Dynamically updating ref not working as expected

[wereHamster]

<div>
    <template id="external">success</template>

    <template id="t" bind>
        <template bind ref="{{ ref }}"></template>
    </template>
<div>

<script>
    var t = document.getElementById('t');
    t.model = { ref: '' };

    setTimeout(function() {
        t.model.ref = 'external';
    }, 0)
</script>

I expect to see 'success' but nothing appear on the page. TemplateBinding only re-renders the template when bind, repeat or if change. But there doesn't seem to be a corresponding observer on the ref attribute.

[rafaelw]

This is as designed. Updating the ref (either directly or via binding) won't affect existing instances (i.e. "re-render"). If this was working before, it was accidental. I understand this might be convenient, but it opens a box of worms we're not prepared to deal with.

[wereHamster]

There is an ugly workaround for that problem, but I'd still prefer if it TemplateBinding did this automatically.

<polymer-element name="template-ref" attributes="ref content">
    <template>
        <template ref="{{ ref }}" bind="{{ m }}"></template>
    </template>
    <script>
        Polymer("template-ref", {
            refChanged: function() {
                // Create a new object so that polymer re-renders the template
                // with the new ref.
                this.m = { content: this.content }
            }
        });
    </script>
</polymer-element>

[rafaelw]

Reconsidering this...

[rafaelw]

So I think the behavior of a bound ref would be that when/if the referenced template changes, all instances are destroyed and new instances are created using the newly referenced template content

[rafaelw]

Ok. This is now implemented as of: https://github.com/Polymer/TemplateBinding/commit/2799341