Possible bug with the auto-generated prepareView() ?

[claydodo]

ampersand-view/ampersand-view.js

Lines 304 to 306 in beb1bdf

	return new subview.constructor({
	parent: self
	});

The auto-generated prepareView function does not provide an el argument to the constructor. As a result, the returned view instance's el may be undefined, causing container.appendChild(view.el) in renderSubview to fail. Is this a bug, or am I using it in a wrong way?

ampersand-view/ampersand-view.js

Lines 221 to 230 in beb1bdf

	renderSubview: function (view, container) {
	if (typeof container === 'string') {
	container = this.query(container);
	}
	if (!container) container = this.el;
	this.registerSubview(view);
	view.render();
	container.appendChild(view.el);
	return view;
	},

I found this issue when trying to use the example provided in ampersand-view's doc:

module.exports = AmpersandView.extend({
    ...
    subviews: {
        ...
        tab: {
            hook: 'switcher',
            constructor: ViewSwitcher
        }
    }
});

[ruiramos]

This should not be a problem if you're trying to render an ampersand-view as a subview, but it is indeed a problem if you're "subrendering" a ViewSwitcher, as its render method needs an el to render into. (unlike regular views, they have no template)

This was indirectly caused by the big debate on whether to replace dom elements or append into them when rendering subviews, that resulted on #132 being merged in.

For now, I'd suggest you to specify a prepareView function that passes on the el when you're rendering a ViewSwitcher.

[claydodo]

Thanks for the reply. I'm using the prepareView approach and it works well. However, I think this issue is indeed a paper-cut for the user (especially when they are using the built-in module according to the official document) and should be handled.

[RickButler]

Late to the party... @claydodo what version of view-switcher are you using? I recently made changes to it so that in conforms to the view conventions.

AmpersandJS/ampersand-view-switcher#37

Try setting view-switcher to 3.0.0 in your package.json

[claydodo]

@RickButler My projects's package.json shows that the view-switcher is version 3.0.0 indeed. The problem may be the missing el of view-switcher in my case.

I'm switching from Backbone to Ampersand recently and find it extremely suitable for my need: neat data structure, nested properties and views, simple and direct logic, etc. Thanks for ALL you guys working for this library.