Get parameters from router with Meteor and iron:router

Question

I have a route

Router.route('/post/:_id', {
  name: 'post',
  template: 'post'
});

and a helper

Template.post.helpers({
  post: function () {
    return Posts.findOne(this._id);
  }
});

It wont find the specified post. But I guess I'm getting the id in a wrong way. I've seen some projects where they have used sessions. Is this really necessary? Isn't it possible to get the parameters from the router?

Answer 1

Usually you'd set the data context at the route level like this :

Router.route("/post/:_id",{
  name:"post",
  template:"post",
  waitOn:function(){
    return this.subscribe("post",this.params._id);
  },
  data:function(){
    return Posts.findOne(this.params._id);
  }
});

In RouteController methods you can access the URL parameters using this.params.parameterName.

Then in your post template you can access the data context set by the router without the need of a dedicated helper.

<template name="post">
  post id is {{_id}}
</template>

As far as the posts list is concerned, you can stick to the same pattern :

Router.route("/posts",{
  name:"posts",
  template:"posts",
  waitOn:function(){
    return this.subscribe("posts");
  },
  data:function(){
    return {
      posts:Posts.find()
    };
  }
});

<template name="posts">
  {{#each posts}}
    {{> postItem}}
  {{/each}}
</template>