All, I am a newbie of Backbone. and I am trying to understand the Model of Backone. Especially how to define a Model. so far, I didn't saw a clear or formal way about how to define a Model for backbone.
For example Let's see the set method in help doc .
set
model.set(attributes, [options])
Set a hash of attributes (one or many) on the model.
Say we have some code like below . I think set method actually is assign a javascript object to the Model.
window.Employee = Backbone.Model.extend({
validate:function(attrs){
for(var key in attrs){
if(attrs[key] == ''){
return key + "can not be null";
}
if(key == 'age' && isNaN(attrs.age)){
return "age is numeric";
}
}
}
});
....
var attr = {}; // I can't not sure what is {} mean.
$('#emp-form input,#emp-form select').each(function(){
var input = $(this);//using jquery select input and select. and enumerate all of them.
attr[input.attr('name')] = input.val();//I am not sure what does it means
});
if(employee.set(attr)){
Employees.create(employee);
}
....
in this example ,I didn't saw the classical way which we can see in java class or c# class to define the class fields or methods. but only see a validate function .Is there anybody who can tell me more about it to help me understand? thanks.
To define a model in Backbone you have to extend the Backbone.Model object. For example if you'll like to create a new User model you could write something like this:
var User = Backbone.Model.extend({})
You can also overwrite some model methods to fill your needs. For example you can change the urlRoot attribute to tell the model where should he fetch the data.
Backbone models contain your data in the attributes attribute. You change those attributes by using the model set method and you can read the value stored in the model using the get method. So if you had some inputs where a user can enter information, for example creating a new user with his name and email and you have a form with a text input for both of them. You could do domething like this:
var user = new User;
user.set('name', $('#name').val());
user.set('email', $('#email').val());
attributes = {
name: user.get('name'),
email: user.get('email')
};
user.save(attributes);
There are a lot of ways to re-factor this code to make it look better but it help to see how you could use those methods. You should check the Backbone documentation to explore how they work a little bit more. Hope this helps!
PD: In my example I set an attribute a time, but you could also send a hash of attributes to set more values in one call.
The model in JS is basically a wrapper for data, with CRUD and simple validation functions. To work properly you need to make server functions to work with (ajax), I think this tutorial says it all http://backbonetutorials.com/what-is-a-model/. Instead of database the model works with your application server side.
If you have custom actions (not just add/edit/remove) on your data, you can manually "set()" data, use "onchange" event and refresh your view when needed. You can even attach "onchange" events only on specific fields and make custom functions in your view to handle each special field (for validation or display).
You can define fields at initialize and defaults value, but not custom functions (ofc you can do model.customFuntion() but I don't recommend it.
In order to make it more "clasical way" you need to use the other Backbone functions http://backbonejs.org/#Collection-Underscore-Methods and Backbone.Collection.
Related
Ive looked related posts and couldn't quite find what I was looking for.
So I am build a backend rest api and I have certain tests I am collecting data on. The tests have their own models, and these models are associated with collections (obviously).
So I have a separate controller for each model. Now I have a "job" controller which queries data from each separate test. Now I have a separate script where I store these model objects in an JSON object. I am wondering how I can access these models properly (I am close but cant quite assign properly). Here is the block:
const testMappings = {
'aprobe':aprobe,
'status':status,
//'rxserial':rxserial,
}
Now when I try assignment as follows, where testMappings is the imported script variable:
const testMappings = activeTests.testMappings;
console.log(testMappings['aprobe']);
I get the following output:
Model {aprobe}
I would like to access the actual aprobe object. Also if anyone knows a better way of dynamically assigning these (instead of having bunch of if statements ie if(name == 'aprobe').... do something), it would be much appreciated.
You are probably looking for something like below :
const name = 'aprobe';
Object.keys(testMappings).indexOf(name) > -1 ? testMappings[name] : null
the above should give you: Model {aprobe}
So basically if the key exists in your object then you'd like to fetch the value of that key which would give you your model dynamically.
For most JS frameworks and libraries, the value they bring are often in the form of a new structure as to how to build an application (Backbone, React), or new ideas that effectively power-up the language (Angular), or simply the methods they offer are well tested, fast, and really convenient (jQuery).
Usually the ideas and methods they provide are pretty straightforward usage of JavaScript, but with a very clever team behind it that find interesting ways to do things which you can think through and get a solid guess as to how the guts work.
However, I've been unable to think through the ability to two-way bind JS models to view components. What is the secret sauce at the heart of this feature that makes this work? Changing an internal variable from a user input is simple, but what about the reverse? How would you be able to "know" when a JS variable has changed in order to update the display instantly? Surely it can't be polling, so what then?
Whenever a block of your JS runs that angular triggered it will run a digest cycle when the block finishes executing. This basically checks all the values that might of changed and would require updates to the view.
If angular didn't trigger the code then it won't know that something might of changed so your bindings can get out of sync. For example if you run something like this
setTimeout(function() {$scope.myValue = '123'});
Angular won't know that myValue changed and it actually won't update the view. That's why Angular has it's own services for doing everything. e.g. $timeout or $http.
If you have some callback function that Angular doesn't know about then you can manually tell it to check for changes by calling $scope.$apply()
there are several ways to do it. Object.observe is great, but lacks good support. You can poll for values as well, keeping a 2nd copy of the object around to compare. You can also write your own explicit set/get methods to update the model like backbone does.
