Emberjs DefaultTo Computed Property

Question

Often, I want my views to default to a specific value if the actual model property is not set. This placeholder text/value is strictly view only and hence, should not be placed in the model imo.

So, this is what I end up doing:

// Sample 'Model' for illustration purposes only.
var myModel = Ember.Object.extend({
  title: null,

  description: null,

  thumbUrl: null
});

/**
 * Sample View
 * Render view properties which are actually 
 * computed of the actual 'content' properties
 */
var myView = Ember.View.extend({
  template: Ember.Handlebars.compile('<p>Title: {{view.title}}</p> <p>Description: {{view.description}}</p> <p>Image: <img {{bindAttr src="view.thumbUrl"}}/></p>'),

  title: function () {
    return this.get('content.title') || 'Title goes here';// placeholder 'title' text
  }.property('content.title'),

  description: function () {
    return this.get('content.description') || 'This is your description'; // placeholder 'description'
  }.property('content.description'),

  thumbUrl: function () {
    return this.get('content.thumbUrl') || 'http://placehold.it/100x100';
  }.property('content.thumbUrl')
});

Any suggestions on how can I reduce boilerplate on defining defaults on all those properties i.e. 'title', 'description' and 'thumbUrl' ?

I looked into Ember.computed.defaultTo but failed to understand on how I can use it. This is how I envision it in action:

var myView = Ember.View.extend({
  template: Ember.Handlebars.compile('<p>Title: {{view.title}}</p> <p>Description: {{view.description}}</p> <p>Image: <img {{bindAttr src="view.thumbUrl"}}/></p>'),

  title: Ember.computed.defaultTo('content.title', 'Title goes here'),

  description: Ember.computed.defaultTo('content.description', 'This is your description'),

  thumbUrl: Ember.computed.defaultTo('content.thumbUrl', 'http://placehold.it/100x100')
});

So how can this be done ?

If there are better approaches to do this type of a thing, I would like to hear them in the comments.

Also, pointers to what Ember.computed.defaultTo does would be really helpful as well.

Answer 1

This is not what Ember.computed.defaultTo is intended to do. Ember.computed.defaultTo takes a single defaultPath parameter. From the docs:

computed property which acts like a standard getter and setter, but defaults to the value from defaultPath.

If you read the test, it sheds some light.

testBoth('Ember.computed.defaultTo', function(get, set) {
  var obj = { source: 'original source value' };
  Ember.defineProperty(obj, 'copy', Ember.computed.defaultTo('source'));

  equal(get(obj, 'copy'), 'original source value');

  set(obj, 'copy', 'new copy value');
  equal(get(obj, 'source'), 'original source value');
  equal(get(obj, 'copy'), 'new copy value');

  set(obj, 'source', 'new source value');
  equal(get(obj, 'copy'), 'new copy value');

  set(obj, 'copy', null);
  equal(get(obj, 'copy'), 'new source value');
});

Instead, you could write your own helper like so:

Ember.computed.defaultValue = function(dependentKey, defaultValue) {
  return Ember.computed(dependentKey, function() {
    return Ember.get(this, dependentKey) || defaultValue;
  });
};

var myView = Ember.View.extend({
  template: Ember.Handlebars.compile('<p>Title: {{view.title}}</p> <p>Description: {{view.description}}</p> <p>Image: <img {{bindAttr src="view.thumbUrl"}}/></p>'),

  title: Ember.computed.defaultValue('content.title', 'Title goes here'),

  description: Ember.computed.defaultValue('content.description', 'This is your description'),

  thumbUrl: Ember.computed.defaultValue('content.thumbUrl', 'http://placehold.it/100x100')
});

If you'd rather not create your own helper function, an alternative approach would be to use separate properties for default values and then use Ember.computed.any.

var myView = Ember.View.extend({
  template: Ember.Handlebars.compile('<p>Title: {{view.title}}</p> <p>Description: {{view.description}}</p> <p>Image: <img {{bindAttr src="view.thumbUrl"}}/></p>'),

  defaultTitle: 'Title goes here',
  title: Ember.computed.any('content.title', 'defaultTitle'),

  defaultDescription: 'This is your description',
  description: Ember.computed.any('content.description', 'defaultDescription'),

  defaultThumbUrl: 'http://placehold.it/100x100',
  thumbUrl: Ember.computed.any('content.thumbUrl', 'defaultThumbUrl')
});