how to set an Ember controller property

Question

The application template to an Ember app I'm looking at uses a conditional check to determine which links to display

{{#if isAuthenticated}}
    link
{{else}}
    link...
{{/if}}

The isAuthenticated property is set conditionally based on whether the user is registered/logged in

App.AuthController = Ember.ObjectController.extend({
    currentUser: null,
    isAuthenticated: Em.computed.notEmpty("currentUser.email"),
    login: function(route) {
      var me;
      me = this;
      return $.ajax({
        url: "/users/sign_in.json",
        type: "POST",
        data: {
          "user[email]": route.currentModel.email,
          "user[password]": route.currentModel.password
        },
        success: function(data) {

          me.set('currentUser', data.user);

         return route.transitionTo('user', data.user);

The app is able to process registration and login without a problem, however, the application template is always showing the links for when a user is not authenticated. Is there some reason why isAuthenticated wouldn't be getting updated upon login based on the code you see here?

Answer 1

If @mavilein and @chopper allow me to post a definitive answer to get this question fully covered, then here it goes:

ApplicationController

Since your ApplicationController is the one backing up your application template, you should requiere the AuthController using the needs API like this:

App.ApplicationController = Ember.ObjectController.extend({
  needs: ['auth']
  ...
});

Application template

Then you can access all of your AuthController's properties prefixing the access with controllers.auth, therefore in your application template you can then do:

{{#if controllers.auth.isAuthenticated}}
  link
{{else}}
  link...
{{/if}}

If you where to don't like the long name, there is also a shortcut for it:

 App.ApplicationController = Ember.ObjectController.extend({
  needs: ['auth'],
  isAuthenticated: Ember.computed.alias('controllers.auth.isAuthenticated')
  ...
});

Doing this, you can then in your application template simply do:

{{#if isAuthenticated}}
  link
{{else}}
  link...
{{/if}}

which in this case refers to the ApplicationController isAuthenticated property which in turn is computed from the originating controller AuthController.

Hope it helps.