CoreObject#concatenatedProperties

Defines the properties that will be concatenated from the superclass (instead of overridden).

By default, when you extend an Ember class a property defined in the subclass overrides a property with the same name that is defined in the superclass. However, there are some cases where it is preferable to build up a property's value by combining the superclass' property value with the subclass' value. An example of this in use within Ember is the classNames property of Ember.View.

Here is some sample code showing the difference between a concatenated property and a normal one:

App.BarView = Ember.View.extend({
  someNonConcatenatedProperty: ['bar'],
  classNames: ['bar']
});

App.FooBarView = App.BarView.extend({
  someNonConcatenatedProperty: ['foo'],
  classNames: ['foo']
});

var fooBarView = App.FooBarView.create();
fooBarView.get('someNonConcatenatedProperty'); // ['foo']
fooBarView.get('classNames'); // ['ember-view', 'bar', 'foo']

This behavior extends to object creation as well. Continuing the above example:

var view = App.FooBarView.create({
  someNonConcatenatedProperty: ['baz'],
  classNames: ['baz']
})
view.get('someNonConcatenatedProperty'); // ['baz']
view.get('classNames'); // ['ember-view', 'bar', 'foo', 'baz']

Adding a single property that is not an array will just add it in the array:

var view = App.FooBarView.create({
  classNames: 'baz'
})
view.get('classNames'); // ['ember-view', 'bar', 'foo', 'baz']

Using the concatenatedProperties property, we can tell Ember to mix the content of the properties.

In Ember.View the classNameBindings and attributeBindings properties are also concatenated, in addition to classNames.

This feature is available for you to use throughout the Ember object model, although typical app developers are likely to use it infrequently. Since it changes expectations about behavior of properties, you should properly document its usage in each individual concatenated property (to not mislead your users to think they can override the property in a subclass).