setup. How can I ensure that the users data is populated at application initialisation? How would I apply/filter the rest of the application data upon selection from this component - would I need to set a global variable or something?
Additionally, I am using materializecss, which requires $('select').material_select(); to be run in order to render the select input. I have this as:
$( document ).ready(function(){
$('select').material_select();
});
in templates/route.js and works fine on initial page load, but upon navigation to another area and back again, the select is not rendered, and from what I have read, I need to call material_select() again, but I can't for the life of me work out where this call should go.
If anyone is willing to take the time to help me better understand things, I will be very grateful.
Cheers
Tim
Preloading Clarification
I wish to have a select box on the main menu bar (menu-bar component). The user will use this to select a user. All content in the app will be filtered to the currently selected user. I currently have an API endpoint (/users.php) which returns the required data, but I am only able to get my application to call this when I visit the users route, which obviously I won't be doing when the app loads initially. So I am thinking I need to preload the data somehow, unless there is a better way that I am not aware of?
Create a component for menu and put the component in application.hbs
And in component put the materialize stuff like this : (notice to the place)
//components/menu-bar.js
didInsertElement(){
this._super(...arguments);
Ember.$( document ).ready(function(){
Ember.$('select').material_select();
});
}
And
//templates/application.hbs
{{menu-bar}}
{{outlet}}
UPDATE
Create a service holding current user selection and use it in other places that you want be changed by changing the user selection.
These codes is just for showing that the solution for what you want (changing the other parts of app based on changing the selected user in menu) is services.
//services/current-selection.js
...
selectedUser: null,
...
and
//components/menu-bar.js
currentSelection: Ember.inject.service(),
actions: {
selectUser(user){
this.set('currentSelection.selectedUser', user);
}
}
and in another place you want to be notified when selection changed :
//components/user-info.js
currentSelection: Ember.inject.service(),
and corresponding template
//templates/components/user-info.hbs
{{#if currentSelection.selectedUser}}
<span>Current Username: <strong>{{currentSelection.selectedUser}}</strong></span>
{{/if}}
Update For pre-loading users
Actually it's not pre-loading
In menu-bar component you load a select box and populate it by calling a service to backend. If you put this component in application.hbs you could ensure what you want is satisfied.
//components/menu-bar.js
store: Ember.inject.store(),
users: Ember.computed(function(){
return this.get('store').findAll('user');
}),
OR
In application route model hook you fetch those users and pass to component like {{menu-bar users=model}}
And for these two options you can use users in menu-bar template.
But pay attention to that if the users count is a lot, this is very bad for performance or UX. If your users are a lot it's better to use from a autocomplete component
I am having trouble with a specific case using Ember-Data.
Typically Ember expects a model class, the route, the ajax request, and the returned JSON, to all follow a similar pattern.
The RESTAdapter tries to automatically build a URL to send to the server, which is ok for some situations, but I need full control over some of my request URLs particularly when it comes to appending additional parameters, or matching an API to a route that has a completely different URL structure.
Ember sadly, has no guides for this, though I did find something about the buildURL method
I am not comfortable enough rooting through the source code to find out what happens under the hood though I do not want to break ember data just to fix a few use cases.
I have set my RESTAdapter's namespace to api/rest
The model and resource I want to populate is view-debtors
The specific service I want to reach is at debtor/list
I also need to pass extra parameters for pagination ?page_size=10&page_number=1, for example.
I am completely lost how to do this. I cannot change the API structure... there are too many services depending on them.
Some Small Progress
I went ahead and used my current knowledge to get a little closer to the solution.
I created a model and called it "list"
I extended RESTAdapter for "list" to change the namespace to "api/rest/debtor"
I changed the model hook for "view-debtors" route to store.find('list')
The result now is that the AJAX call is almost correct... I just need to add those extra parameters to the server queries.
This is where I stand now... can I add those server queries via the model hook? or better yet can I also control server queries via ember actions to get new AJAX requests?
Stepping back a bit. Is my method so far a good practice? Because I am using a route's model hook, to set the model to list, will this only work if the routes URL is typed in directly?