One neat method i use a lot is using getters/setters to keep the model synced to the dom:
//a demo "model" of data:
model = {
name: "Fred"
};
function change(k,v){alert([k,v]);} // a stand-in change monitor for demo
// iterate model and replace values with getter/setter combos:
Object.keys(model).forEach(function(key) {
var val = model[key];
delete model[key];
Object.defineProperty(model, key, {
get: function() {
return val;
},
set: function(v) {
val = v;
change(key, val);
} //call change upon setting
});
change(key, val); //update view "onload"
}); // alerts "Fred";
//update model (fires change() with "name" and "sally" arguments:
model.name="sally"; // alerts "sally";
the change function is quite simple and for your case should just find elements bound to keys.
the advantage here is that you don't need special custom CRUD methods, you can just modify the object properties via assignment like it's 1999. It also doesn't poll, and works correctly all the way back to IE9 and any other ES5 environments. It's the simplest way to bind JS>DOM (afaik) without custom methods.
It does have some limits: nested objects are tricky to get/set upon, you can't do the whole object at once, you can only "watch" primitives. Arrays are a problem too: you can't really replace expando properties with getters/setters without side-effects. But, upon a relatively flat collection of JSON-safe data, get/set works a charm and needs no complex libs to get operational.
checkout a complete example using this method: http://pagedemos.com/xg3szbguqnwu/4
I can speak to how it's done in Backbone, which has a relatively low-level perspective on data-binding.
It's a combination of 1. the library having control over attribute setter methods 2. invoking callback functions when attributes change (e.g. by dispatching events) in order to update the UI.
The essential pseudocode is this:
class Model:
method set(name, value):
if value != this.attributes[name]
this.triggerEvent('change', name, value)
this.attributes[name] = value
m = new Model()
someInputWidget.onEvent('userChangedInput', function(value) {
m.set(someInputWidget.name, value)
})
m.onEvent('change', function(name, value) {
getInputWidgetByName(name).setValue(value)
})
Backbone does not do any data binding to the UI, but you can refer to Backbone's annotated source for the actual event-dispatching implementation.
Perhaps this seems a bit backwards, but I have a view bound with Rivets.js for which I'd like the view to populate the model on initialization.
The usecase is that I'm using server-side rendering to return a snippet (the view) including rivets' data-attributes. So NO JSON is returned from server to client.
Now, by pressing 'edit' a user may put the content in 'edit'-mode, and start editing at will. (Using contenteditable, but this is out of scope here I guess).
So how to make sure the model is populated with values from the view on init?
I know that this question is a little outdated but I recentry tried rivets and I came across the same problem.
The solution:
// In your rivets configuration you disable preload:
rivets.configure({
templateDelimiters: ['[[', ']]'],
preloadData: false
});
// you bind your data
var binding = rivets.bind($('#auction'), {auction: auction});
// you manually publish it once to populate your model with form's data
binding.publish();
And that's it. I still don't know how to disable prelaod per bind
From the example on Rivets website (assign to 'rivetBinding')
var view = rivets.bind($('#auction'), {auction: auction});
doing rivetBinding.publish(); will bootstrap the model with values from the view for all bindings that have 'publishes = true'.
This question is old but it still has no accepted answer, so here goes:
You need to disable the preload configuration so rivets doesn't override whatever is in the input with what you have in your model at the time you do the binding. This can be done via the preloadData=false configuration, either globally (rivets.configure(...)) or view-scoped (third param to rivets.bind(...)).
After the binding, you need to publish the view (pull the values to your model). You also need to set up the observers via sync() call, otherwise your binded methods won't be triggered.
Using the same example as the previous answers:
var view = rivets.bind($('#auction'), { auction: auction }, {
preloadData: false
});
view.publish();
view.sync();
I need to know (in JS) when my model (using knockout.js) or rather a propery has changed.
How do I do that?
Here some code:
function DrawingToolViewModel() {
var self = this;
self.drawMode = ko.observable('Line');
}
model = new DrawingToolViewModel();
ko.applyBindings(model);
Now the assigned HTML element to drawMode will be updated by the model and back, whatever changes. That's fine, but how can I react in JS if something in the model has changed?
EDIT
My question wasn't clear enough, sorry. I know observables but I want to subscribe to ALL properties without doing that for every single property. More like "notify me if something in the model has changed"
If you want to register your own subscriptions to be notified of changes to observables, you can call their subscribe function, for example:
myViewModel.personName.subscribe(function(newValue) {
alert("The person's new name is " + newValue);
});
More details # knockoutjs.com
Summarizing the comments below
To get notified on every change in the ViewModel, check Ryan Niemeyer article and John papa's changeTracker on NuGet
If you want to be notified when a specific property changes then there are several ways of doing what you want. One way is to use the subscribe function:
model.drawMode.subscribe(function(newValue) {
// your js goes in here
});
EDIT
However, if you want to be notified when ANY property changes on your view model then I would take a look at this post for creating a 'dirty flag':
http://www.knockmeout.net/2011/05/creating-smart-dirty-flag-in-knockoutjs.html
This effectively tracks any changes to your view model so you should be able to adapt it to your needs.
The title of the question pretty much sums it up, I'd like my view to respond differently to a model instances initial save vs any future saves. Right now I'm grabbing the model's isNew attr before I save and then triggering a custom event, but I was wondering if there was anything built in?
Checking model.isNew() is the built-in way of telling whether the initial save has happened yet. If checking isNew is working for you, keep on doing it.
The initial save should issue an ID for the object, so you could bind a function to "change:id" and it would execute after the initial save succeeds. Or you could add logic to the "success" and "error" callbacks of create().
With help from this answer, I came up with the following solution:
var originalSync = Backbone.sync;
Backbone.sync = function(method, model, options) {
console.log(method);
originalSync.apply(Backbone, [method, model, options]);
};
I can now check what method is being called.