I have an API that filters a set of objects based on the ID present in the URL, like so:
http://localhost:8000/api/v1/goal_update/?goal__id=12&format=json
I have a collection that does a GET request on the above URL. Here is the code for the collection:
var GoalUpdateList = Backbone.Collection.extend({
// Reference the Goal Update model
model: GoalUpdate,
// Do HTTP requests on this endpoint
url: function() {
return "http://localhost:8000/api/v1/goal_update/?goal__id=" + this.goal_id + "&format=json";
},
// Set the goal ID that the goal update list corresponds to
initialize: function(goal_id) {
this.goal_id = goal_id;
},
});
I want to pass in the ID when I create a new instance of the collection, so I created a view that has this code:
this.collection = new GoalUpdateList(this.model.get("id"));
It thinks that I am passing in model parameters, though. I am trying to pass in information that tells the collection what URL to use. So it runs the ID through a validate function and messes up the rest of the backbone code.
Backbone's collections expect model data as the first parameter, as you've already noted. But you can specify a second parameter as an object literal, like other Backbone objects. Just pass null or undefined as the first parameter, and then in your collection initialize method, get the options as the second parameter.
GoalUpdateList = Backbone.Collection.extend({
initialize: function(data, options){
this.goal_id = options.goal_id;
}
});
new GoalUpdateList(null, model.get("goal_id"));
Related
I have a Backbone Collection class with the url property set to a method.
The url is comprised of 3 "elements" which I have called baseUrl, username and path - so it would look something like baseUrl/username/path
I use the same instance for several users in the spa I am working on. However the one element I want to be able to change (after instantiation) is the username. I need this for 2 reasons.
1st - I don't have the username property at instantiation time.
2nd - The username changes depending on the user and I don't want to create new instances of the collection for every new user.
So my issue is why does the url method not take parameters after instantiating the collection so that I could do something like myCollection.url({username: "Mac"})?
Also why does Backbone not allow for parameters to be passed into the url method?
Backbone calls the url method with the collection as the context, so you can access member variables of your collection instance with this.
var MyCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
url: function() {
return "base-url/" + this.username + "/path";
},
});
To use this after instanciation, you could set the username field of your collection manually or you could override the sync method of your collection.
var MyCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
url: function() {
return "base-url/" + this.username + "/path";
},
sync: function(method, model, options) {
options = options || {};
if (options.username) this.username = options.username;
// call the default sync
return Backbone.collection.prototype.sync.call(this, method, model, options);
}
});
And use it:
myCollection.fetch({ username: "Mac" });
Additional information on how to know how url is called
I'm an avid user of the annotated source of Backbone and it's really important as a lot of Backbone's features are undocumented and the sources are small and easy to go through.
If you check the sync method, you should see that line:
params.url = _.result(model, 'url') || urlError();
And if you check the underscore's result function, you can see that it calls the function (passed as a string) like this:
return _.isFunction(value) ? value.call(object) : value;
I have a collection which is fetched from a REST endpoint, where it receives a JSON.
So to be completely clear:
var Products = Backbone.Collection.extend({
model: Product,
url : 'restendpoint',
customFilter: function(f){
var results = this.where(f);
return new TestCollection(results);
}
});
var products = new Products();
products.fetch();
If I log this, then I have the data. However, the length of the object (initial) is 0, but it has 6 models. I think this difference has something to do with what is wrong, without me knowing what is actually wrong.
Now, if I try to filter this:
products.customFilter({title: "MyTitle"});
That returns 0, even though I know there is one of that specific title.
Now the funky part. If I take the ENTIRE JSON and copy it, as in literally copy/paste it into the code like this:
var TestCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
customFilter: function(f){
var results = this.where(f);
return new TestCollection(results);
}
});
var testCollectionInstance = new TestCollection(COPY PASTED HUGE JSON DATA);
testCollectionInstance.customFilter({title: "MyTitle"});
Now that returns the 1 model which I was expecting. The difference when I log the two collections can be seen below. Is there some funky behaviour in the .fetch() I am unaware of?
