Titanium Alloy - how to persist model singleton? - titanium

Question

runs in iOs & Android
coffeeScript
I have a model such as:
exports.definition =
config:
columns:
cookie: "string"
defaults:
cookie: ""
adapter:
# is this valid?
type: "sql"
collection_name: "userInfo"
extendModel: (Model) ->
_.extend Model::,
isSignedIn:->
this.get('cookie').length > 0
Model
And a index.xml:
<Alloy>
<Model id="userInfo" src="userInfo" instance="true"/>
So, this userInfo properties change during the lifecycle of the app, the user logs in, and I want to keep that cookie being persisted as well as auto-loaded on app init.
How do I do that in this framework?
UPDATE another Q&A
For reference here: http://developer.appcelerator.com/question/147601/alloy---persist-and-load-a-singleton-model#255723

Answer 1

They don't explain it well in the appcelerator docs, but if you want to store and retreive properties using build-in alloy properties sync adapter you have to specify a unique "id" when using models. You did it already in the xml markup: <Model id="userInfo" but that will work for that view file only. If you want to access/update this property in the controller you do this:
var UserInfo = Alloy.createModel("userInfo", {id: "userInfo"});
UserInfo.fetch();
UserInfo.set("cookie", "new value");
UserInfo.save();
If you want to keep the reference to this property thruout the code, I believe, you just attach it to the global namespace in the alloy.js:
var UserInfo = Alloy.createModel("userInfo", {id: "userInfo"});
UserInfo.fetch();
Alloy.Globals.UserInfo = UserInfo;
In the controllers you do:
var UserInfo = Alloy.Globals.UserInfo;

Answer 2

Put your model userInfo.js into app/model, it will probably look like this:
exports.definition = {
config : {
"columns" : {
"cookie" : "string"
},
"defaults" : { "cookie" : "" }
"adapter" : {
"type" : "sql",
"collection_name" : "userInfo"
}
},
extendModel : function(Model) {
_.extend(Model.prototype, {
isSignedIn : function() {
this.get('cookie').length > 0
}
});
return Model;
},
extendCollection : function(Collection) {
_.extend(Collection.prototype, {
});
return Collection;
}
}
From here it depends on what you want to do, but you can easily fetch the model from the collection userInfo, just put this: <Collection src="userInfo"/> in your xml file.
As a side note, I usually just use the Titanium.App.Properties stuff to store user information. Properties are used for storing application-related data in property/value pairs that persist beyond application sessions and device power cycles. For example:
// Returns the object if it exists, or null if it does not
var lastLoginUserInfo = Ti.App.Properties.getObject('userInfo', null);
if(lastLoginUserInfo === null) {
var userInfo = {cookie : "Whatever the cookie is", id : "123456789"};
Ti.App.Properties.setObject('userInfo', userInfo);
} else {
// Show the cookie value of user info
alert(lastLoginUserInfo.cookie);
}