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I have an app where you can choose (or add if they don't exist!) a superhero/villain character from a certain universe on the first page; then outfit him with weapons, clothes, and gadgets on the second page (build).
I have this route defined:
Router.route('/build/:character', {
name: 'build'
waitOn: Meteor.subscribe('characters', {name: this.params.character})
//and a few other subscriptions and sessions as well for the items
//and stuff, but those don't matter here.
}
The link from the specific character, though, passes along a query as well:
<a href="{{pathFor 'build' query=this.universe}}">
So the final link could look something like this:
/build/Aquaman?DCComics
Now the page you are on will display a list of weapons and gadgets where you could also add other stuff if you so wish. Then you are supposed to drag the items you want to include onto your version of this hero.
Problem is, at this point the app doesn't know you even want to create your own hero. Maybe the user is just looking through them for fun. There's a button that the user has to click first to initialize the creating process, and that's when the actual _id is created, something like this:
Meteor.methods({
buildHero: function(heroCharacterName, heroUniverse) {
var heroToAdd = {}
heroToAdd['characterName'] = heroCharacterName
heroToAdd['universe'] = heroUniverse
heroToAdd['_createdAt'] = new Date()
CreatedHeroes.insert(heroToAdd, function() {
if (! error)
//Update the subscription somehow...
})
}
})
So, the _id that is created here in the new Collection must be passed along to a subscription somehow, because I don't want the user to see other personal heroes that have been created, only his own newly created one.
The solution I have in mind is adding the _id onto the URL in form of a hastag, and use this.params.hash in the subscription like so:
Router.route('/build/:character', {
name: 'build'
waitOn: [Meteor.subscribe('characters', {name: this.params.character}),
Meteor.subscribe('createdheroes', this.params.hash)]
}
First of all, is this a valid approach? If so, how do I accomplish it; how do I actually update the URL to include this hash?
If not, what would be a better approach?
I think you have to handle this logic in the data context or in a template helper and not in the way of subscribing/publishing.
If I was you I would besure that the newly created item is being published and subscribed by the client and modify your search query just that it only adds the newly created item.
I am not sure if I understand your question well but what I got, you will know the last _id which was used on your insert.
Instead of letting done this automatically by meteor, just use the meteor method to create / get that _id value >> see Meteor Documentation
var new_id = new Mongo.ObjectID()
col1.insert({ _id: new_id, ... });
col2.insert({ ..., ref_col1_id: new_id, ... });
Here is the problem :
I am currently programming a chatapp based on what i found on github (https://github.com/sasikanth513/chatDemo)
I am refactoring it with iron-router.
When I go to the page (clicking on the link) I get an existing chatroom (that's what I want)
When I refresh the page (F5) I get a new created chatroom ! (what i want is getting the existing chatroom ...)
Here is the code in ironrouter :
Router.route('/chatroom', {
name: 'chatroom',
data: function() {
var currentId = Session.get('currentId'); //id of the other person
var res=ChatRooms.findOne({chatIds:{$all:[currentId,Meteor.userId()]}});
console.log(res);
if(res){
Session.set("roomid",res._id);
}
else{
var newRoom= ChatRooms.insert({chatIds:[currentId, Meteor.userId()],messages:[]});
Session.set('roomid',newRoom);
}
}
});
You can find my github repo with the whole project : https://github.com/balibou/textr
Thanx a lot !
Your route data depends on Session variables which will be erased after a refresh. You have a few options but the easiest would be to put the room id directly into the route: '/chatroom/:_id'. Then you can use this.params._id to fetch the appropriate ChatRooms document. Note that you could still keep '/chatroom' for cases where the room doesn't exist, however you'd need to redirect to '/chatroom/:_id' after the insert.
In meteor, the Session object is empty when the client starts, and loading/refreshing the page via HTTP "restarts" the client. To deal with this issue, you could persist the user's correspondent id in a Meteor.user attribute, so that you could easily do:
Router.route('/chatroom', {
name: 'chatroom',
data: function() {
var currentId = Meteor.user().profile.correspondentId;
var res=ChatRooms.findOne({chatIds:{$all:[currentId,Meteor.userId()]}});
console.log(res);
if(res){
Session.set("roomid",res._id);
}
else{
var newRoom= ChatRooms.insert({chatIds:[currentId, Meteor.userId()],messages:[]});
Session.set('roomid',newRoom);
}
}
});
This would work, with the proper permissions, but I would recommend not allowing the direct update of that value on the client (I don't know if you want users to be able to override their correspondentId). So if you want to secure this process, replace all that code with a server method call, where your updates are safer.
