page refresh unsetting Ember controller property - ruby-on-rails

Question

If I do a manual page refresh or set a redirect like this
}).then(function() {
document.location = "/";
}, function() {
in a function in my Ember app, an Ember controller property is becoming unset. I'm not sure if it matters which property is becoming unset, but in case it does, here's the code. In my application template, I check for whether a user is authenticated
{{#if isAuthenticated}}
blah blah
{{else}}
blah blah
{{/if}}
The property is set in the AuthController
App.AuthController = Ember.ObjectController.extend({
currentUser: null,
isAuthenticated: Em.computed.notEmpty("currentUser.email"),
login: function(route) {
var me;
me = this;
return $.ajax({
url: "/users/sign_in.json",
type: "POST",
data: {
"user[email]": route.currentModel.email,
"user[password]": route.currentModel.password
},
success: function(data) {
me.set('currentUser', data.user);
So, after I do a page refresh, my currentUser is (according to Ember) no longer showing as authenticated. However, on the (Ruby on Rails) server side the user is still authenticated. I put this code in the layout to check and after Ember thinks that I'm signed out (with a page refresh), my server code is still telling me I'm signed in (which in fact I am).
<% if current_user %>
there is a current user
<% end %>
Can you explain why this might be happening?

Answer 1

Your best is to set up is probably to make isAuthenticated a computed property that does an ajax GET to /users/current if currentUser is null. /users/current should return {} if the user is not authenticated, and the current user data if they are.
App.AuthController = Ember.ObjectController.extend({
currentUser: null,
isAuthenticated: function() {
var currentUser = this.get('currentUser');
if(Ember.isEmpty(currentUser)) {
$.ajax({
type: "GET",
url: "/users/current.json",
async: true
}).done( function( data ) {
me.set('currentUser', data.user);
});
return false;
} else {
return true;
}
}.property('currentUser'),
});

Answer 2

Why are you doing a manual page refresh? This way you are starting the browser completely from scratch and therefore the Ember App initializes again and therefore the property currentUser is not set on your Controller.
Instead of doing this:
}).then(function() {
document.location = "/";
}, function() {
I assume that you want to go to the start page of your app (since you want to go to "/"). Instead you should use the Ember feature of transitioning between routes. I do not know, where you execute the code above, but you can do this either from one of your controllers or in a route.
In a controller you could use transitionToRoute:
// index is a Route which is implicitly generated by Ember for you
this.transitionToRoute('index');
In a router you could use transitionTo:
this.transitionTo('index');