How to make linkTo dynamic in ember?

Asked By: Anonymous

<script type="text/x-handlebars" data-template-name="patient">
    <ul class="nav">
    {{#each menuItem in menuItems}}
        <li>{{#linkTo "dashboard.summary" menuItem}}{{menuItem.name}}{{/linkTo}}</li>
    {{/each}}
    </ul>
    {{outlet}}
</script>

In the above code, how do I make linkTo a dynamic link instead of the hardcoded “dashboard.summary”? For example, "dashboard."+menuItem.name.

Solution

Answered By: Anonymous

You could register a simple Handlebars helper that wraps the linkTo helper.

var linkTo = Ember.Handlebars.helpers.linkTo;
Ember.Handlebars.registerHelper('myLinkTo', function(name, suffixPath) {
  var suffix = Ember.Handlebars.get(this, suffixPath);    
  arguments = [].slice.call(arguments, 2);
  arguments.unshift(name + '.' + suffix);

  return linkTo.apply(this, arguments);
});

Then in your template you could write:

{{#each menuItems}}
    <li>{{#myLinkTo "dashboard" name this}}{{name}}{{/myLinkTo}}</li>
{{/each}}

The helper will resolve the second argument and append it to the first, preceded by a dot.

Edit: this behaviour can now be achieved without a custom helper. See c4p’s answer for the contemporary solution to this problem. The solution above was last tested with Ember 1.0.0-rc.1.