Another (and more common case) solution was given by David Weldon, if you don't mind having ids in your URL (and therefore not a single url)
There are multiple examples on publish/subscribe but not clear on what is the best practice for storing custom data in the in-built "users" collection in Meteor (especially in the new possibility of template specific collections).
For example, I need to store user browse history - something that is accessible through Meteor.user().settings.history.lastvisited[]
The challenge is:
Is any special publish / subscribe required for the above? (the
reason being, I am assuming the users collection is already
published and available on client side - so do we need another?)
How to take care of edge cases where user is new and hence settings.history object may not be defined? Can we have a special publish that automatically takes care of creating an empty object if the settings is undefined? How to do it?
I did this :
// server side
Meteor.publish('userSettings', function (maxRows) {
if (this.userId) {
return Meteor.users.find({ _id: this.userId }, { fields: {'settings':1}});
}
this.ready();
});
//client side
Meteor.subscribe('userSettings');
But I do not see anyway how I can access the published "userSettings" object on the client side - what is missing ??
You can create a field and set it to false/'', on each user you create using the accountsOnCreateUser method.
Accounts.onCreateUser(function(options, user) {
//this function gets called each time a user has been created on the Meteor.user collection
if (options.profile)
user.settings = ''; //this is just and example.
return user;
})
Now the publish looks ok, but in order to get it work im always use a Tracker.autorun function.
Tracker.autorun(function(){
Meteor.subscribe('userSettings');
})
Why the autorun? well if you don't call the auto run here, the subscription get only called 1 time when the apps loads, and not when the user documents.
Take care of yours deny/allow permissions, check this meteor:common mistakes post on the Profile editing section
Also the subscribe function have a callback function. Meteor.subscribe(name, [arg1, arg2...], [callbacks]), so you can do something like this.
var myUserSubscription = Meteor.subscribe('userSettings',function(){
console.log("ok im here on the client side")
console.log("this user subscription is ready " + myUserSubscription.ready())
})
console.log("outside the subscription why not? " + myUserSubscription.ready();
About ready();
True if the server has marked the subscription as ready. A reactive
data source.
Let's say I have a todo app, and I want to make sure that every user that registers has at least one todo to start with, something like "First todo to cross off!", how would I do that in meteor?
In general, the way I see it, I can do it when the user is created for the first time (ideal), or check to see whether they need a new todo every time they log in (less ideal). In the latter case, I can do a check for Todos.findOne(), and if the count is 0, add one. However, seems that whether I do this in my router when the page loads, or on some template's .rendered function, the collection I'm checking hasn't been loaded yet, so I always create a new todo, even if one really does exist. So it'd be great if someone could explain how to get around that.
But, what I'd ideally want is the ability to just create a new Todo when the user is created. There is a Accounts.onCreateUser method, but that is used to add additional info to user profile, not a post-create hook. There's also a method to programmatically create the user using Accounts.createNewUser with a callback, but I'm using the accounts-ui package so am not programmatically adding users. In a less ideal case, I could check for the Todo whenever the user logs in, but even in that case, there seems to be a federated Accounts.loginWithXService login, so not sure how to handle the callback when any user logs in, regardless of service type.
I think I must be missing something simple, so apologies if this is super obvious. Any help is appreciated.
The Meteor API now has the hook onCreateUser:
Accounts.onCreateUser(function (options, user) {
Todos.insert({
owner: user._id,
text: "First todo to cross off!",
});
// We still want the default hook's 'profile' behavior.
if (options.profile)
user.profile = options.profile;
return user;
});
I used the _.wrap method described above but wanted to include an additional suggestion. It's a good idea to call the original callback from your new custom callback. Meteor does some things on the callback that we don't want to miss.
