New Twiddle

controllers.application.js

import Ember from 'ember';

export default Ember.Controller.extend({
  appName: 'Empty record created example'
});

models.order.js

import Model from "ember-data/model";
import attr from "ember-data/attr";
import { belongsTo, hasMany } from "ember-data/relationships";
import Ember from 'ember';

export default Model.extend({
  
  firstName: attr('string', {defaultValue: 'Jasper'}),
  lastName: attr('string', {defaultValue: 'Johns'}),
  
  fullName: Ember.computed('firstName', 'lastName', function() {
  	return this.get('firstName') + ' ' + this.get('lastName');
  }),
  
});

router.js

import Ember from 'ember';
import config from './config/environment';

const Router = Ember.Router.extend({
  location: 'none',
  rootURL: config.rootURL
});

Router.map(function() {
  this.route('orders', { path: '/' });
  this.route('other');
});

export default Router;

routes.orders.js

import Ember from 'ember';

export default Ember.Route.extend({
  
  model() {
    return this.get('store').createRecord('order');
  },
});

routes.other.js

import Ember from 'ember';

export default Ember.Route.extend({
});

templates.application.hbs

<h1>{{appName}}</h1>

<div><h2>/application</h2></div>

{{link-to 'Orders' 'orders'}}
{{link-to 'Other route' 'other'}}

{{outlet}}

templates.orders.hbs

<div><h2>/orders</h2></div>

<p>Every time the 'orders' route is visited, a record is created / and if you leave that page - without saving an order etc - then ember-data ends up with a bunch of meaningless records.</p>

<p>I want to 'create' the record so that I can use the order model and it's computed properties in the form. What are some standard ways people deal with this?</p>

<p>It sounds confusing to check when leaving the route.</p>

<p>You could filter and order list by checking for ids.</p>

{{input value=model.firstName}}
{{input value=model.lastName}}

<p>{{model.fullName}}</p>

templates.other.hbs

<div><h2>/other</h2></div>

<p>Just an example route to switch between</p>

twiddle.json

{
  "version": "0.13.0",
  "EmberENV": {
    "FEATURES": {}
  },
  "options": {
    "use_pods": false,
    "enable-testing": false
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "jquery": "https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.3/jquery.js",
    "ember": "2.16.2",
    "ember-template-compiler": "2.16.2",
    "ember-testing": "2.16.2"
  },
  "addons": {
    "ember-data": "2.16.3"
  }
}