I'm new to Backbone.js, and someone who comes out of the 'standard' model of JS development I'm a little unsure of how to work with the models (or when).
Views seem pretty obvious as it emulates the typical 'listen for event and do something' method that most JS dev's are familiar with.
I built a simple Todo list app and so far haven't seen a need for the model aspect so I'm curious if someone can give me some insight as to how I might apply it to this application, or if it's something that comes into play if I were working with more complex data.
Here's the JS:
Todos = (function(){
var TodoModel = Backbone.Model.extend({
defaults: {
content: null
}
});
var TodoView = Backbone.View.extend({
el: $('#todos'),
newitem: $('#new-item input'),
noitems: $('#no-items'),
initialize: function(){
this.el = $(this.el);
},
events: {
'submit #new-item': 'addItem',
'click .remove-item': 'removeItem'
},
template: $('#item-template').html(),
addItem: function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
this.noitems.remove();
var templ = _.template(this.template);
this.el.append(templ({content: this.newitem.val()}));
this.newitem.val('').focus();
return this;
},
removeItem: function(e){
$(e.target).parent('.item-wrap').remove();
}
});
self = {};
self.start = function(){
new TodoView();
};
return self;
});
$(function(){
new Todos(jQuery).start();
});
Which is running here: http://sandbox.fluidbyte.org/bb-todo
Model and Collection are needed when you have to persist the changes to the server.
Example:
var todo = new TodoModel();
creates a new model. When you have to save the save the changes, call
todo.save();
You can also pass success and error callbacks to save . Save is a wrapper around the ajax function provided by jQuery.
How to use a model in your app.
Add a url field to your model
var TodoModel = Backbone.Model.extend({
defaults: {
content: null
},
url: {
"http://localhost";
}
});
Create model and save it.
addItem: function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
this.noitems.remove();
var templ = _.template(this.template);
this.el.append(templ({content: this.newitem.val()}));
this.newitem.val('').focus();
var todo = new TodoModel({'content':this.newitem.val()});
todo.save();
return this;
},
Make sure your server is running and set the url is set correctly.
Learning Resources:
Check out the annotated source code of Backbone for an excellent
explanation of how things fall into place behind the scenes.
This Quora question has links to many good resources and sample apps.
The model is going to be useful if you ever want to save anything on the server side. Backbone's model is built around a RESTful endpoint. So if for example you set URL root to lists and then store the list information in the model, the model save and fetch methods will let you save/receive JSON describing the mode to/from the server at the lists/<id> endpoint. IE:
ToDoListModel = Backbone.model.extend( {
urlRoot : "lists/" } );
// Once saved, lives at lists/5
list = new ToDoListModel({id: 5, list: ["Take out trash", "Feed Dog"] });
list.save();
So you can use this to interact with data that persists on the server via a RESTful interface. see this tutorial for more.
I disagree with the idea that model is needed only to persist changes (and I am including LocalStorage here, not only the server).
It is nice to have representation of models and collections so that you have object to work with and not only Views. In your example you are only adding and removing divs (html) from the page, which is something you can do normally with jQuery. Having a Model created and added to a Collection everytime you do "add" and maybe removed when you clear it will allow you some nice things, like for example sorting (alphabetically), or filtering (if you want to implement the concept of "complete" to-do).
In your code, for example:
var TodoModel = Backbone.Model.extend({
defaults: {
content: null
complete: false
}
});
var Todos = Backbone.Collection.extend({
model: TodoModel
})
In the View (irrelevant code is skipped):
// snip....
addItem: function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
this.noitems.remove();
var templ = _.template(this.template);
var newTodo = new TodoModel({ content: this.newitem.val() });
this.collection.add(newTodo); // you get the collection property from free from the initializer in Backbone
this.el.append(templ({model: newTodo})); // change the template here of course to use model
this.newitem.val('').focus();
return this;
},
Initialize like this:
self.start = function(){
new TodoView(new Todos());
};
Now you have a backing Collection and you can do all sort of stuff, like filtering. Let's say you have a button for filtering done todos, you hook this handler:
_filterDone: function (ev) {
filtered = this.collection.where({ complete: true });
this.el.html(''); // empty the collection container, I used "el" but you know where you are rendering your todos
_.each(filtered, function (todo) {
this.el.append(templ({model: todo})); // it's as easy as that! :)
});
}
Beware that emptying the container is probably not the best thing if you have events hooked to the inner views but as a starter this works ok.
