Calling one helper from another helper within the context of a template (Meteor 0.9.4)

Question

As of Meteor 0.9.4, defining Template.MyTemplate.MyHelperFunction() is no longer valid.

We deprecated the Template.someTemplate.myHelper = ... syntax in favor of Template.someTemplate.helpers(...). Using the older syntax still works, but it prints a deprecation warning to the console.

This seemed fine to me, as it would (at the least) save some mis-typing and duplicated text. However, I soon discovered that the way I was building Meteor apps had leaned on an ability that this new version has deprecated. In my apps, I've been defining helpers/functions with the old syntax, then calling those methods from other helpers. I found it helped me keep my code clean and consistent.

For example, I might have a control like this:

//Common Method
Template.myTemplate.doCommonThing = function()
{
    /* Commonly used method is defined here */
}

//Other Methods
Template.myTemplate.otherThing1 = function()
{
    /* Do proprietary thing here */
    Template.myTemplate.doCommonThing();
}

Template.myTemplate.otherThing2 = function()
{
    /* Do proprietary thing here */
    Template.myTemplate.doCommonThing();
}

But this does not appear to be available with the new method Meteor suggests (which makes me think I was wrong all along). My question is, What is the preferred way to share common, template-specific logic between a template's helpers?

Answer 1

Sorry if I'm being dull, but couldn't you declare the function as an object and assign it to multiple helpers? For instance:

// Common methods
doCommonThing = function(instance) // don't use *var* so that it becomes a global
{
    /* Commonly used method is defined here */
}

Template.myTemplate.helpers({
    otherThing1: function() {
        var _instance = this; // assign original instance *this* to local variable for later use
        /* Do proprietary thing here */
        doCommonThing(_instance); // call the common function, while passing in the current template instance
    },
    otherThing2: function() {
        var _instance = this;
        /* Do some other proprietary thing here */
        doCommonThing(_instance);
    }
});

By the way, if you notice you're constantly duplicating the same helpers across multiple templates, it might help to use Template.registerHelper instead of assigning the same function to multiple places.