Accessing parent context in Meteor templates and template helpers

Question

I\'m running into a template context situation that I\'m having a hard time finding a way around.

Here\'s the template in question:

Answer 1

Simply register a global template helper:

Template.registerHelper('parentData',
    function () {
        return Template.parentData(1);
    }
);

and use it in your HTML templates as:

{{#each someRecords}}
  {{parentData.someValue}}
{{/each}}

======= EDIT

For Meteor 1.2+, you shold use:

UI.registerHelper('parentData', function() {
  return Template.parentData(1);
});

Answer 2

I was stuck in a similar way and found that the Template.parentData() approach suggested in other answers currently doesn't work within event handlers (see https://github.com/meteor/meteor/issues/5491). User Lirbank posted this simple workaround:

Pass the data from the outer context to an html element in the inner context, in the same template:

{{#each companies}}
  {{#each employees}}
    <a href="" companyId="{{../id}}">Do something</a>
  {{/each}}
{{/each}}

Now the company ID can be accessed from the event handler with something like

$(event.currentTarget).attr('companyId')

Answer 3

I don't know the formal way (if there is one), but to solve your issue, I would link the participants with the parent ID like this:

{
    _id: "1234",
    question: "Whats up?",
    ...
    participants: [
      {
        _id: "abcd",
        parent_id: "1234",
        vote: 0
      }
    ]
}

and use this parent_id in helpers, events, etc. to jump back to the parent using findOne. That is obviously a sub optimal thing to do, but it's the easiest way that comes to my mind as long as there is no way of referencing the parent context. Maybe there is a way but it is very well hidden in the inner workings of Meteor without mention in the docs, if so: Please update this question if you find one.