Modified code that worked like a champ for me:
Accounts.createUser = _.wrap(Accounts.createUser, function(createUser) {
// Store the original arguments
var args = _.toArray(arguments).slice(1),
user = args[0];
origCallback = args[1];
var newCallback = function(error) {
// do my stuff
origCallback.call(this, error);
};
createUser(user, newCallback);
});
If you are using the UserAccounts package: postSignUpHook now exists.
Splendido just merged my pull request for exactly this issue.
AccountsTemplates.configure({
/*...*/
postSignUpHook: /*[callback with your actions post full user creation goes here]*/,
/*...*/
}
Documentation (You'll need to scroll down it's the last hook):
func(userId, info) Called, server side only, just after a successfull user account creation, post submitting the pwdForm for sign-up: allows for custom actions on the data being submitted after we are sure a new user was successfully created. A common use might be applying roles to the user, as this is only possible after fully completing user creation in alanning:roles. The userId is available as the first parameter, so that user object may be retrieved. The password is not available as it's already encrypted, though the encrypted password may be found in info if of use.
You can piggyback onto functions that are called by Meteor by wrapping them. I'm also using the accounts-ui and accounts-password packages and I use Underscore's _.wrap method to redefine the loginWithPassword function. Underscore is included in Meteor by default.
I use something like this for logging in:
Meteor.loginWithPassword = _.wrap(Meteor.loginWithPassword, function(login) {
// Store the original arguments
var args = _.toArray(arguments).slice(1),
user = args[0],
pass = args[1],
origCallback = args[2];
// Create a new callback function
// Could also be defined elsewhere outside of this wrapped function
var newCallback = function() { console.info('logged in'); }
// Now call the original login function with
// the original user, pass plus the new callback
login(user, pass, newCallback);
});
In this specific case, the code above would go in your client code somewhere.
For Accounts.createUser, it might look something like this (also somewhere in client code):
Accounts.createUser = _.wrap(Accounts.createUser, function(createUser) {
// Store the original arguments
var args = _.toArray(arguments).slice(1),
user = args[0],
origCallback = args[1];
// Create a new callback function
// Could also be defined elsewhere outside of this wrapped function
// This is called on the client
var newCallback = function(err) {
if (err) {
console.error(err);
} else {
console.info('success');
}
};
// Now call the original create user function with
// the original user object plus the new callback
createUser(user, newCallback);
});
Hope that's helpful.
One of the Meteor devs answered this question in Meteor google group: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/meteor-talk/KSz7O-tt4w8
Basically, right now, there is no createUser hook when using accounts-ui, only when programmatically doing so via Accounts.createUser. Also, there are no hooks for login, unless using the lower-level login functions like loginWithFacebook, etc. I haven't figured out an ideal way around this yet, but a few ways of handling it:
if needing to enter a default value into a collection, in that collection's subscription, use the onComplete argument. In this callback, if there are no entries in collection, add one. This avoids the first problem I mentioned in my post about not knowing when a collection was loaded, though not ideal since collection could be empty because user already removed first default one:
Meteor.subscribe 'todos', user: Meteor.userId(), () ->
todo = Todos.findOne()
unless todo
Todos.insert user: Meteor.userId()
you can set up a login hook by using the Meteor.autorun reactive method to check for a change in Meteor.userId(). That'll only get called when the user logs in/reloads the page. This is more useful for non-collection stuff since the collection is not guaranteed to be loaded when Meteor.userId is set:
Meteor.autorun () ->
if Meteor.userId()
console.log 'Do some post login hook'
So I think the efficient solution is still out there somewhere, but wanted to update this post with workarounds I had found in the meantime.
I think this answer this question better: How can I create users server side in Meteor?
in resume:
Accounts.createUser({
username: username,
email : email,
password : password,
profile : {
//publicly visible fields like firstname goes here
}
});
check the meteor docs for more: http://docs.meteor.com/#/full/accounts_createuser
Suppose I write:
new Meteor.Collection("foos");
new Meteor.Collection("bars");
Is there an API for accessing those collections by name? Something like Meteor.Collection.get(name), where name is "foos" or "bars"? I know I could write something like
var MyCollections = {
foos: new Meteor.Collection("foos");
bars: new Meteor.Collection("bars");
}
and then use MyCollections[name], but I'd prefer to use an existing API if one exists.
