rendering alternate components under the same flow:router URL - meteor

Question

How can I render two different views in a one page app without changing URLs. I'm using meteor with the default blaze as well as the flow:router package. Right now I have it set up like this:
routes.js..
FlowRouter.route("/", {
name: "App.home",
action() {
BlazeLayout.render("App_body", {
main: "App_home",
mainContent: "calendar"
});
}
});
FlowRouter.route("/list", {
name: "App.list",
action() {
BlazeLayout.render("App_body", { main: "App_home", mainContent: "list" });
}
});
but this way I'm using the url /list and i dont want that. I would like to simply render an alternate component template in the same url. I'm very new to coding so forgive me if this is obvious. Essentially I just want two different view styles: a list and a calendar. So I would like a way to set it up so that a spacebars template can be rendered if a certain button is clicked, and a different one can be rendered instead if another button is clicked.
Thanks so much for any help, i've been at this for a couple of days :)

Answer 1

Create another template, which renders particular view conditionally. Something like this:
FlowRouter.route("/", {
name: "App.home",
action() {
BlazeLayout.render("App_body", {
main: "App_home",
mainContent: "listOrCal"
});
}
});
<template name="listOrCal">
{{#if showList}}
{{> list}}
{{else}}
{{> calendar}}
{{/if}}
<button id="switchView">Switch view</button>
</template>
Template.listOrCal.onCreated(function listOrCalOnCreated() {
this.showList = new ReactiveVar(true);
})
Template.listOrCal.helpers({
showList() {
return Template.instance().showList.get();
}
})
Template.listOrCal.events({
'click #switchView' {
let showList = Template.instance().showList.get();
Template.instance().showList.set(!showList);
}
})

Answer 2

You can handle this within a single template like so:
FlowRouter.route('/', {
name: 'App.home',
action() {
BlazeLayout.render('App_body', { main: 'App_home', mainContent: 'ListOrCalendar' });
}
And then the ListOrCalendar template would look like this:
{{#if displayList}}
{{> List}}
{{else}}
{{> Calendar}}
{{/if}}
<button>Switch</button>
You would set up a ReactiveVar in the ListOrCalendar template:
Template.ListOrCalendar.onCreated(function() {
const instance = this;
instance.displayList = new ReactiveVar(true);
});
See ReactiveVar explanation here (ignore Session)
Then you would have a helper which returns the value of your ReactiveVar:
Template.ListOrCalendar.helpers({
displayList() {
const instance = Template.instance();
return instance.displayList.get();
}
});
Finally, you would hook up an event to change the value of displayList to switch between templates:
Template.ListOrCalendar.events({
"click button"(event, instance) {
const displayListCurrent = instance.displayList.get();
const displayListNew = !displayListCurrent;
instance.displayList.set(displayListNew);
// or, more concisely, instance.displayList.set(!instance.displayList.get());
}
});
So, in summary:
When the template is created, your ReactiveVar is true
so your displayList returns true
so the #if displayList condition in the template is satisfied
and so the List template is displayed
When the button is clicked
The ReactiveVar is set to false
so the displayList helper returns false
so the #if displayList condition in the template is not satisfied and it goes to the else statement
and so, finally, the Calendar template is displayed
When the button is clicked again, the ReactiveVar is toggled back to true, and on we go as above
This might seem daunting or over-complicated, but there's nothing fancy going on here at all. You'll get used to it pretty quickly