Ember 'currentUser' Model/Controller Setup

Ok, so here's what I'm trying to accomplish (in ember.js):

• New model/controller to manage the current user and session information


• The model needs to be available everywhere so I can just do something like currentUser.firstname (for instance, in the nav)

After lots and lots of research, it seems that setting up a separate controller/model is the best way to go. I tried doing everything in the application controller, but then I need to implicitly set the user model (somehow?) on that controller, which doesn't seem like a good idea (what if I need to do other things in the application controller?).

So here's what I've tried:

controllers/session.js

init: function() {
  // this never gets called unless I call the setCurrentUser
  // function from another controller using 'needs' or something
},

setCurrentUser: function() {
  // you can ignore the authData.uid variable - it's something used
  // by firebase, but not important for this example. Just assume I'm
  // requesting and getting a user back.
  this.store.find('user').then(function(users) {
    this.set('currentUser', users.filterBy('uid', authData.uid)[0])
  }
}

models/session.js

DS.Model.extend({
  currentUser: DS.belongsTo('user')
});

I don't have a route or view/template associated with this model/controller because it really wouldn't make sense (the user doesn't need to see a page all about him/herself).

So I tried calling setCurrentUser from the application controller by doing something like this.get('setCurrentUser')() (which looks very weird - there's got to be a better way, but I think the answer may be not calling this from the application controller and initializing the controller in a different way?).

I would love some advice on how I can get this working. Sorry that I'm trying to develop and explain the architecture of the app all at the same time, so it is a bit messy - please let me know if anything is unclear.

Thanks for the help!