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- <!DOCTYPE HTML>
- <html>
- <head>
- <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
- <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="chrome=1">
- <title>Backbone.js</title>
- <style>
- body {
- font-size: 14px;
- line-height: 22px;
- font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial;
- background: #f4f4f4 url(docs/images/background.png);
- }
- .interface {
- font-family: "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif !important;
- }
- div#sidebar {
- background: #fff;
- position: fixed;
- top: 0; left: 0; bottom: 0;
- width: 200px;
- overflow-y: auto;
- overflow-x: hidden;
- padding: 15px 0 30px 30px;
- border-right: 1px solid #ddd;
- box-shadow: 0 0 20px #ccc; -webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 20px #ccc; -moz-box-shadow: 0 0 20px #ccc;
- }
- a.toc_title, a.toc_title:visited {
- display: block;
- color: black;
- font-weight: bold;
- margin-top: 15px;
- }
- div.toc_title:hover {
- text-decoration: underline;
- }
- #sidebar .version {
- font-size: 10px;
- font-weight: normal;
- }
- ul.toc_section {
- font-size: 11px;
- line-height: 14px;
- margin: 5px 0 0 0;
- padding-left: 0px;
- list-style-type: none;
- font-family: Lucida Grande;
- }
- .toc_section li {
- cursor: pointer;
- margin: 0 0 3px 0;
- }
- .toc_section li a {
- color: black;
- }
- div.container {
- position: relative;
- width: 550px;
- margin: 40px 0 50px 260px;
- }
- div.run {
- position: absolute;
- right: 15px;
- width: 26px; height: 18px;
- background: url('docs/images/arrows.png') no-repeat -26px 0;
- }
- div.run:active {
- background-position: -51px 0;
- }
- p, div.container ul {
- margin: 20px 0;
- width: 550px;
- }
- p.warning {
- font-size: 12px;
- line-height: 18px;
- font-style: italic;
- }
- div.container ul {
- list-style: circle;
- font-size: 12px;
- padding-left: 15px;
- }
- a, a:visited {
- color: #444;
- text-decoration: none;
- }
- a:active, a:hover {
- color: #000;
- text-decoration: underline;
- }
- a img {
- border: 0;
- }
- h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
- padding-top: 20px;
- }
- h2 {
- font-size: 20px;
- }
- b.header {
- font-size: 16px;
- line-height: 30px;
- }
- span.alias {
- font-size: 14px;
- font-style: italic;
- margin-left: 20px;
- }
- table {
- margin: 15px 0 0; padding: 0;
- }
- tr, td {
- margin: 0; padding: 0;
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- td {
- padding: 0px 15px 5px 0;
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- code, pre, tt {
- font-family: Monaco, Consolas, "Lucida Console", monospace;
- font-size: 12px;
- line-height: 18px;
- font-style: normal;
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- tt {
- padding: 0px 3px;
- background: #fff;
- border: 1px solid #ddd;
- zoom: 1;
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- code {
- margin-left: 20px;
- }
- pre {
- font-size: 12px;
- padding: 2px 0 2px 15px;
- border: 4px solid #bbb; border-top: 0; border-bottom: 0;
- margin: 0px 0 30px;
- }
- </style>
- </head>
- <body>
- <div id="sidebar" class="interface">
- <a class="toc_title" href="#">
- Backbone.js <span class="version">(0.3.3)</span>
- </a>
- <a class="toc_title" href="#Introduction">
- Introduction
- </a>
- <a class="toc_title" href="#Events">
- Events
- </a>
- <ul class="toc_section">
- <li>– <a href="#Events-bind">bind</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Events-unbind">unbind</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Events-trigger">trigger</a></li>
- </ul>
- <a class="toc_title" href="#Model">
- Model
- </a>
- <ul class="toc_section">
- <li>– <a href="#Model-extend">extend</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-constructor">constructor / initialize</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-get">get</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-escape">escape</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-set">set</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-unset">unset</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-clear">clear</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-id">id</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-cid">cid</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-attributes">attributes</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-defaults">defaults</a></li>
- <li>- <a href="#Model-toJSON">toJSON</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-fetch">fetch</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-save">save</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-destroy">destroy</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-validate">validate</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-url">url</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-parse">parse</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-clone">clone</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-isNew">isNew</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-change">change</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-hasChanged">hasChanged</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-changedAttributes">changedAttributes</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-previous">previous</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-previousAttributes">previousAttributes</a></li>