You may need a hook for setting a todo done. Create a button or checkbox and maybe a function like this:
_setDone: function (ev) {
// you will need to scope properly or "this" here will refer to the element clicked!
todo = this.collection.get($(ev.currentTarget).attr('todo_id')); // if you had the accuracy to put the id of the todo somewhere within the template
todo.set('complete', true);
// some code here to re-render the list
// or remove the todo single view and re-render it
// in the simplest for just redrawr everything
this.el.html('');
_.each(this.collection, function (todo) {
this.el.append(templ({model: todo}));
});
}
The code above would not have been so easy without Models and Collections and as you can see it does not relate in any way with the server.
Related
I am fooling around with a loop and a ajax request in react I cannot seem to get working. Its suppose to loop over, set the object array and then push that object array to the state for later use.
The issue is that I am failing at promises in general. I am using this concept from the react docs to set the state of a component upon mounting to return an array of "links".
/** #jsx React.DOM */
var Temp = {
object: new Array()
}
var CommentsRow = React.createClass({
getInitialState: function(){
return {
href: ''
}
},
componentDidMount: function(){
var self = this
this.props.comments.slice(0, 5).map(function(comment){
var postUrl = window.Development.API_URL + 'posts/' + comment.post_id
$.get(postUrl, function(post){
Temp.object.push(post.post.title);
if (self.isMounted()) {
self.setState({
href: Temp.object
});
}
});
});
},
render: function() {
console.log(this.state)
}
});
The gist of whats going on above is:
I have a bunch of comments coming in and I take the first five. From there I loop over each comment object and grab the title, creating my api link. With that I want to say get me the post based on this link, assuming it works we then want to set a temp object, this will create "five arrays" each going from a count of 1,2,3,4 and finally 5 elements.
from there we take that and set the state. This part works, but because its a ajax request the state out side the request is empty even if I use the if (isMounted()){ ... } option.
any idea how I can set the state doing something like this and still have access to it?
You either want async.js or promises to help manage multiple async actions. Async integrates a bit better with jQuery, so I'll show it with that.
componentDidMount: function(){
async.map(this.props.comments.slice(0, 5), function(comment, cb){
var postUrl = window.Development.API_URL + 'posts/' + comment.post_id;
$.get(postUrl, function(data){
cb(null, {title: data.post.title, href: ???});
});
}, function(err, posts){
// posts is an array of the {title,href} objects we made above
this.setState({posts: posts});
}.bind(this));
}
I am building what should be a fairly simple project which is heavily based on Ampersand's starter project (when you first run ampersand). My Add page has a <select> element that should to be populated with data from another collection. I have been comparing this view with the Edit page view because I think they are quite similar but I cannot figure it out.
The form subview has a waitFor attribute but I do not know what type of value it is expecting - I know it should be a string - but what does that string represent?
Below you can see that I am trying to fetch the app.brandCollection and set its value to this.model, is this correct? I will need to modify the output and pass through the data to an ampersand-select-view element with the correct formatting; that is my next problem. If anyone has suggestions for that I would also appreciate it.
var PageView = require('./base');
var templates = require('../templates');
var ProjectForm = require('../forms/addProjectForm');
module.exports = PageView.extend({
pageTitle: 'add project',
template: templates.pages.projectAdd,
initialize: function () {
var self = this;
app.brandCollection.fetch({
success : function(collection, resp) {
console.log('SUCCESS: resp', resp);
self.brands = resp;
},
error: function(collection, resp) {
console.log('ERROR: resp', resp, options);
}
});
},
subviews: {
form: {
container: 'form',
waitFor: 'brands',
prepareView: function (el) {
return new ProjectForm({
el: el,
submitCallback: function (data) {
app.projectCollection.create(data, {
wait: true,
success: function () {
app.navigate('/');
app.projectCollection.fetch();
}
});
}
});
}
}
}
});
This is only the add page view but I think that is all that's needed.