So many questions :p
You can find by query which will append a query string onto the end of your request using the object provided.
// this would produce /api/rest/debtor/lists?page_size=1&page_number=10
this.store.find('list', {page_size:1, page_number:10});
Personally I think it's a bit hacky to go fudging the model names and namespace to make it supposedly fit your backend's url structure. It really depends on what you're attempting to do. If you want all the full features of CRUD using Ember-Data for this particular list of data, you're going to be hacking the end-point left and right. Whether or not Ember Data really helps you is questionable. If you are just reading data, I'd totally just fetch the data using jquery and sideload it into Ember Data.
var store = this.store;
$.getJSON('/api/rest/debtor/lists?page_size=1&page_number=10').then(function(json){
//fix payload up if necessary http://emberjs.com/api/data/classes/DS.Store.html#method_pushPayload
store.pushPayload('type', json);
}).then(function(){
return store.all('type'); // or store.filter('type') if you want to filter what is returned to the model hook
});
pushPayload docs
I’m building a map with a search function. Basically, I’d like to store objects from the server within my ember app so that whenever I search for something that collection updates itself with the results from the server so the related view updates itself. It’s all on one page.
So far I have an Application Controller, and a Results ArrayController. Data is shown from the Results Controller. Now I’d need that when a search is requested, it gets JSON from the server and updates the results collection.
First question would be:
How would you build that?
I did a v1 with jQuery only and started a new one with Ember but I’m lost as of how structure-wise should I build it.
I built a small jsbin based on what I have here: http://emberjs.jsbin.com/IYuSIXE/1/
Second question:
How would I change a route's model content? Am I going in the wrong direction?
Thanks a lot
You can do both 1 and 2 with query params, check the documentation here https://github.com/alexspeller/website/blob/a96d9afe4506454b155cc64299e86e558ce3c9f1/source/guides/routing/query-params.md
When your route calls the model it will pass the query params, you can do your search against them
model:function( params, queryParams, transition ) { callToYourBackedEndWithQueryParams}
Second question: How would I change a route's model content? Am I
going in the wrong direction?
When the search is requested, in an action you can call this.transitionTo({queryParams: {sort: 'asc'}});, that will fire up again the model hook and you can do the query against your server again.
What I was looking for is a way to change the model on-the-fly.
So basically if I have this:
App.ResultsRoute = Ember.Route.extend({
model: function() {
// empty array that will contain results
return [];
}
});
I can do this to set the content of the model:
this.get('model').setObjects([{}, {}, {}]);
That way I can dynamically play with the models, load them with objects coming from almost anywhere.
I can work with Ember.js(rc0) and Rails, and have a simple app working as I'd expect, but want to focus on a specific story:
As a user, I want to type in "filter" text in a form, then have my ArrayController only show me those items that match the filter. For example, think of a Contacts app that shows people with the name like "Ya%"...
Caveat: Say the database holds thousands of Contact records. I don't want to filter those contacts on the client, it makes more sense to do that on the server.
Question:
How do I do this in ember.js/ember-data? On the server, I can easily allow for a search parameter in my index URL to filter data so it's a manageable list, or even limit the response to say, 20 items.
I can also use a view to have access to my filter text in my controller, but where do I go next? How can I pass that filter onto the server?
Update:
I was able to use "find" on the model object, and ember (ember data) went to the server to grab new data - as the client side only had a subset of all the Contact records to begin with. Instead of filtering on what on the client, it automatically deferred to the the server... which is nice.
App.ContactIndexController = Ember.ArrayController.extend
search_term: null
submit: (view) ->
this.set('content', App.Contact.find({search: "#{view.search_term}"}))
This is a good use case for findQuery. For example:
store.findQuery(App.Contact, {q: queryString})
This will in turn call findQuery on the appropriate adapter, and if successful, load the returned records into the store and return a DS.AdapterPopulatedRecordArray.
Note that you can completely customize the query object to include params that match your server's endpoints.
Update: As Michael pointed out in the comments, the above is equivalent to:
App.Contact.find({q: queryString})
... which is certainly a cleaner solution, especially without direct access to the store.