Send Object from one template to another via iron router, meteor - meteor

I am getting some data on a template via meteor.call. Now I want to send the object to another template. I am using iron:router for routing. Below is my code :
Meteor.call(functionName, function(err, res){
if(!err){
//do something
Router.go('templateName', {
data : res
});
}
});
Router.route('/url/:data?', function(){
console.log(this.params.data);
})
In the console.log, I am getting the object as string. Data returned is
"object Object" => (this is a string, not an object)
I don't want to use Session variables as they are global. I am confused as to how to send data from one template to another.
The templates are not related to each other (parent-child relation) and hence I can't use {{>templateName data=this}}
I also tried using query parameters as suggested by #Jankapunkt
Router.go('templateName', {},{
query : res
});
Router.route('/url/:data?', function(){
console.log(JSON.stringify(this.params.query));
});
Printed statement :
{"0":"[object Object]","1":"[object Object]","2":"[object Object]","3":"[object Object]","4":"[object Object]","5":"[object Object]","6":"[object Object]","7":"[object Object]","8":"[object Object]","9":"[object Object]","10":"[object Object]","11":"[object Object]","12":"[object Object]","13":"[object Object]","14":"[object Object]"}
Any idea on how to proceed?

Related

Returned value from Meteor Helper not showing up in template

I have a Meteor Helper that does a GET request and am supposed to get response back and pass it back to the Template, but its now showing up the front end. When I log it to console, it shows the value corerctly, for the life of mine I can't get this to output to the actual template.
Here is my helper:
UI.registerHelper('getDistance', function(formatted_address) {
HTTP.call( 'GET', 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/json? units=imperial&origins=Washington,DC&destinations='+formatted_address+'&key=MYKEY', {}, function( error, response ) {
if ( error ) {
console.log( error );
} else {
var distanceMiles = response.data.rows[0].elements[0].distance.text;
console.log(response.data.rows[0].elements[0].distance.text);
return distanceMiles;
}
});
});
In my template I pass have the following:
{{getDistance formatted_address}}
Again, this works fine and shows exactly what I need in the console, but not in the template.
Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?
I posted an article on TMC recently that you may find useful for such a pattern. In that article the problem involves executing an expensive function for each item in a list. As others have pointed out, doing asynchronous calls in a helper is not good practice.
In your case, make a local collection called Distances. If you wish, you can use your document _id to align it with your collection.
const Distances = new Mongo.collection(); // only declare this on the client
Then setup a function that either lazily computes the distance or returns it immediately if it's already been computed:
function lazyDistance(formatted_address){
let doc = Distances.findOne({ formatted_address: formatted_address });
if ( doc ){
return doc.distanceMiles;
} else {
let url = 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/json';
url += '?units=imperial&origins=Washington,DC&key=MYKEY&destinations=';
url += formatted_address;
HTTP.call('GET',url,{},(error,response )=>{
if ( error ) {
console.log( error );
} else {
Distances.insert({
formatted_address: formatted_address,
distanceMiles: response.data.rows[0].elements[0].distance.text
});
}
});
}
});
Now you can have a helper that just returns a cached value from that local collection:
UI.registerHelper('getDistance',formatted_address=>{
return lazyDistance(formatted_address);
});
You could also do this based on an _id instead of an address string of course. There's a tacit assumption above that formatted_address is unique.
It's Meteor's reactivity that really makes this work. The first time the helper is called the distance will be null but as it gets computed asynchronously the helper will automagically update the value.
best practice is not to do an async call in a helper. think of the #each and the helper as a way for the view to simply show the results of a prior calculation, not to get started on doing the calculation. remember that a helper might be called multiple times for a single item.
instead, in the onCreated() of your template, start the work of getting the data you need and doing your calculations. store those results in a reactive var, or reactive array. then your helper should do nothing more than look up the previously calculated results. further, should that helper be called more times than you expect, you don't have to worry about all those additional async calls being made.
The result does not show up because HTTP.call is an async function.
Use a reactiveVar in your case.
Depending on how is the formated_address param updated you can trigger the getDistance with a tracker autorun.
Regs
Yann

Is there a way to update the URL in Flow Router without a refresh/redirect?

Is there a way to update a part of the URL reactively without using FlowRouter.go() while using React and react-layout?
I want to change the value in the document that is used to get the document from the DB. For example, if I have a route like ~/users/:username and update the username field in the document, I then have to user FlowRouter.go('profile', {data}) to direct the user to that new URL. The "old" route is gone.
Below is the working version I have, but there are two issues:
I have to use FlowRouter.go(), which is actually a full page refresh (and going back would be a 404).
I still get errors in the console because for a brief moment the reactive data for the component is actually wrong.
Relevant parts of the component are like this:
...
mixins: [ReactMeteorData],
getMeteorData() {
let data = {};
let users = Meteor.subscribe('user', {this.props.username});
if (user.ready())
data.user = user;
return data;
}
...
updateName(username) {
Users.update({_id:this.data.user._id}, {$set:{username}}, null, (e,r) => {
if (!e)
FlowRouter.go('profile', {username});
});
},
...
The route is like this:
FlowRouter.route('/users/:username', {
name: 'profile',
action(params) {
ReactLayout.render(Main, {content: <UserProfile {...params} />});
}
});
The errors I get in the console are:
Exception from Tracker recompute function:
and
TypeError: Cannot read property '_id' of undefined

