ember-link

Introduces a new Link primitive to pass around self-contained references to routes, like URLs, but with state (isActive, ...) and methods (open, ...). Also brings along an accompanying template helper for easy usage in templates.

ember-link does to routing what ember-concurrency did to asynchrony!

— /r/whatjawsdid

Installation

Install ember-link with:

ember install ember-link

Usage

You can use ember-link in a declarative form with a (link) helper or imperatively with the LinkManager Service.

(link) Helper Example

Use the (link) helper to create a link primitive and attach it to an element.

{{#let (link "about") as |l|}}
  <a href={{l.url}} {{on "click" l.open}}>
    About us
  </a>
{{/let}}

LinkManager Service Example

Use the LinkManager.createLink() method to create a link programmatically.

import Contoller from '@ember/controller';
import { service } from '@ember/service';
import type { LinkManagerService } from 'ember-link';

export default class PageHeader extends Controller {
  @service declare linkManager: LinkManagerService;

  aboutUsLink = this.linkManager.createLink('about');
}

Working with Primitives

The idea of ember-link is to be able to create link primitives, that you can pass around. Create links at route level and then pass them into components.

A more in-depth guide is available at using primitives.

Testing

ember-link has testing support on board, preparing the environment with setupLink() and linkFor() to create a link to a route on the fly:

import { click, render } from '@ember/test-helpers';
import { hbs } from 'ember-cli-htmlbars';
import { module, test } from 'qunit';
import { setupRenderingTest } from 'ember-qunit';

import { linkFor, setupLink } from 'ember-link/test-support';

import type { TestContext as BaseTestContext } from '@ember/test-helpers';
import type { TestLink } from 'ember-link/test-support';

interface TestContext extends BaseTestContext {
  link: TestLink;
}

module('`setupLink` example', function (hooks) {
  setupRenderingTest(hooks);
  setupLink(hooks);

  test('using link in render tests', async function (this: TestContext, assert) {
    // arrange
    this.link = linkFor('some.route');
    this.link.onTransitionTo = () => assert.step('link clicked');

    await render(hbs`
      {{#let this.link as |l|}}
        <a href={{l.url}} {{on "click" l.open}}>Click me</a>
      {{/let}}
    `);

    // act
    await click('a');

    // assert
    assert.verifySteps(['link clicked']);
  });
});

Related RFCs / Projects

• ember-engines-router-service: Allows you to use ember-link inside engines
• ember-router-helpers
• RFC 391 "Router Helpers"
• RFC 339 "Router link component and routing helpers"
• RFC 459 "Angle Bracket Invocations For Built-in Components"