Request: add a viewUrl property to the routes

[gordon-matt]

As discussed in an email with @EisenbergEffect, could we please have a viewUrl property in the routes? At the moment it appears that Aurelia is simply taking the moduleId and appending a .js extension to find the model and an .html extension to find the view.

In order to use Razor routes, I make use of ViewLocator.prototype.convertOriginToViewUrl as follows:

ViewLocator.prototype.convertOriginToViewUrl = function (origin) {

    //console.log("origin: " + JSON.stringify(origin));
    var viewUrl = null;
    var idx = origin.moduleId.indexOf('aurelia-app');

    // The majority of views should be under /wwwroot/aurelia-app
    if (idx != -1) {
        viewUrl = origin.moduleId.substring(idx + 11).replace(".js", '');
    }
    // JSPM packages may need to load HTML files (example: aurelia-kendoui-bridge)
    // TODO: This is not perfect.. (what if the view we want to show is normal HTML, but not in jspm_packages folder?)
    else if (origin.moduleId.indexOf('jspm_packages') !== -1) {
        viewUrl = origin.moduleId.replace(".js", '.html');
    }
    else {
        // This is for any js files in top-level of /wwwroot directory (should point to HomeController).
        var split = origin.moduleId.split("/");
        viewUrl = split[split.length - 1].replace(".js", '');
    }

    console.log('View URL: ' + viewUrl);
    return viewUrl;
}

If you look at it carefully, you will see it’s not quite perfect. I would actually prefer to not have to do this at all.. we could have Aurelia still look for .html files by default, but if there’s a viewUrl property in the route definition, then use that instead.. That way, modules that are not being served by ASP .NET controllers and have actual HTML files (for example: aurelia-kendo-bridge and others) won’t be affected... and it will allow me to have the .js file location decoupled from the .html file location, so I can put them wherever I want and additionally, I can then use embedded javascript as well. I did that with Durandal by passing the embedded script path to the RequireJS config.. but I currently don’t see a way of doing this in Aurelia.. and I absolutely need embedded js files in my architecture in some cases.

[davismj]

@EisenbergEffect can you move this to router please?

[stsje]

I'm not sure a new viewUrl property will be a good name when/if the new component property is implemented. aurelia/templating-router#75
At least consider the above PR before implementing viewUrl :)!

[EisenbergEffect]

Issue moved to aurelia/router #590 via ZenHub