How to access to blog_posts collection from Meteor?

[urco]

Hi,
I would like to customize the templates for Index and for each blog post page. I have achieved the first goal (in the documentation there is a simple and great example to create a custom template for index layout). But I can't see any example to customize the blog post... How can I access from meteor to mongo collection (blog_posts collection) to get the data using the :slug ID? For example something like collection.findOne({slug:this.params.slug});) ?

Thanks in advance!

[hellogerard]

The full blog_posts collection is not published on an individual blog post page because it's not necessary to send all that data. What are you trying to do?

[urco]

Hi @hellogerard !
Ok, I will try to expose my problem, and I hope that´s become more clear.

In the package documentation, there is an example to customize the blog index template.

<template name="myBlogIndexTemplate">
  <h1>Welcome to my Blog</h1>
  <ul>
    {{#if blogReady}}
      {{#each posts}}
        <li>
          <h2>{{title}}</h2>
          <p>Published on {{publishedAt}}</p>
          <p>Excerpt: {{excerpt}}</p>
        </li>
      {{else}}
        <li>No posts found.</li>
      {{/each}}
    {{else}}
      <li>Loading...</li>
    {{/if}}
  </ul>
</template>

I have customize following the previous example my index blog and it works fine. I have changed the line <h2>{{title}}</h2> for<a href="/{{slug}}"><h2>{{title}}</h2></a> in my custom template, but the link ({{title}} is not working (it is not linked to the post). My question is, how could I customize my blog index, and keep the link with the post?. Right now, if I click the link, nothing happen (blank page). I post my code below if it can help you to understand my problem.

*In the client * layoutIndexBlog.html

<template name="layoutIndexBlog">
   <!--{{> blogIndex}}-->
  <div class="container">
    <div class="row">
        {{#if blogReady}}
              {{#each posts}}
                <li>
                  <a href="/{{slug}}"><h2>{{title}}</h2></a>
                  <p>Published on {{publishedAt}}</p>
                  <img src="{{featuredImage}}" class="img-responsive"> 
                  <p>{{excerpt}}</p>
                    {{> shareit}}
                </li>
              {{else}}
                <li>No posts found.</li>
              {{/each}}
            {{else}}
              <li>Loading...</li>
        {{/if}}
    </div>    
</div>
</template>

layoutBlog.html

<template name="layoutBlog">
    <div class="container">
        <!--{{> blogShow}}-->
        <h2>{{title}}</h2>
        <p>{{body}}</p>
    </div>
</template>

layoutPost.html

template name="layoutPost">
    {{> yield "header"}}
    <div class="container">
        {{> yield "layoutBlog"}}
    </div>
</template>

*In /lib folder *

Blog.config({

     dateFormat: 'MMM Do, YYYY',

     adminRole: 'blogAdmin',
     authorRole: 'blogAuthor',

     blogIndexTemplate: 'layoutIndexBlog', // '/blog' route
     blogShowTemplate: 'layoutPost',    // '/blog/:slug' route*/
     //blogLayoutTemplate:'layoutPost',
     basePath: '/', 
     title: "Portfolio Website",

      rss: {
        title: 'My blog',
        description: 'blog Javi'
      }
});

route.js

Router.route('/', function () {
  this.layout('layoutHome');

   this.render('header', {
    to:"header"
  });

   this.render('layoutIndexBlog', {
        to:"layoutIndexBlog"
   });
});
/*
Router.route('/:slug', function () {
  this.layout('layoutPost');

   this.render('header', {
    to:"header"
  });

  this.render('layoutBlog', {
    to: "layoutBlog"
  });
});*/ 

Router.route('/users', function () {
  this.layout('layoutUsers');

   this.render('header', {
    to:"header"
  });

   this.render('users', {
        to:"users"
   });
});

The comented code in route.js file is the tricky part... I can get the slug paramenter with .params but I don´t know how can I keep the relationship between the post entry in the index and the post page... I don´t know how could make a .findOne query to blog_posts collection to return the right blog post page using the :slug parameter....

Thanks in advance, and congratulations for your work with this package! It is amazing! I wait your suggestion ( Save my life man!!;)