Iron-utils

Iron-utils provides convenient client side utilities for Iron Router.

Get Started

Install the package:

meteor add sungwoncho:iron-utils

Utilities

You can use the following utilities anywhere on the client side.

CurrentRoute

CurrentRoute object includes helper methods related to current routes.

CurrentRoute.name

This returns the name of the current route.

Router.route('apple', {
  name: 'apple'
});

Router.go('apple');

CurrentRoute.name
// => 'apple'

CurrentRoute.is(routeName)

This checks if the current route's name is equal to the name passed as the argument.

Router.route('apple', {
  name: 'apple'
});

Router.go('apple');

CurrentRoute.is('apple');
// => true
CurrentRoute.is('banana');
// => false

CurrentRoute.params

This returns an array of parameters passed to the current route. The array also has key-value pairs of parameter names and values.

This means that you can easily retrieve parameters by their names.

Router.route('fruit/:type/:color', {
  name: 'fruit'
});


Router.go('fruit', {type: 'banana', color: 'blue'});

CurrentRoute.params
// => ['banana', 'blue']
CurrentRoute.params.type
// => 'banana'
CurrentRoute.params.color
// => 'blue'

CurrentRoute.hash

Returns a value of the hash parameter passed to the current route.

// On a route '/apple#L1'

CurrentRoute.hash
// => 'L1'

CurrentRoute.query

Returns an object of query parameters passed to the current route.

// On a route '/apple?sort=popularity&limit=10'

CurrentRoute.query
// => {sort: "popularity", limit: "10"}

Use case

The following is an example use case where iron-utils can help you write less code with a clearer meaning.

// -----------------------------------------------------------------
// Before
// -----------------------------------------------------------------
Template.myTemplate.onCreated(function () {
  var self = this

  self.autorun(function () {
    var currentRoute = Router.current();

    if (currentRoute.route.getName() === 'category.show') {
      self.subscribe('topics', currentRoute.params.slug, self.limit.get());
    } else {
      self.subscribe('recent-topics', self.limit.get());
    }
  });
});

// -----------------------------------------------------------------
// After
// -----------------------------------------------------------------
Template.myTemplate.onCreated(function () {
  var self = this

  self.autorun(function () {
    if (CurrentRoute.is('category.show')) {
      self.subscribe('topics', CurrentRoute.params.slug, self.limit.get());
    } else {
      self.subscribe('recent-topics', self.limit.get());
    }
  });
});