Iron-Router checking document existence before route runs - meteor

Question

I have a basic chat room App where you can create a room from the main page which calls this method :
createNewRoom: function (){
//Room containers unique ID for the object
var room = Rooms.insert({
createdAt: new Date()
});
return room;
},
The rooms are routed like this :
Router.route('/rooms/:_id', {
name: 'room',
template: 'chatRoom'
});
I am trying to set it up though so that you can't just type any random ID and get a room, it has to already exist. So I created this iron-router hook:
var checkRoomExists = function() {
var room = Rooms.findOne({_id : this.params._id});
if(typeof(room) == "undefined"){
Router.go('home');
}
else {
this.next();
}
}
Router.onBeforeAction(checkRoomExists, {
only : ['room']
});
room in the checkRoomExists always returns undefined though, even if I test the exact same statement elsewhere with the same _id and the room exists. So if I send the link to someone else it will redirect even if the room exists. Is this the wrong type of hook or is there a better way to accomplish this?'
Edit some additional information:
This is the code that creates a room the first time around :
Template.home.events({
'click #create-room' : function(event){
event.preventDefault();
Meteor.call('createNewRoom', function(error, result){
if (error){
console.log(error);
}else {
Session.set("room_id", result);
Router.go('room', {_id: result});
}
});
}
});
If I try to use the full link after, like http://localhost:3000/rooms/eAAHcfwFutRFWHM56 for example, it doesn't work.

Answer 1

I am trying to avoid users going to some random ID like
localhost:3000/rooms/asdasd if a room with that ID doesn't already
exist.
If you want to do this you can follow the next.
on the Layout configure add this.
Router.configure({
layoutTemplate: 'layout',
loadingTemplate: 'loading',
notFoundTemplate: 'notFound' //add the notFoundTemplate.
});
and this simple onBeforeAction.
Router.onBeforeAction('dataNotFound', {only: 'room'});
Create some sample template like this.
<template name="notFound">
<span> Dam this route don't exist go back to home
</template>
OPTION
Im not sure if this still working but you can define this on the very last of the routes.js js
this.route('notFound', {
path: '*' //this will work like the notFoundTemplate
});
NOTE
If you don't have layout template use like this.
Router.route('/rooms/:_id', {
name: 'room',
notFoundTemplate: 'authorNotFound',
template: 'chatRoom'
});