How to create Ractive's subcomponents dynamically and change them programmatically

Question

I can instantiate (sub)components manually using tags, but I don\'t know how to do it dynamically, or, how to insert and remove different components in the same area using t

Answer 1

Would like to upvote @martypdx's answer more than once. Inspired by his answer, I came up with something I'd like to share. It adds the following things:

1. Create multiple instances of a type of Component (Ractive.extend)

2. Component instances are alive and can receive messages from external listeners even if they have been unrendered.

Here is my fiddle: https://jsfiddle.net/vikikamath/z5otgzpL/9/

// Inspired by http://stackoverflow.com/a/31080919/405117
var mapper = {
	'A': function(instanceId){
  	var handleAData;
  	return Ractive.extend({ 
  			template: 'I am A this is my data: <ul>{{#datas}}<li>{{.}}</li>{{/datas}}</ul>',
        data: {
        	datas:[]
        },
        onrender: function() {
        	handleAData = function(txt){
          	this.push('datas', txt);
          }.bind(this);
          
        	r.on(instanceId, handleAData);
        },
        onunrender: function() {
        	r.off(instanceId, handleAData);
        }
  	});
  }
  ,'B': function(instanceId){
  	var handleBData;
  	return Ractive.extend({ 
  			template: 'I am B this is my data: <ul>{{#datas}}<li>{{.}}</li>{{/datas}}</ul>',
        data: {
        	datas:[]
        },
        onrender: function() {
        	handleBData = function(txt){
          	this.push('datas', txt);
          }.bind(this);
          
        	r.on(instanceId, handleBData);
        },
        onunrender: function() {
        	r.off(instanceId, handleBData);
        }
  	});
  }
  ,'C': function(instanceId){
  	var handleCData;
  	return Ractive.extend({ 
  			template: 'I am C this is my data: <ul>{{#datas}}<li>{{.}}</li>{{/datas}}</ul>',
        data: {
        	datas:[]
        },
        onrender: function() {
        	handleCData = function(txt){
          	this.push('datas', txt);
          }.bind(this);
          
        	r.on(instanceId, handleCData);
        },
        onunrender: function() {
        	r.off(instanceId, handleCData);
        }
  	});
  }
  ,'D': function(instanceId){
  	var handleDData;
  	return Ractive.extend({ 
  			template: 'I am D this is my data: <ul>{{#datas}}<li>{{.}}</li>{{/datas}}</ul>',
        data: {
        	datas:[]
        },
        onrender: function() {
        	handleDData = function(txt){
          	this.push('datas', txt);
          }.bind(this);
          
        	r.on(instanceId, handleDData);
        },
        onunrender: function() {
        	r.off(instanceId, handleDData);
        }
  	});
  }
}

/* arbitrarily select a component */
function pickRandomComponent() {
	return String.fromCharCode(Math.floor(Math.random() * Object.keys(mapper).length) + 65);
}

var DynamicComponent = Ractive.extend({
    template: '<component/>',
    components: {
        component: function() {
            return this.get('name');
        }
    },
    oninit: function(){
        this.observe('name', function(){
            this.reset();
        }, { init: false});
    }
});


var r = new Ractive({
    el: 'main',
    template: '#template',
    components: {
    	dummy: Ractive.extend({ template: 'Welcome message' }),
    	dynamic: DynamicComponent
    },
    data: {
        foo: 'foo',
        list: ['dummy'],
        name: 'dummy',
        textdata: ''
    },
    oninit: function() {
    	this.on("sendDataToCurrentComponent", function() {
      	r.fire(this.get('name'), this.get('textdata'))
      }.bind(this));
      
    	this.on('addComponent', function(){
      	var rndComponent = pickRandomComponent();
        var now = Date.now();
        var componentInstanceName = rndComponent + '-' + now
      	this.components[componentInstanceName] = mapper[rndComponent](componentInstanceName)
      	this.push('list', componentInstanceName);
      }.bind(this));
    }
});

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/ractive/0.7.3/ractive.min.js"></script>
<script id='template' type='text/ractive'>
   	<button on-click="addComponent">Add</button>
 		<div>
   		<input type="text" value="{{textdata}}" placeholder="Send Text to current component" width="900" on-blur="sendDataToCurrentComponent"/>
   	</div>
    {{#each list}}
    <input type='radio' name='{{name}}' value='{{.}}'>{{.}}
    {{/each}}
    <br>
    <dynamic name='{{name}}'/>
       
</script>
<main></main>

Answer 2

Here's a dynamic component:

Ractive.components.dynamic = Ractive.extend({
    template: '<component/>',
    components: {
        component: function() {
            return this.get('name');
        }
    },
    oninit: function(){
        this.observe('name', function(){
            this.reset();
        }, { init: false});
    }
});

Just pass in the name of the component it should implement:

<dynamic name='{{name}}'/>

See it in action below

Ractive.components.a = Ractive.extend({ template: 'I am A {{foo}}' });
Ractive.components.b = Ractive.extend({ template: 'I am B {{foo}}' });
Ractive.components.c = Ractive.extend({ template: 'I am C {{foo}}' });

Ractive.components.dynamic = Ractive.extend({
    template: '<component/>',
    components: {
        component: function() {
            return this.get('name');
        }
    },
    oninit: function(){
        this.observe('name', function(){
            this.reset();
        }, { init: false});
    }
});


var r = new Ractive({
    el: document.body,
    template: '#template',
    data: {
        foo: 'foo',
        list: ['a', 'b', 'c'],
        name: 'a'
    }
});

<script src="http://cdn.ractivejs.org/latest/ractive.js"></script>
<script id='template' type='text/ractive'>
   
    {{#each list}}
    <input type='radio' name='{{name}}' value='{{.}}'>{{.}}
    {{/each}}
    <br>
    <dynamic name='{{name}}'/>
       
</script>