Edit 2: It may also be of value that using the .fetch() I have no problems actually using the models in a view. It's only the filtering part which is funky.
Edit 3: Added the view. It may very well be that I just don't get the flow yet. Basically I had it all working when I only had to fetch() the data and send it to the view, however, the fetch was hardcoded into the render function, so this.fetch({success: send to template}); This may be wrong.
What I want to do is be able to filter the collection and send ANY collection to the render method and then render the template with that collection.
var ProductList = Backbone.View.extend({
el: '#page',
render: function(){
var that = this; /* save the reference to this for use in anonymous functions */
var template = _.template($('#product-list-template').html());
that.$el.html(template({ products: products.models }));
//before the fetch() call was here and then I rendered the template, however, I needed to get it out so I can update my collection and re-render with a new one (so it's not hard-coded to fetch so to speak)
},
events: {
'keyup #search' : 'search'
},
search : function (ev){
var letters = $("#search").val();
}
});
Edit: New image added to clearify the problem
It's a bit tricky, you need to understand how the console works.
Logging objects or arrays is not like logging primitive values like strings or numbers.
When you log an object to the console, you are logging the reference to that object in memory.
In the first log that object has no models but once the models are fetched the object gets updated (not what you have previously logged!) and now that same object has 6 models. It's the same object but the console prints the current value/properties.
To answer your question, IO is asynchronous. You need to wait for that objects to be fetched from the server. That's what events are for. fetch triggers a sync event. Model emits the sync when the fetch is completed.
So:
var Products = Backbone.Collection.extend({
model: Product,
url : 'restendpoint',
customFilter: function(f){
var results = this.where(f);
return new TestCollection(results);
}
});
var products = new Products();
products.fetch();
console.log(products.length); // 0
products.on('sync',function(){
console.log(products.length); // 6 or whatever
products.customFilter({title: 'MyTitle'});
})
It seems like a response to your ajax request hasn't been received yet by the time you run customFilter. You should be able to use the following to ensure that the request has finished.
var that = this;
this.fetch({
success: function () {
newCollection = that.customFilter({ title: 'foo' });
}
});
I’m trying to understand how and where to use data after a fetch using Backbone.js but I’m a little confused.
I’ll explain the situation.
I have an app that, on the startup, get some data from a server. Three different kind of data.
Let’s suppose Airplanes, Bikes, Cars.
To do that, I’ve inserted inside the three collections (Airplanes, Cars, Bikes) the url where to get these data.
I’ve overwrited the parse method, so I can modify the string that I get, order it, and put it in an object and inside localstorage. I need it to be persistent because I need to use those 3 data structure.
So with a fetch i get all those data and put them inside localstorage. Is it correct doing it that way?
Now i need to make other calls to the server, like “get the nearest car”.
In the view i need to see the color, name and model of the car, all that informations are inside the object “Cars” in localstorage.
In my view “showcars.view” I just call a non-backbone js, (not a collection, model or view) where i get all the informations i need. In this js i do:
var carmodel = new Car(); //car is the backbone model of the cars
carmodel.url = '/get/nearest/car'; //that give id of the nearest car
carmodel.fetch ({
success: function () {}
//here i search the Cars object for a car with the same id
//and get name, color, model and put them in sessionstorage
})
So after that call, in the view I can get the data I need from the sessionstorage.
Is that a bad way of doing things? If so, how i should fetch and analyze those informations? I should do all the calls and operations inside the models?
Thanks
This would be the way that you might implement what you want.
var Car = Backbone.Model.extend();
var Cars = Backbone.Collection.extend({
model: Car,
url: '.../cars'
});
var NearestCar = Backbone.Model.extend({
url: '...nearest/car'
});
var cars = new Cars();
var nearestCar = new NeaerestCar();
cars.fetch({
success: function() {
nearestCar.fetch({
success: function(model) {
var oneYouWant = cars.get(model.get('id'));
// do something with your car
// e.g.:
// var carView = new CarView({model: oneYouWant});
// $('body').append(carView.render().el);
});
});
});
});
In general, Backbone keeps everything in memory (that is, the browser memory) so there is no need to save everything to local storage, as long as your Collection object is somehow reachable from the scope you are sitting in (to keep things simple let's say this is the global window scope).
