How do I call a Template event from another Template Event?

[trustydusty82]

Hi, I have an event 'change #year: function(evt). This gets called on the change of the dropdown, but I would also like to be able to call it from another event when a button is clicked. How would I call the ‘change #year’ event from my click event? I’ve not seen an example of calling an event from another event. Any suggestions?

[coagmano]

You can add both selectors in your eventmap:

Template.example.events({
  'change #year, click button'(event, instance) {
    // do things
   }
});

Alternatively extract the action into an instance function:

Template.example.onCreated(function() {
  this.doSomething = function() {
    // do something
  };
});
Template.example.events({
  'change #year'(event, instance) {
    instance.doSomething();
  },
  'click button'(event, instance) {
    instance.doSomething();
  }
});

[trustydusty82]

Thanks. I tried the first example already, but didn’t get the result I was looking for. It looks like your second example should do the trick. Thank you!

[jam]

Curious, in your second example, is there a benefit to putting the function inside the onCreated versus just declaring the function inside the template file, for example:

// template.html
var doSomething = function() {
   // do some stuff
}

Template.example.events({
   'change #year'(event, instance) {
       doSomething();
  }
)};

[coagmano]

Just that it’s scoped to the instance and can access template instance properties and methods. But you can just pass the instance in as a parameter, so it’s just personal preference really.