Access an element's Binding - aurelia

Question

I have a custom attribute that processes authentication data and does some fun stuff based on the instructions.
<div auth="disabled: abc; show: xyz; highlight: 123">
There's a lot of complicated, delicate stuff happening in here and it makes sense to keep it separate from semantic bindings like disabled.bind. However, some elements will have application-logic level bindings as well.
<div auth="disabled.bind: canEdit" disabled.bind="!editing">
Under the covers, my auth attribute looks at the logged in user, determines if the user has the correct permissions, and takes the correct action based on the result.
disabledChanged(value) {
const isDisabled = this.checkPermissions(value);
if (isDisabled) {
this.element.disabled = true;
}
}
This result needs to override other bindings, which may or may not exist. Ideally, I'd like to look for an existing Binding and override it ala binding behaviors.
constructor(element) {
const bindings = this.getBindings(element); // What is the getBindings() function?
const method = bindings['disabled']
if (method) {
bindings['disabled'] = () => this.checkPermission(this.value) && method();
}
}
The question is what is this getBindings(element) function? How can I access arbitrary bindings on an element?
Edit: Gist here: https://gist.run/?id=4f2879410506c7da3b9354af3bcf2fa1

Answer 1

The disabled attribute is just an element attribute, so you can simply use the built in APIs to do this. Check out a runnable example here: https://gist.run/?id=b7fef34ea5871dcf1a23bae4afaa9dde
Using setAttribute and removeAttribute (since the disabled attribute does not really have a value, its mere existence causes the element to be disabled), is all that needs to happen:
import {inject} from 'aurelia-framework';
#inject(Element)
export class AuthCustomAttribute {
constructor(element) {
this.el = element;
}
attached() {
let val = false;
setInterval(() => {
if(this.val) {
this.el.setAttribute('disabled', 'disabled');
} else {
this.el.removeAttribute('disabled');
}
this.val = !this.val;
}, 1000);
}
}
NEW RESPONSE BELOW
You need to work directly with the binding engine. A runnable gist is located here: https://gist.run/?id=b7fef34ea5871dcf1a23bae4afaa9dde
Basically, you need to get the original binding expression, cache it, and then replace it (if auth === false) with a binding expression of true. Then you need to unbind and rebind the binding expression:
import {inject} from 'aurelia-framework';
import {Parser} from 'aurelia-binding';
#inject(Element, Parser)
export class AuthCustomAttribute {
constructor(element, parser) {
this.el = element;
this.parser = parser;
}
created(owningView) {
this.disabledBinding = owningView.bindings.find( b => b.target === this.el && b.targetProperty === 'disabled');
if( this.disabledBinding ) {
this.disabledBinding.originalSourceExpression = this.disabledBinding.sourceExpression;
// this expression will always evaluate to true
this.expression = this.parser.parse('true');
}
}
bind() {
// for some reason if I don't do this, then valueChanged is getting called before created
this.valueChanged();
}
unbind() {
if(this.disabledBinding) {
this.disabledBinding.sourceExpression = this.disabledBinding.originalSourceExpression;
this.disabledBinding.originalSourceExpression = null;
this.rebind();
this.disabledBinding = null;
}
}
valueChanged() {
if(this.disabledBinding ) {
if( this.value === true ) {
this.disabledBinding.sourceExpression = this.disabledBinding.originalSourceExpression;
} else {
this.disabledBinding.sourceExpression = this.expression;
}
this.rebind();
} else {
if( this.value === true ) {
this.el.removeAttribute('disabled');
} else {
this.el.setAttribute('disabled', 'disabled');
}
}
}
rebind() {
const source = this.disabledBinding.source;
this.disabledBinding.unbind();
this.disabledBinding.bind(source);
}
}
It is important that the attribute clean up after itself, as I do in the unbind callback. I'll be honest that I'm not sure that the call to rebind is actually necessary in the unbind, but it's there for completeness.