binding context to action in ember textfield - ember.js

Question

I've got an ember application that needs to manage multiple chat windows. A window for each active chat is created within an {{#each}} loop. This is straightforward enough. The place that I'm having trouble is sending the chat message when the user presses enter.
The window looks like this
{{#each chats}}
... stuff to display already existing chats...
{{view Ember.TextField valueBinding="text" action="sendChat"}}
<button {{action sendChat this}}> Send </button>
{{/each}}
This works fine for the button, since I can pass this to it. By default the function defined in the textfield view action just gets the text within that textfield, which is not enough in this case. Since there can be multiple chat windows open, I need to know which window the message was typed into. Is it possible to pass this to the textfield action function? (or can you suggest a different way to solve this problem?)

Answer 1

Add contentBinding="this" to the definition of the view, like:
{{view Ember.TextField valueBinding="text" action=sendChat contentBinding="this"}}
EDIT
Ember master already has this change, but the official downloadable verstion still don't.. so you will need to subclass the Ember.TextField and change its insertNewline to achieve required functionality:
App.ActionTextField = Em.TextField.extend({
insertNewline: function(event) {
var controller = this.get('controller'),
action = this.get('action');
if (action) {
controller.send(action, this.get('value'), this);
if (!this.get('bubbles')) {
event.stopPropagation();
}
}
}
});
After that, the action handler will receive additional argument, the view:
{{view App.ActionTextField valueBinding="text" action=sendChat myfieldBinding="this"}}
and in controller:
sendChat: function (text, view) {
var myField = view.get('myfield');
//do stuff with my field
}
You may use ember master instead of subclassing Ember.TextField..
I hope the ember guys will release the next version soon..

Answer 2

I know this question has been answered but I said let me add some information that may help out someone in the situation of actions and TextField. One word "Component". TextField in Ember is a Component so if you think of TextField from that perspective it may help when it comes to sending actions and using TextField in an application.
So when you say App.SomeTextField = Ember.TexField.extend({...});App.SomeTextField is subclassing Ember.TextField (remember which is a component). You could add your logic inside and that works and you could access it from your template such as {{view App.SomeTextField}}
You may be thinking I see the word 'view' this guy sucks, TextField is a View. Well, it is sort of a View because Ember Components are a subclass of Ember.View so they have all that Views have. But there are some important things to keep in mind Components un-like Views do not absorb their surrounding context(information/data), they lock out everything and if you want to send something from the outside surrounding context you must explicitly do so.
So to pass things into App.SomeTextField in your template where you have it you would do something like {{view App.SomeTextField value=foo action="sendChat"}} where you are passing in two things value, and action in this case. You may be able to ride the fine line between View/Component for a bit but things come crashing why is your action not sending?
Now this is where things get a little trippy. Remember TextField is a Component which is subclassed from View but a View is not a Component. Since Components are their own encapsulated element when you are trying to do this.get('controller').send('someAction', someParam), "this" is referring to the Component its self, and the controller is once again the component its self in regards to this code. The action that you are hoping will go to the outside surrounding context and your application will not.
In order to fix this you have to follow the protocol for sending actions from a Component. It would be something like
App.SomeTextField = Ember.TextField.extend({
//this will fire when enter is pressed
insertNewline: function() {
//this is how you send actions from components
//we passed sendChat action in
//Your logic......then send...
this.sendAction('sendChat');
}
});
Now in the controller that is associated with where your SomeTextField component/view element is you would do
App.SomeController = Ember.Controller.extend({
//In actions hash capture action sent from SomeTextField component/view element
actions: {
sendChat: function() {
//Your logic well go here...
}
}
});
Now I said to think of TextField as a Component but I have been riding the tail of the view and declaring {{view AppSomeTextField...}}. Lets do it like a component.
So you would have in your template where you want to use it
//inside some template
`{{some-text-field}}`
Then you get a specfic template for the component with the name:
//template associated with component
<script type="text/x-handlebars" data-template-name="components/some-text-field">
Add what you want
</script>
In your JS declare your component:
//important word 'Component' must be at end
App.SomeTextFieldComponent = Ember.TextField.extend({
//same stuff as above example
});
Since we on a role you could probably get the same functionality using Ember input helpers. They are pretty powerful.
{{input action="sendChat" onEvent="enter"}}
Welp hopefully this information will help someone if they get stuck wondering why is my action not sending from this textField.
This jsBin is a sandBox for Components/Views sending actions etc....Nothing too fancy but it may help someone..
http://emberjs.jsbin.com/suwaqobo/3/
Peace, Im off this...