Understanding how Router.go() works in Meteor

I'm just learning Meteor now from the great Discover Meteor book and I'm struggling to understand something about how Router.go() functions which I thought might be something that other beginners could use an answer to.
Context: The code below does what it's supposed to - it picks up the url and title values from the postSubmit form (code not included for the form) and uses that to create a new post. Then it uses Router.go() to take the user to the postPage template at a posts/:_id url, displaying the information for the newly created post. This code all works.
My question is: I would expect that when you call Router.go(), as well as passing in the 'postPage' template, what you would need to pass in as the second parameter is the post id element in the form {_id: post._id} (which also works, I've tried it) as that is what the route requires. So why am I passing in the post var (which includes the url and title) rather than the ID?
Here's my code:
//post_submit.js
Template.postSubmit.events({ 'submit form': function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
var post = {
url: $(e.target).find('[name=url]').val(),
title: $(e.target).find('[name=title]').val()
};
post._id = Posts.insert(post);
//THE 'post' PARAMETER HERE INSTEAD OF '{_id: post._id}' IS WHAT I'M QUESTIONING
Router.go('postPage', post);
}
});
And the code for the router:
//Route for the postPage template
Router.route('/posts/:_id',
{name: 'postPage',
data: function(){ return Posts.findOne(this.params._id); }
});
Good question - I also found this confusing when I first saw it. Here's a sketch of what's going on:
The router parses /posts/:_id and figures out that it should be passed a context object which contains an _id field.
You call Router.go with a context object that contains an _id field.
The router takes your context object and copies the value of _id into this.params.
Because the router understands which fields are required (and ignores the rest), it doesn't actually matter if you pass in {_id: 'abc123'} or {_id: 'abc123', title: 'hello', author: 'bob'}. The fact that the latter works is simply a convenience so you don't have to extract the _id into a separate object.

Cannot acces properties of resulting array of cursor.fetch();

I have a helper where I want to acces the properties of a different collection.
Template.notification.helpers({
username: function () {
game = Games.findOne({_id: this.gameId}, {fields: {players:1}});
console.log(game) // output is correct
}
})
If I log this, it wil produce the result I expected:
Object {players: Array[2], _id: "qF3skjX2755BYcr8p"}
However, if I in my helper function I try to use/reach this properties I get an undefined error.
Template.notification.helpers({
username: function () {
game = Games.findOne({_id: this.gameId}, {fields: {players:1}});
console.log(game._id) // error;
console.log(game.players) // error
}
})
Output:
Exception from Deps recompute function: TypeError: Cannot read property 'players' of undefined
Why is this happening?
This happens because when Meteor initiall loads on your web browser, all the html and js is ready, but the data is not yet ready.
If you tried to check console.log(game) it may be null. It does this only when the page has loaded. If you load the template after all the data has downloaded you wouldn't see this issue.
When the data arrives the username helper would re-run with the new data.
In the meanwhile you just need to take care of this exception:
var game = Games.findOne({_id: this.gameId}, {fields: {players:1}});
if(!game) return null;

How to use URL parameters using Meteorjs

How can I use URL parameters with meteor.
The URL could look like this: http://my-meteor.example.com:3000?task_name=abcd1234
I want to use the 'task_name' (abcd1234) in the mongodb query in the meteor app.
eg.
Template.task_app.tasks = function () {
return Tasks.find({task_name: task_name});
};
Thanks.
You are probably going to want to use a router to take care of paths and rendering certain templates for different paths. The iron-router package is the best one available for that. If you aren't using it already I would highly recommend it.
Once you are using iron-router, getting the query strings and url parameters is made very simple. You can see the section of the documentation here: https://github.com/iron-meteor/iron-router/blob/devel/Guide.md#route-parameters
For the example you gave the route would look something like this:
Router.map(function () {
this.route('home', {
path: '/',
template: 'task_app'
data: function () {
// the data function is an example where this.params is available
// we can access params using this.params
// see the below paths that would match this route
var params = this.params;
// we can access query string params using this.params.query
var queryStringParams = this.params.query;
// query params are added to the 'query' object on this.params.
// given a browser path of: '/?task_name=abcd1234
// this.params.query.task_name => 'abcd1234'
return Tasks.findOne({task_name: this.params.query.task_name});
}
});
});
This would create a route which would render the 'task_app' template with a data context of the first task which matches the task name.
You can also access the url parameters and other route information from template helpers or other functions using Router.current() to get the current route. So for example in a helper you might use Router.current().params.query.task_name to get the current task name. Router.current() is a reactive elements so if it is used within the reactive computation the computation will re-run when any changes are made to the route.

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