Are dynamically created components bound the same as child components?

Question

I have a lightning component that dynamically renders an indeterminate number of child components.

Each child component represents an item in a list. I iterate through the list and create different types of child components depending on the properties of the item in the list. Each child has an input, which I expected to have been bound to the list item that was passed into the child component, and back up to the list.

So, if I check a box on the child component, I would expect that the boolean value on that value in the list on the parent component to be updated as well.

What I'm seeing though, is that when I interrogate the parent level component, the data in the original attribute (the composite object) does not update as the child components have their values modified.

When I have created child components using aura:iteration, the values are bound and update accordingly. Is the behavior in the markup distinctly unique from the behavior using $A.createComponent?

Answer 1

If you use $A.createComponent, you need to use component.getReference, otherwise you'll just be getting a copy of the value. For a specific item in the list, it should be something like component.getReference("v.itemlist["+index+"].checkbox"). You'll need to play with it a bit to get the references just right, but this information should get you started.