Based on Shane Donelley's mongoinspector
https://github.com/shanedonnelly1/mongoinspector
getCollection = function (string) {
for (var globalObject in window) {
if (window[globalObject] instanceof Meteor.Collection) {
if (globalObject === string) {
return (window[globalObject]);
break;
};
}
}
return undefined; // if none of the collections match
};
I've just found that package : https://github.com/dburles/mongo-collection-instances/
It allow you to
Foo1 = new Mongo.Collection('foo'); // local
Foo2 = new Mongo.Collection('foo', { connection: connection });
Mongo.Collection.get('foo') // returns instance of Foo1
Mongo.Collection.get('foo', { connection: connection });
// returns instance of Foo2
Hope it will help
This feature was added to Meteor in Feb 2016: "Provide a way to access collections from stores on the client"
It works like this:
Meteor.connection._stores['tasks']._getCollection();
And I was using it as follows to test inserts using the javascript console:
Meteor.connection._stores['tasks']._getCollection().insert({text:'test'});
For the insert it required the insecure package to still be installed otherwise got an access denied message.
As far as I can see in the collection.js source there currently is no way in the api to get an existing Collection by name, once it has already been initialized on the server. It probably wouldn't be hard to add that feature.
So, why not fork Meteor and submit a patch or create a smart package and share it I'm sure there are others out there who'd like the same feature.
With https://github.com/dburles/mongo-collection-instances you can use Mongo.Collection.get('collectionname')
Note that the parameter you're inserting is the same one you use when creating the collection. So if you're using const Products = new Mongo.Collection('products') then you should use get('products') (lowercase).
Note that they have a return value, so you can just do
var Patterns = new Meteor.Collection("patterns");
and use Patterns everywhere.
And when you need to subscribe to server updates, provide "patterns" to Meteor.subscribe().
If you have the same code for multiple collections, the chance is high that you're doing something wrong from a software engineering viewpoint; why not use a single collection with a type field (or something else that differentiates the documents) and use that instead of using multiple collections?
Rather than looking, I've just been doing:
Foos = new Meteor.Collection("foos");
or possibly put it inside another object. I haven't really been making a Collections collection object.
It seems there is no way to get at the wrapped Meteor.Collection object without saving it at creation time, as others have mentioned.
But there is at least a way to list all created collections, and actually access the corresponding Mongo LocalCollection object. They are available from any Meteor Collection object, so to keep it generalistic you can create a dummy collection just for this. Use a method as such (CoffeeScript):
dummy = new Meteor.Collection 'dummy'
getCollection = (name) ->
dummy._driver.collections[name]
These objects do have all the find, findOne, update et al methods, and even some that Meteor doesn't seem to expose, like pauseObservers and resumeObservers which seem interesting. But I haven't tried fiddling with this mongo LocalCollection reference directly to knowif it will update the server collection accordingly.
var bars = new Meteor.Collection("foos");
Judging by what the collection.js does, the line we use to instantiate the collection object opens a connection to the database and looks for the collection matching the name we give. So in this case a connection is made and the collection 'foos' is bound to the Meteor.Collection object 'bars'. See collection.js AND remote_collection_driver.js within the mongo-livedata package.
As is the way with MongoDB, whilst you can, you don't have to explicitly create collections. As stated in the MongoDB documentation:
A collection is created when the first document is inserted.
So, I think what you're after is what you already have - unless I've totally misunderstood what you're intentions are.
You can always roll your own automatic collection getter.
Say you have a couple of collections called "Businesses" and "Clients". Put a reference each into some "collections" object and register a Handlebars helper to access those "collections" by collections["name"].
i.e. put something like this on the client-side main.js:
collections = collections || {};
collections.Businesses = Businesses;
collections.Clients = Clients;
Handlebars.registerHelper("getCollection", function(coll) {
return collections[coll].find();
});
Then in your HTML, just refer to the collection by name:
{{#each getCollection 'Businesses'}}
<div> Business: {{_id}} </div>
{{/each}}
{{#each getCollection 'Clients'}}
<div> Client: {{_id}} </div>
{{/each}}
Look ma, no more generic "list all records" boilerplate js required!