Class Observable

Adds an observer on a property.

This is the core method used to register an observer for a property.

Once you call this method, any time the key's value is set, your observer will be notified. Note that the observers are triggered any time the value is set, regardless of whether it has actually changed. Your observer should be prepared to handle that.

There are two common invocation patterns for .addObserver():

• Passing two arguments:
• the name of the property to observe (as a string)
• the function to invoke (an actual function)
• Passing three arguments:
• the name of the property to observe (as a string)
• the target object (will be used to look up and invoke a function on)
• the name of the function to invoke on the target object (as a string).

import Component from '@ember/component';

export default Component.extend({
  init() {
    this._super(...arguments);

    // the following are equivalent:

    // using three arguments
    this.addObserver('foo', this, 'fooDidChange');

    // using two arguments
    this.addObserver('foo', (...args) => {
      this.fooDidChange(...args);
    });
  },

  fooDidChange() {
    // your custom logic code
  }
});

Observer Methods

Observer methods have the following signature:

import Component from '@ember/component';

export default Component.extend({
  init() {
    this._super(...arguments);
    this.addObserver('foo', this, 'fooDidChange');
  },

  fooDidChange(sender, key, value, rev) {
    // your code
  }
});

The sender is the object that changed. The key is the property that changes. The value property is currently reserved and unused. The rev is the last property revision of the object when it changed, which you can use to detect if the key value has really changed or not.

Usually you will not need the value or revision parameters at the end. In this case, it is common to write observer methods that take only a sender and key value as parameters or, if you aren't interested in any of these values, to write an observer that has no parameters at all.

Returns the cached value of a computed property, if it exists. This allows you to inspect the value of a computed property without accidentally invoking it if it is intended to be generated lazily.

Set the value of a property to the current value minus some amount.

player.decrementProperty('lives');
orc.decrementProperty('health', 5);

Retrieves the value of a property from the object.

This method is usually similar to using object[keyName] or object.keyName, however it supports both computed properties and the unknownProperty handler.

Because get unifies the syntax for accessing all these kinds of properties, it can make many refactorings easier, such as replacing a simple property with a computed property, or vice versa.

Computed Properties

Computed properties are methods defined with the property modifier declared at the end, such as:

import { computed } from '@ember/object';

fullName: computed('firstName', 'lastName', function() {
  return this.get('firstName') + ' ' + this.get('lastName');
})

When you call get on a computed property, the function will be called and the return value will be returned instead of the function itself.

Unknown Properties

Likewise, if you try to call get on a property whose value is undefined, the unknownProperty() method will be called on the object. If this method returns any value other than undefined, it will be returned instead. This allows you to implement "virtual" properties that are not defined upfront.

To get the values of multiple properties at once, call getProperties with a list of strings or an array:

record.getProperties('firstName', 'lastName', 'zipCode');
// { firstName: 'John', lastName: 'Doe', zipCode: '10011' }

is equivalent to:

record.getProperties(['firstName', 'lastName', 'zipCode']);
// { firstName: 'John', lastName: 'Doe', zipCode: '10011' }

Set the value of a property to the current value plus some amount.

person.incrementProperty('age');
team.incrementProperty('score', 2);

Convenience method to call propertyWillChange and propertyDidChange in succession.

Notify the observer system that a property has just changed.

Sometimes you need to change a value directly or indirectly without actually calling get() or set() on it. In this case, you can use this method instead. Calling this method will notify all observers that the property has potentially changed value.

Remove an observer you have previously registered on this object. Pass the same key, target, and method you passed to addObserver() and your target will no longer receive notifications.

Sets the provided key or path to the value.

record.set("key", value);

This method is generally very similar to calling object["key"] = value or object.key = value, except that it provides support for computed properties, the setUnknownProperty() method and property observers.

Computed Properties

If you try to set a value on a key that has a computed property handler defined (see the get() method for an example), then set() will call that method, passing both the value and key instead of simply changing the value itself. This is useful for those times when you need to implement a property that is composed of one or more member properties.

Unknown Properties

If you try to set a value on a key that is undefined in the target object, then the setUnknownProperty() handler will be called instead. This gives you an opportunity to implement complex "virtual" properties that are not predefined on the object. If setUnknownProperty() returns undefined, then set() will simply set the value on the object.

Property Observers

In addition to changing the property, set() will also register a property change with the object. Unless you have placed this call inside of a beginPropertyChanges() and endPropertyChanges(), any "local" observers (i.e. observer methods declared on the same object), will be called immediately. Any "remote" observers (i.e. observer methods declared on another object) will be placed in a queue and called at a later time in a coalesced manner.

Sets a list of properties at once. These properties are set inside a single beginPropertyChanges and endPropertyChanges batch, so observers will be buffered.

record.setProperties({ firstName: 'Charles', lastName: 'Jolley' });

Set the value of a boolean property to the opposite of its current value.

starship.toggleProperty('warpDriveEngaged');