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