The form subview has a waitFor attribute but I do not know what type of value it is expecting - I know it should be a string - but what does that string represent?
This string represents path in a current object with fixed this context. In your example you've waitFor: 'brands' which is nothing more than PageView.brands here, as PageView is this context. If you'd have model.some.attribute, then it'd mean that this string represents PageView.model.some.attribute. It's just convenient way to traverse through objects.
There's to few informations to answer your latter question. In what form you retrieve your data? What do you want to do with it later on?
It'd be much quicker if you could ping us on https://gitter.im/AmpersandJS/AmpersandJS :)
I'd like to have a paginated view of a collection. I tried using Backbone.Paginator but I just couldn't make it work.
I figured I'd do the pagination myself and I thought it would be a good idea to have my full collection, and then send the view a small collection of the big one, and do this every time someone clicks on 'next'.
I tried doing this but it doesn't work :
var purchaseCollection = new purchaseItemCollection({url:endpoints.purchases});
purchaseCollection.fetch();
var purchaseRangeCollection = new Backbone.Collection(purchaseCollection.models),
purchaseView = new purchaseItemCollectionView({collection:purchaseRangeCollection});
My second collection is only made of one model when it should have severals.
I'm wondering if this is even the best way to do it.
Any advice on how to split a collection into collections, or how to do it in another way would really be appreciated!
You could use a custom object to control a collection representing the list of models currently selected.
For example,
var Slicer = function(opts) {
opts || (opts = {});
// your big collection
this.collection = opts.collection || new Backbone.Collection();
// a collection filled with the currently selected models
this.sliced = new Backbone.Collection();
};
_.extend(Slicer.prototype, Backbone.Events, {
// a method to slice the original collection and fill the container
slice: function(begin, end) {
var models = this.collection.models.slice(begin, end);
this.sliced.reset(models);
// triggers a custom event for convenience
this.trigger('sliced', this.sliced);
}
});
You would then create an instance of this controller and either listen to the custom event sliced on this object or on a reset event on the sliced collection to update your view:
var controller = new Slicer({
collection: purchaseCollection
});
controller.on('sliced', function(c) {
console.log('sliced', c.pluck('id'));
});
controller.sliced.on('reset', function(c) {
console.log('reset', c.pluck('id'));
});
And a demo to play with http://jsfiddle.net/nikoshr/zjgkF/
Note that you also have to take into account the asynchronous nature of fetch, you can't immediately work on the models. In this setup, you would do something like
var purchaseCollection = new purchaseItemCollection(
[], // you have to pass an array
{url:endpoints.purchases} // and then your options
);
purchaseCollection.fetch().then(function() {
// do what you want
// for example
controller.slice(0, 10);
});
You can define the model of your full collection as another independent collection.
Then after fetch(), you will get your collections as the model of your full one.
var PurchaseCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
model: Backbone.Collection
})
var purchaseCollection = new PurchaseCollection({url:endpoints.purchases});
purchaseCollection.fetch()
purchaseCollection.each(function (purchaseItem, index) {
//the purchaseItem is what you want...
//do anything...
});
If you want a demo, click here.
Just remember that collection constructor has two attributes (http://backbonejs.org/#Collection-constructor). The first are the models and the second are the options like url etc.
Lets say i have a JSON like this:
JSON example, my json is validated on jsonlint and it works.
json_object = {
"texts_model": {
"hello": "hola",
"icon_text": "Icon!"
},
"collection_vias": {
"text": "hola",
"icon_text": "Icon!"
}
};
I have made a Collection that parse the contents of the json and generates model and collections from this json.
