EmberJS 2.7, Rails 5, AMS 0.10.2 - GET resources collection where fieldX=[B or C]

Question

I have an EmberJS filter like this:

/app/routes/trails/new.js

  model: function (filterCurrentEmployees) {
    return Ember.RSVP.hash({
      trail: this.store.createRecord('trail'),
      employees: this.store.query('employee', { status: '1,2'}).then(
         function(data) {return data})
    })
  },

I was hoping that status: '1,2' would end up as a normal Rails param so I could do params[:status] and then filter the returned employees (you know so the db would get a query like 'where status IN ['1','2']')

But when this filter query is sent to Rails API I get this error:

ActiveModelSerializers::Adapter::JsonApi::Deserialization::InvalidDocument (Invalid payload ({:data=>"Expected hash"}): {"status"=>"1,2", "controller"=>"employees", "action"=>"index"}):

which occurs here in the controller:

api/app/controllers/employees.rb

def employee_params
  ActiveModelSerializers::Deserialization.jsonapi_parse!(params)
end

but that is needed for AMS to work with Ember.

So I presume something is wrong with the way I am sending/creating the query in EmberJS?

It seems to be trying to make a GET collection request. Not sure really and this explains sort-of what is going on at the Rails end, but I don't know how to get Ember to create the filter properly so that AMS is happy to accept it.

EDIT - JSON-API Spec Reference

I was under the impression that AMS and Ember 2.7 with JSON-API 'just work out of the box'. I was actually expecting the Ember filter to comply with the spec and send

/employees?filter=status[1,2]

but it seems to not be doing that. AMS says the same thing here.

UPDATE

So with some pointers from the comments (thank you) I learned that the structure of the query hash might be incorrect. I also tried changing 'query' to filter but that then raises an actual Ember error:

The filter API has been moved to a plugin. To enable store.filter using an environment flag, or to use an alternative, you can visit the ember-data-filter addon page.

Now I don't know what the difference is between an Ember query and an Ember filter, perhaps a filter only runs on the client? Who knows, the docs are so sparse and so many questions on this are 1 or 2 years old.

Answer 1

So after much digging around for Ember Gold Nuggets, I found out that Controllers are STILL needed for...you guessed it...Query Parameters.

I've never used a Controller, and thought I never needed one.

So it seems I was basing my attempt at using query parameters on outdated information and code examples.

For those who run into this, the gold nuggets are here and here.

Also, it seems Javascript Object parameters as per JSON-API spec are not yet supported in Ember, according to this, although it's nearly a year old so do not know if that is still true.

UPDATE

So, after further gold mining, it seems I was confused and that Controllers are needed for Query Parameters in Ember on the client side, to assist the frontend application when it transitions from one route to another (and that is when you need a Controller to set them up).

But I want to just send a query parameter from within the Route code directly to the API, and examples of doing that are very hard to find.

So in the Rails Log I would expect to see BEFORE deserialization by ASM:

Rails.logger.info "Params are: #{params.to_json}" 

something like this:

Params are:
{"data":{"filter":{"status["1,2"]}},
"controller":"employees","action":"index"}

ASM expects 'data' to be the root element of the hash, and then inside that I can place my filter. For example, from the Ember Route:

  model: function () {
    let myFilter = {};
    myFilter.data = { filter: {status: ['1,2']}};
    return Ember.RSVP.hash({
      trail: this.store.createRecord('trail'),
      employees: this.store.query('employee', myFilter).then(function(data) {return data})
    })
  },