Specifying a Route's Model

To start, here's an example of returning a simple array from the model hook. Even if we eventually plan to fetch this data over a network, starting with something simple makes initial development of a new route quick and easy.

import Route from '@ember/routing/route';

export default Route.extend({
  model() {
    return [
      { title: 'Ember Roadmap' },
      { title: 'Accessibility in Ember' },
      { title: 'EmberConf Recap' }
    ]
  }
});

Now that data can be used in the favorite-posts template:

{{#each this.model as |post|}}
  <div>
    {{post.title}}
  </div>
{{/each}}

Behind the scenes, what is happening is that the route's controller receives the results of the model hook, and makes those results available to the template. Your app may not have a controller file for the route, but the behavior is the same regardless.

Let's compare some examples using the model hook to make asynchronous HTTP requests to a server somewhere.

First, here's an example using a core browser API called fetch, which returns a Promise. Install ember-fetch with the command ember install ember-fetch, if it is not already in the app's package.json.

import Route from '@ember/routing/route';
import fetch from 'fetch';

export default Route.extend({
  model() {
    return fetch('/my-cool-end-point.json').then(function(response) {
      return response.json();
    });
  }
});

Older browsers may not have fetch, but the ember-fetch library includes a polyfill, so we don't have to worry about backwards compatibility!

Ember Data is a powerful (but optional) library included by default in new Ember apps. In the next example, we will use Ember Data's findAll method, which returns a Promise, and resolves with an array of Ember Data records.

Note that Ember Data also has a feature called a Model, but it's a separate concept from a route's model hook.

import Route from '@ember/routing/route';
import { inject as service } from '@ember/service';

export default Route.extend({
  store: service(),
  model() {
    return this.get('store').findAll('posts');
  }
});

What should you do if you need the model to return the results of multiple API requests?

Multiple models can be returned through an RSVP.hash. The RSVP.hash method takes an object containing multiple promises. If all of the promises resolve, the returned promise will resolve to an object that contains the results of each request. For example:

import Route from '@ember/routing/route';
import RSVP from 'rsvp';

export default Route.extend({
  model() {
    return RSVP.hash({
      songs: this.store.findAll('song'),
      albums: this.store.findAll('album')
    });
  }
});

In the songs template, we can specify both models and use the {{#each}} helper to display each record in the song model and album model:

<h1>Playlist</h1>

<ul>
  {{#each this.model.songs as |song|}}
    <li>{{song.name}} by {{song.artist}}</li>
  {{/each}}
</ul>

<h1>Albums</h1>

<ul>
  {{#each this.model.albums as |album|}}
    <li>{{album.title}} by {{album.artist}}</li>
  {{/each}}
</ul>

In the examples above, we showed a route that will always return the same data, a collection of favorite posts. Even when the user leaves and re-enters the /posts route, they will see the same thing. But what if you need to request different data after user interaction? What if a specific post should load based on the URL that the user visited, like posts/42? In Ember, this can be accomplished by defining routes with dynamic segments, or by using query parameters, and then using the dynamic data to make requests.

In the previous Guides topic, we showed making a dynamic segment in the app's router.js:

Router.map(function() {
  this.route('posts');
  this.route('post', { path: '/post/:post_id' });
});

Whatever shows up in the URL at the :post_id, the dynamic segment, will be available in the params for the route's model hook:

import Route from '@ember/routing/route';

export default Route.extend({
  model(params) {
    console.log('This is the dynamic segment data: ' + params.post_id)
    // make an API request that uses the id
  }
});

If you do not define a model hook for a route, it will default to using Ember Data to look up the record, as shown below:

model(params) {
 return this.store.find('post', params.post_id);
}

There are two ways to link to a dynamic segment from an .hbs template using <LinkTo>. Depending on which approach you use, it will affect whether that route's model hook is run. To learn how to link to a dynamic segment from within the JavaScript file, see the API documentation on transitionTo instead.

When you provide a string or number to the <LinkTo>, the dynamic segment's model hook will run when the app transitions to the new route. In this example, photo.id might have an id of 4:

{{#each model as |photo|}}
  <LinkTo @route="photo" @model={{photo.id}}>
    link text to display
  </LinkTo>
{{/each}}

However, if you provide the entire model context, the model hook for that URL segment will not be run. For this reason, many Ember developers choose to pass only ids to <LinkTo> so that the behavior is consistent.

Here's what it looks like to pass the entire photo record:

{{#each model as |photo|}}
  <LinkTo @route="photo" @model={{photo}}>
    link text to display
  </LinkTo>
{{/each}}

If you decide to pass the entire model, be sure to cover this behavior in your acceptance tests.

If a route you are trying to link to has multiple dynamic segments, like /photos/4/comments/18, be sure to specify all the necessary information for each segment:

<LinkTo @route="photos.photo.comments.comment" @models={{array 4 18}}>
  link text to display
</LinkTo>

Routes without dynamic segments will always execute the model hook.

Sometimes you need to fetch a model, but your route doesn't have the parameters, because it's a child route and the route directly above or a few levels above has the parameters that your route needs. You might run into this if you have a URL like /photos/4/comments/18, and when you're in the comments route, you need a photo ID.

In this scenario, you can use the paramsFor method to get the parameters of a parent route.

import Route from '@ember/routing/route';

export default Route.extend({
  model() {
    let { album_id } = this.paramsFor('album');

    return this.store.query('song', { album: album_id });
  }
});

This is guaranteed to work because the parent route is loaded. But if you tried to do paramsFor on a sibling route, you wouldn't have the results you expected.

This is a great way to use the parent context to load something that you want. Using paramsFor will also give you the query params defined on that route's controller. This method could also be used to look up the current route's parameters from an action or another method on the route, and in that case we have a shortcut: this.paramsFor(this.routeName).

In our case, the parent route had already loaded its songs, so we would be writing unnecessary fetching logic. Let's rewrite the same route, but use modelFor, which works the same way, but returns the model from the parent route.

import Route from '@ember/routing/route';

export default Route.extend({
  model() {
    let { songs } = this.modelFor('album');

    return songs;
  }
});

In the case above, the parent route looked something like this:

import Route from '@ember/routing/route';
import RSVP from 'rsvp';

export default Route.extend({
  model({ album_id }) {
    return RSVP.hash({
      album: this.store.findRecord('album', album_id),
      songs: this.store.query('songs', { album: album_id })
    });
  }
});

And calling modelFor returned the result of the model hook.

If you are having trouble getting a model's data to show up in the template, here are some tips:

• Use the {{debugger}} or {{log}} helper to inspect the {{model}} from the template
• return hard-coded sample data as a test to see if the problem is really in the model hook, or elsewhere down the line
• study JavaScript Promises in general, to make sure you are returning data from the Promise correctly
• make sure your model hook has a return statement
• check to see whether the data returned from a model hook is an object, array, or JavaScript Primitive. For example, if the result of model is an array, using {{this.model}} in the template won't work. You will need to iterate over the array with an {{#each}} helper. If the result is an object, you need to access the individual attribute like {{this.model.title}} to render it in the template.
• use your browser's development tools to examine the outgoing and incoming API responses and see if they match what your code expects
• If you are using Ember Data, use the Ember Inspector browser plugin to explore the View Tree/Model and Data sections.