App.TemplatesCollection = Backbone.Model.extend({
model: App.TemplateModel,
url: TEMPLATES_SERVICE,
initialize: function(){
this.fetch({
success: (function () {
console.log(' Success ');
}),
error:(function (e) {
//console.log(' Error: ' + e);
}),
complete:(function (e) {
console.log(' Fetch completado con exito. ');
})
});
},
//Here i generate all my models and collections.
parse: function(response){
App.texts = new App.TemplateModel(response.text_model);
App.vias = new App.ViasCollection(response.collection_vias);
return response;
},
//I was trying with the get function but i the only thing i got was undefined.
plain_texts: function(){
return( this.get('plain_texts') ) ;
}
});
And the view is like this:
App.TemplateView = Backbone.View.extend({
el: App.$main_content,
initialize: function(){
_.bindAll(this, 'render');
},
//Here i pass the template(html source) i want to render.
render: function(template){
var html = render(template, this.model.toJSON() );
App.$main_content.html(html);
return this;
}
});
And my start.js where they live all the declarations of my models and views:
//app
App = {
init: function(){
console.log('Iniciando...');
//variables y constantes
App.$main_content = $('#main-content-content');
App.$main_header = $('#main-header-content')
App.$main_navigation = $('#main-navigation-content');
//data
App.templates = new App.TemplatesCollection();
//views
App.templateView = new App.TemplateView({model: App.texts});
//router
App.router = new App.Router();
},
start: function(){
//init
App.init();
//router
Backbone.history.start();
}
}
And the router:
//router
App.Router = Backbone.Router.extend({
routes:{
"" : "index",
":web" : "url"
},
index: function(){
console.log("index");
//Here i do not know what to do, i mean do i have to instiate the View each time i go to index? or only render?
App.templateView = new App.TemplateView({model: App.texts});
App.templateView.render("sections/login/form");
},
url: function(web){
console.log(web);
}
});
//on document ready
$(function(){
App.start();
});
My problem is that when the html is loaded the only thing i have is:
"Uncaught TypeError: Cannot call method 'toJSON' of undefined "
But when i put this on the developer console:
App.templateView = new App.TemplateView({model: App.texts});
App.templateView.render("sections/login/form");
My view is rendered correctly.
Why my view isn't rendered on the load and only when i put my code on the developer console?
How can i render my model on the view on the router url?
Why do i have undefined on the html loaded on the developer console?
----EDIT---
All right,
I think i understand. Maybe I'm generating a problem of a thing that does not have to have a problem.
Now my Model is like this:
App.TemplatesCollection = Backbone.Model.extend({
model: App.TemplateModel,
url: TEMPLATES_SERVICE,
plain_texts: function(){
return this.get('texts') ;
},
initialize: function(){
this.fetch();
}
});
And the View:
App.TemplateView = Backbone.View.extend({
el: App.$main_content,
initialize: function(){
console.log(this.collection);
var ea = this.collection.get('texts');
console.log(ea);
},
render: function(template){
console.log(this.collection);
return this;
}
});
Now i see my collection inside my View.
But when i try to do this to get only the text version on my View:
var ea = this.collection.get('texts');
console.log(ea);
Im getting the error of undefined:
Uncaught TypeError: Cannot call method 'get' of undefined
Any idea about how can i resolve this?
I'm trying to solve this by myself. I do not want to look like im asking to develop my solution.
Thanks in advance.
It's a little hard to read, but at a quick glance: your App.texts = is in in the parse() function of your Collection. As a result, it gets called once the .fetch() on the collection is performed... until then, your App.texts is undefined!
If App.texts is undefined when you create the TemplateView, then the view's model will actually be undefined, and so, in the render, when the template engine you use is doing a toJSON(), it will say that it has an undefined value...
