Ember.js v1.0.0-rc.1 — How do I get/supply a controller for a programmatically created view?

Question

I'm migrating my application from Ember v1.0.0 pre3 to rc1, and it seems I can no longer grab a global routers instance, nor can I get a controller within a view I create manually.

I have a number of modal screens that don't use routes at the moment (TODO), but for my deadline this week, I need to just get these modals displaying and populating.

I'm creating my modals like:

App.helpModalView = App.HelpModalView.create();
App.helpModalView.append(); 

and handle the modal display in the view's didInsertElement method:

didInsertElement: function() {
   // miscellaneous setup operations
   // ...
   this.$().modal({backdrop:"static"});
},

but inside the actual view class

this.get('controller') == null

Inspecting my various objects, it looks like 'controllerFor' is only available on routers, and I used to grab this info from App.router.get('controllerName')

How can I get a controller from a programmatically created view?

On a similar note, what is the best way to supply a controller for a view I haven't accessed yet? This project has an embarrassing amount of logic in the view layer, that I would like to push into the associated controller.

Answer 1

I had a similar scenario and solved it like this:

            IB.TreeNavController = Em.Controller.extend({
                container: IB.__container__,
                init: function() {
                  this._super();
                }              
            });

            IB.TreeNavView = Em.View.extend({
                templateName: 'treeNav',

                init: function() {
                    this._super();
                    var ctrl = IB.TreeNavController.create();
                    this.set('controller', ctrl);
                },
            });

So I've defined a Controller which is instantiated in the init() of the view. The view can be instantiated programmatically. IB is the name of the app in this example.

Answer 2

When you render something like this:

 this.render('treeNav', { controller: this.controllerFor('treeNav')};

this.controllerFor could be anything what you want - even one that is not assigned to any view yet.