Why isn't my ember.js route model being called?

Question

I just started learning Ember.js (bought the PeepCode screencast), and am learning quite smoothly from it, but ran into a problem when trying to write my first Ember app.

Answer 1

Ember Documentation on the model hook:

"A hook you can implement to convert the URL into the model for this route."

This explains why the model hook is just called on page refresh. But this confuses a lot of people :-). So, this is not the right hook in this case. I think you should use the setupController hook for this case. Try this:

App.PlaceRoute = Ember.Route.extend({
    setupController: function (controller, model) {
        console.log('place route called');

        var place;
        $.getJSON('https://api.foursquare.com/v2/venues/' + model.get('place_id') + '?client_id=nnn&client_secret=nnn',
            function (data) {
                var v = data.response.venue;
                place = App.Place.create({ id: v.id, name: v.name, lat: v.location.lat, lng: v.location.lng });
            });

        controller.set("model", place);
    }
});

Additional 2 cents from myself: Why is the model hook just executed, when the app is entered via URL/direct browser navigation?

Ember has the assumption, that you do not necessarily make a call to the model hook, if you use {{linkTo}}. In your places template you use {{#linkTo 'place' place}} {{place.name}} {{/linkTo}}. You are passing a place object to your route. Ember assumes that this is the same object, that you would get when executing your model hook. So from Embers View there is no need to call the model hook. So if you want to perform retrieval logic even when you use linkTo, use the setupController hook.