Exception in template helper: TypeError: Cannot read property 'profile' of undefined

Question

Now I had a similar problem before where I was getting this error:

Exception in template helper: TypeError: Cannot read property 'profile' of undefined

The same thing is happening again but on the second order, which contains another users profile information (the first profile is defined). How would I get it to re-render in {{#each orders}}?

It also appears that info.firstName, lastName, and building gets called 3 times for some reason when there are only 2 orders...

In HTML:

<template name="orderItem">
  <section>
    <form role="form" id="ordersList">
      <div>
        {{#each orders}}
          <input type="text" name="name" value="{{info.firstName}} {{info.lastName}}">
        {{/each}}
      </div>
      <div>
        {{#each orders}}
          <input type="text" name="building" value={{info.building}}>
        {{/each}}
      </div>
      <div>
        {{#each orders}}
          <input type="text" name="featuredDish" value={{featuredDish}}>
        {{/each}}
      </div>
    </form>
  </section>
</template>

In javascript:

Template.orderItem.orders = function() {
  var todaysDate = new Date();
  return Orders.find({dateOrdered: {"$gte": todaysDate}});
};

Template.orderItem.info = function() {
  var userId = this.userId;
  var user = Meteor.users.findOne(userId)
  var firstName = user.profile.firstName;
  var lastName = user.profile.lastName;
  var building = user.profile.building;

  return {
    firstName: firstName,
    lastName: lastName,
    building: building
  }
};

Appreciate the help!

Answer 1

This error is common issue. You are trying to access user object which is undefined. Function info doesn't check if user is correct object. Use technique called guarding :

Template.orderItem.info = function() {
  var userId = this.userId;
  var user = Meteor.users.findOne(userId)

  var firstName = user && user.profile && user.profile.firstName;
  var lastName = user && user.profile  && user.profile.lastName;
  var building = user && user.profile  && user.profile.building;

  return {
    firstName: firstName,
    lastName: lastName,
    building: building
  }
};

Above code won't throw any error even if user is undefined.

I assume that you have removed autopublish package. Probably you haven't published/subscribed from/to Meteor.users collection, so there is no data to find in minimongo.

Remember to publish Meteor.users collection and subscribe to it:

Meteor.publish("users", function(){
  return Meteor.users.find({},{fields:{profile:1}})
})

Meteor.subscribe("users");

Publish certain information for Meteor.users and more information for Meteor.user