Initialise controller state in EmberJs: Route#setupController vs Controller#init

Question

There appear to be two alternative ways to set the initial state of a controller in EmberJs:

• Route#setupController
• Controller#init

When is it appropriate to use one over the other? Are they equivalent?

Answer 1

Generally speaking, Controller#init gets called only once when the (usually singleton) controller is created, while Route#setupController is called each time the route is entered.

Any model-related properties should be set from Route#setupController. Other default setup can be handled in Controller#init.

In most Ember apps I have worked on, Route#setupController is used more often than Controller#init.