Ember Data — The Data Layer

Ember Data is Ember's official ORM-style data layer — models, store, relationships, and an identity map.

4 min read Level 2/5 #ember#ember-data#orm

What you'll learn

Recognize the store, model, adapter, and serializer parts
Install the ember-data package
Inject the store with the service decorator

Ember Data is the data layer that ships with every new Ember app. It gives you typed records, relationships, an identity map, and a clean separation between your domain models and your HTTP transport.

The Four Pieces

Store — the entry point, holds the identity map, hands out records.
Model — declares the shape of a record (@attr, @belongsTo, @hasMany).
Adapter — speaks HTTP, decides URLs, headers, and verbs.
Serializer — translates payloads into the internal format and back.

The default contract is JSON-API, but the adapter/serializer layer makes it pluggable.

Install

It comes preinstalled in modern Ember apps. If you need it manually:

ember install ember-data

Inject The Store

import Component from '@glimmer/component';
import { service } from '@ember/service';

export default class Posts extends Component {
  @service store;

  get posts() {
    return this.store.peekAll('post');
  }
}

The Identity Map

A record loaded once by id is cached in the store. Asking for it again gives you the same JS object, so updates flow everywhere it’s rendered:

const a = await this.store.findRecord('post', 1);
const b = await this.store.findRecord('post', 1);
a === b; // true — same identity

That identity map is what makes Ember Data feel reactive — change one record and every template referencing it re-renders.

Models →