There may be other problems, but this one is the most glaring. Here is a quick&dirty fix: once the fetch() is done, your collection will trigger a reset event. That's your cue for doing the rendering. So, what you can do, is instead of passing the model to the View, you can pass the collection instead:
App.templateView = new App.TemplateView({collection: App.templates});
Now, in your View's initialize, you can do something like:
if(App.texts) {
//Your collection has already fetched and already went through parse()
this.model = App.texts;
this.render("sections/login/form");
} else {
//Your collection hasn't done the fetch yet
view = this;
this.collection.one("reset", function(){
view.model = App.texts;
view.render("sections/login/form");
});
}
If you give a collection as a param to a View's construction, it'll be stored in this.collection, same as with model. The idea here is to use the events to know when to do the rendering, and also let the view tell you when it's ready to render. You could also do something in your render() function to check if the model is defined!
To see if this analysis is correct, you can put a console.log(App.texts); in your index function in the router.
One way to make the code a bit more obvious is to initialize your App.texts and App.vias directly in your App's init. And give a reference to them to your AppTemplatesCollection if you really need to side-load them in the parse of AppTemplates' fetch(). The difference that makes is that you can bind to events from the App.vias collection ('add', 'remove', 'reset') or to the App.texts model ('change').
Another thing I noticed is that you have a collection of App.TemplateModel but you are still creating a App.texts where you put the result of the fetch into your own instance of App.TemplateModel? That doesn't seem right, maybe you have a reason for doing so, but in the most general case, the collection is suppose to handle the creation of the models, especially after a fetch!
The usual use case of the parse() method is to side-load data (other models/collection), change the format (from XML to something JS can understand) or to remove useless keys (for instance user: {id: ..., name: ... }, you'll return response.user so that Backbone can play with the correct hash directly). What you are doing here seems to fall out of this pattern so maybe it's a cause for worry?
In your code you have created collection as :
App.TemplatesCollection = Backbone.Model.extend({
//rest of the code
If you want to create a collection you need to extend Backbone.Collectionand not Backbone.Model.
App.TemplatesCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
//rest of the code
I am trying to create and initialize some sort of master view model that contains common view models that might be run on every page and page specific models that are appended on page load.
var MasterViewModel = {
commonViewModel1 : CommonViewModel1(),
commonViewModel2 : CommonViewModel1()
};
var commonInit = function() {
// Populate View Model Data
MasterViewModel.commonViewModel1 = initCommonViewModel1();
MasterViewModel.commonViewModel2 = initCommonViewModel2();
// Apply common view model bindings
ko.applyBindings(MasterViewModel);
};
var pageSpecificInit = function() {
// Populate Specific View Model Data
MasterViewModel.pageViewModel1 = initPageViewModel1();
MasterViewModel.pageViewModel2 = initPageViewModel2();
// Apply Page Specific Bindings
ko.applyBindings(MasterViewModel);
};
$(function() {
commonInit();
pageSpecificInit();
});
this is a crude example of what I am trying to do in the real application this is all namespaced and in separate files so that only page specific code is run. What is the best practice for doing this I somewhat based the above on http://www.knockmeout.net/2012/05/quick-tip-skip-binding.html but when I do it in the application I get something like "cannot bind to pageViewModel1 undefined" should I setup my MasterViewModel differently to be more like
var MasterViewModel = {
commonViewModel1 : CommonViewModel1(),
commonViewModel2 : CommonViewModel1(),
pageViewModels : {}
};
var commonInit = function() {
// Populate View Model Data
MasterViewModel.commonViewModel1 = initCommonViewModel1();
MasterViewModel.commonViewModel2 = initCommonViewModel2();
// Apply common view model bindings
ko.applyBindings(MasterViewModel);
};
var pageSpecificInit = function() {
// Populate Specific View Model Data
MasterViewModel.pageViewModels.pageViewModel1 = initPageViewModel1();
MasterViewModel.pageViewModels.pageViewModel2 = initPageViewModel2();
// Apply Page Specific Bindings
ko.applyBindings(MasterViewModel.pageViewModels);
};
$(function() {
commonInit();
pageSpecificInit();
});
Your second example is more correct, but shouldn't you be binding the page-specific view models to a specific html element that you've surrounded with the stop binding comment?
ko.applyBindings(MasterViewModel.pageViewModels, $('#pageElement')[0]);
However, if you want to have nicely decoupled objects that can talk to each other, then you might want to look at Knockout Postbox