So in your case I will have something like three collections:
window.Cars
window.Airplanes
window.Bikes
Now you want the nearest. Assuming you are in a Backbone View and are responding to an event, in your place I would do something like this (just shows the meaningful code):
var GeneralView = Backbone.View.extend({
events: { "click .getNearestCar": "_getNearestCar" },
_getNearestCar: function () {
$.getJson('/get/nearest/car', function (data) {
// suppose the data.id is the id of the nearest car
var nearestCar = window.Cars.get(data.id)
// do what you plase with nearestCar...
});
}
});
HI my basic model which fetches data from server is working perfect. I want to implement a search feature. When user enters any data the request goes to browser and desired model is returned.
var Book = Backbone.Model.extend({
urlRoot: '/books'
});
render: function(options) {
books = new Book({id:options.name});
books.fetch();
}
where
name = "search/"+dynamic_data;
Request URL that is being formed when i pass --> 'life' in variable dynamic_data
http://host/path/search%2Flife
Request URL that i want
http://host/path/search/life
How can I encode/escape my string to achieve the desired result. I have tried escape(), encodeURI(), encodeURIComponents
A workaround to solve this is create one more model with urlRoot as /books/search and pass just name . I don't think this is correct. Should I use this ?
According to your additionnal precisions stating that life is actually a book name...
It looks like Backbone is better integrated with RESTful API's. In REST, your urls should not contain verbs and to search books, you would do a GET /books/?name=life.
In that case, you would only have to define a Backbone.Collection like:
var BooksCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
model: Book,
url: '/books'
});
The to fetch books:
var books = new BooksCollection();
books.fetch({data : {name: 'life'}}); //GET /books/?name=life
If you really want your search operation to target /search/:name, you will have to check the Backbone.Collection api, but I think you will want to look at http://backbonejs.org/#Sync
You could override your collection's sync method to something like:
Backbone.Collection.extend({
...
sync: function (method, model, options) {
//for read operations, call the search url
if (method === 'read') {
options.url = '/search/' + options.data.name;
delete options.data.name;
}
//call the default sync implementation
return Backbone.Collection.prototype.sync.apply(this, arguments);
}
});
In this cased calling books.fetch({data : {name: 'life'}}); will result in GET /books/life.
Here's a fiddle that shows the example.
this would work:
books = new Book({id:options.name}, {url: options.name));
decodeURIComponent() will decode http://host/path/search%2Flife to http://host/path/search/life.
I've just started using Backbone.js. I want to create a Collection and add some data from an external source.
The data is actually currently in CSV, not JSON, but I could re-render it in JSON if that is going to be a lot easier.
So, two questions:
Where do I bind external data to the Collection? It complains if I don't specify a url property, but I don't really have a URL in mind - I was planning to bind data via Ajax.
Should I re-render my data in JSON, rather than CSV, and use the Collection's url property to load it?
I just tried loading data directly into the Collection, rather than via the url property:
var Cat = Backbone.Model.extend({});
var CatCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
model: Cat
});
var ajaxData = { 'breed' : 'persian' } // simple example of external data
var catCollection = new CatCollection(ajaxData);
catCollection.fetch();
But this gives an error: Uncaught Error: A "url" property or function must be specified.
Either initialize/reset your collection with an array created elsewhere without using the fetch method for your collection
var ajaxData = [{ 'breed' : 'persian' }]; // Backbone.Collection expects an array
var catCollection = new CatCollection(ajaxData);
// catCollection.fetch(); fetch will try to update the data from the server
or use the built-in url/parse to build your models
var CatCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
model: Cat,
url: "your ajax source",
parse: function (csv) {
//convert your csv in an array of objects
return csvtoarray;
},
fetch: function (options) {
options = options || {};
options.dataType = "text";
return Backbone.Collection.prototype.fetch.call(this, options);
}
});
var catCollection = new CatCollection();
catCollection.fetch();
Converting your data server-side to JSON will probably be easier than trying to write a CSV parser in JS.