Old Guides - You are viewing the guides for Ember v1.11.0.

Classes and Instances

To define a new Ember class, call the extend() method on Ember.Object:

Person = Ember.Object.extend({
  say: function(thing) {
    alert(thing);
  }
});

This defines a new Person class with a say() method.

You can also create a subclass from any existing class by calling its extend() method. For example, you might want to create a subclass of Ember's built-in Ember.View class:

app/views/person.js

PersonView = Ember.View.extend({
  tagName: 'li',
  classNameBindings: ['isAdministrator']
});

When defining a subclass, you can override methods but still access the implementation of your parent class by calling the special _super() method:

Person = Ember.Object.extend({
  say: function(thing) {
    var name = this.get('name');
    alert(name + " says: " + thing);
  }
});

Soldier = Person.extend({
  say: function(thing) {
    this._super(thing + ", sir!");
  }
});

var yehuda = Soldier.create({
  name: "Yehuda Katz"
});

yehuda.say("Yes"); // alerts "Yehuda Katz says: Yes, sir!"

Creating Instances

Once you have defined a class, you can create new instances of that class by calling its create() method. Any methods, properties and computed properties you defined on the class will be available to instances:

var person = Person.create();
person.say("Hello"); // alerts " says: Hello"

When creating an instance, you can initialize the value of its properties by passing an optional hash to the create() method:

Person = Ember.Object.extend({
  helloWorld: function() {
    alert("Hi, my name is " + this.get('name'));
  }
});

var tom = Person.create({
  name: "Tom Dale"
});

tom.helloWorld(); // alerts "Hi, my name is Tom Dale"

For performance reasons, note that you cannot redefine an instance's computed properties or methods when calling create(), nor can you define new ones. You should only set simple properties when calling create(). If you need to define or redefine methods or computed properties, create a new subclass and instantiate that.

By convention, properties or variables that hold classes are PascalCased, while instances are not. So, for example, the variable Person would point to a class, while person would point to an instance (usually of the Person class). You should stick to these naming conventions in your Ember applications.

Initializing Instances

When a new instance is created, its init method is invoked automatically. This is the ideal place to do setup required on new instances:

Person = Ember.Object.extend({
  init: function() {
    var name = this.get('name');
    alert(name + ", reporting for duty!");
  }
});

Person.create({
  name: "Stefan Penner"
});

// alerts "Stefan Penner, reporting for duty!"

If you are subclassing a framework class, like Ember.View or Ember.ArrayController, and you override the init method, make sure you call this._super()! If you don't, the system may not have an opportunity to do important setup work, and you'll see strange behavior in your application.

When accessing the properties of an object, use the get and set accessor methods:

var person = Person.create();

var name = person.get('name');
person.set('name', "Tobias Fünke");

Make sure to use these accessor methods; otherwise, computed properties won't recalculate, observers won't fire, and templates won't update.

Creating Instances
Initializing Instances