How to read from Api with different root_node - ember.js

Question

I am trying to config an ember app using ember-data to connect and read data from one api.
My model is:
App.Movie = DS.Model.extend
title: DS.attr 'string'
rating_average: DS.attr 'string'
short_plot: DS.attr 'string'
free: DS.attr 'boolean'
My api returns:
{
"pagination": {
"count":xx,
"page": x,
"total_pages": x
},
"movies": [
{
"id": xxxx,
"title": "xxx",
"rating_average": "x",
"short_plot": "xxxx",
"already_seen": x,
....
....
When ember try lo load data it throws:
Assertion failed: Your server returned a hash with the key **pagination** but you have no mapping for it
Ember does not expect the "pagination" keys in the Json. How can I specify that only try to read from the key 'movies' ?

Answer 1

While it is possible to customize ember-data to handle this, consider using ember-model instead. ember-data works best when you have control over your API and can ensure that it follows a set of conventions. If that is not the case you will find yourself fighting to make ember-data work with your API and it was simply not designed for this use case. ember-model was designed for this use case and while it does less for you out-of-box it will be much easier to customize. See ember-model-introduction to learn more.
That said, to make things work with ember-data you'll need to extend the rest adapter and customize it's ajax function.
App.Store = DS.Store.extend({
adapter: 'App.Adapter'
});
App.Adapter = DS.RESTAdapter.extend({
ajax: function(url, type, hash) {
var promise = this._super(url, type, hash);
return promise.then(function(json) {
delete json.pagination;
return json;
});
}
});
In this custom adapter we are calling the rest adapter's ajax function - see source - which returns a promise. The promise's then() function can be used to strip the key pagination from the result. Of course that means the pagination key will be removed from every json response.