Meteor currentUser

Question

Using the node.js framework Meteor -

how come the currentUser variable is defined in a template such as here:

<template name="main_template">
  <div class="container">
  {{#if currentUser}}
  {{> add_player_form_template}}
  {{/if}}
  </div>
</template>

but when I call currentUser from the console, it's undefined:

however, Meteor.userId is defined:

why is this?

Answer 1

{{ currentUser}} is a helper in the main_template template.

In your client Javascript you'll need to define that helper method. Something like:

Template.main_template.helpers({
  currentUser: function() {
    return Meteor.userId();
  }
})

This may help too http://docs.meteor.com/#/basic/templates.

Answer 2

{{ currentUser }} is a template helper that simply calls Meteor.user().

In the console, you need to call Meteor.user().