Summary

Introduce block parameters to the Handlebars language to standardize context-preserving helpers, for example:

{{#each people as |person|}}
  {{person.name}}
{{/each}}

Motivation

The Problem

There is no idiomatic way to write a helper that preserves context and yields values to its template. This is particularly painful for components which have strict context-preserving semantics.

Current workarounds

• Don't write components that need to yield a value.
• Problem: This may not be an option.
• Invent a non-standard per-helper syntax (like {{#with foo as bar}} or {{#each item in items}}) that hook into the undocumented keywords to inject variables.
• Problems: Custom syntaxes are not in the spirit of the Handlebars language and require the consumer to know the special incantation. Component authors must an non-trivial understanding of how keywords work.

New possibilities

{{#for-each obj as |key val|}}
  {{key}}: {{val}}
{{/for-each}}

{{#form-for post as |f|}}
  {{f.input "title"}}
  {{f.textarea "body"}}
  {{f.submit}}
{{/form-for}}

Detailed design

• Phase 1: Add block params to the Handlebars language
• Phase 2: Rewrite Ember's helpers to accept streams
• Phase 3: Add block param support to {{each}} and {{with}}

Phase 1: Add block params to the Handlebars language

The proposed syntax is {{#x-foo a b w=x y=z as |param1 param2 ... paramN|}} and is only available for block helpers.

The names of the block parameters are compiled into the inner template, but are not known to the helper (x-foo in the example above). To call a template and populate its block params we use the arguments option:

var template = compile('{{person.name}}', {
  blockParams: [ 'person' ]
});

template({}, ..., [ personModel ]);

More commonly, block params will be defined inside of the template.

{{#with currentPost.author as |a|}}
  {{a.name}} {{a.email}}
{{/with}}

registerHelper('with', function(object, options) {
  return options.fn(this, ..., [ object ]);
});

For compatibility reasons, the number of block params are passed to the helper so that the pre-block-params behaviour of the helper can be preserved. Example:

function eachHelper(..., options) {
  if (options.blockParamsLength > 0) { /* do new behaviour */ }
  else { /* do old behaviour */ }
}

Phase 2: Rewrite Ember's helpers to accept streams

In the with example above, if the currentPost changes the a block param should update. This means it's not sufficient to pass only the initial value of the author in the arguments. Instead, we pass a stream which emits values whenever the observed property changes.

In Handlebars, a block param can appear anywhere that an identifier can, for example {{log a.name}}. This means that all helpers would need to be modified to understand streams.

Phase 3: Add block param support to {{each}} and {{with}}

Deprecate context-changing and ad-hoc keyword flavors of {{each}} and {{with}} in favor of block params.

Drawbacks

• Handlebars already has a similar notion of with data which can lead to confusion.

Alternatives

To my knowledge, no other designs have been considered. Not implementing this feature would mean that components would continue to be difficult to compose.

Unresolved questions

The associated HTML syntax for HTMLBars needs to be finalized.