- </ul>
- <a class="toc_title" href="#Collection">
- Collection
- </a>
- <ul class="toc_section">
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-extend">extend</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-model">model</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-constructor">constructor / initialize</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-models">models</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-toJSON">toJSON</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-Underscore-Methods"><b>Underscore Methods (25)</b></a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-add">add</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-remove">remove</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-get">get</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-getByCid">getByCid</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-at">at</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-length">length</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-comparator">comparator</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-sort">sort</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-pluck">pluck</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-url">url</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-parse">parse</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-fetch">fetch</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-refresh">refresh</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Collection-create">create</a></li>
- </ul>
- <a class="toc_title" href="#Controller">
- Controller
- </a>
- <ul class="toc_section">
- <li>– <a href="#Controller-extend">extend</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Controller-routes">routes</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Controller-constructor">constructor / initialize</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Controller-route">route</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Controller-saveLocation">saveLocation</a></li>
- </ul>
- <a class="toc_title" href="#History">
- History
- </a>
- <ul class="toc_section">
- <li>– <a href="#History-start">start</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#History-saveLocation">saveLocation</a></li>
- </ul>
- <a class="toc_title" href="#Sync">
- Sync
- </a>
- <ul class="toc_section">
- <li>– <a href="#Sync">Backbone.sync</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Sync-emulateHTTP">Backbone.emulateHTTP</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Sync-emulateJSON">Backbone.emulateJSON</a></li>
- </ul>
- <a class="toc_title" href="#View">
- View
- </a>
- <ul class="toc_section">
- <li>– <a href="#View-extend">extend</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#View-constructor">constructor / initialize</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#View-el">el</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#View-dollar">$ (jQuery or Zepto)</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#View-render">render</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#View-remove">remove</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#View-make">make</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#View-delegateEvents">delegateEvents</a></li>
- </ul>
- <a class="toc_title" href="#examples">
- Examples
- </a>
- <a class="toc_title" href="#faq">
- F.A.Q.
- </a>
- <ul class="toc_section">
- <li>– <a href="#FAQ-events">Catalog of Events</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#FAQ-nested">Nested Models & Collections</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#FAQ-mvc">Traditional MVC</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#FAQ-this">Binding "this"</a></li>
- <li>- <a href="#FAQ-rias">Other RIA Frameworks</a></li>
- </ul>
- <a class="toc_title" href="#changelog">
- Change Log
- </a>
- </div>
- <div class="container">
- <p>
- <img style="width: 385px; height: 126px;" src="docs/images/backbone.png" alt="Backbone.js" />
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="http://github.com/documentcloud/backbone/">Backbone</a>
- supplies structure to JavaScript-heavy applications by providing <b>models</b> with
- key-value binding and custom events, <b>collections</b> with a rich API of enumerable functions,
- <b>views</b> with declarative event handling, and connects it all to your
- existing application over a RESTful JSON interface.
- </p>
- <p>
- The project is <a href="http://github.com/documentcloud/backbone/">hosted on GitHub</a>,
- and the <a href="docs/backbone.html">annotated source code</a> is available,
- as well as an online <a href="test/test.html">test suite</a>, and
- <a href="examples/todos/index.html">example application</a>.
- </p>
- <p>
- You can report bugs and discuss features on the
- <a href="http://github.com/documentcloud/backbone/issues">issues page</a>,
- on Freenode in the <tt>#documentcloud</tt> channel,
- or send tweets to <a href="http://twitter.com/documentcloud">@documentcloud</a>.
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>
- Backbone is an open-source component of
- <a href="http://documentcloud.org/">DocumentCloud</a>.
- </i>
- </p>
- <h2 id="downloads">
- Downloads & Dependencies
- <span style="padding-left: 7px; font-size:11px; font-weight: normal;" class="interface">(Right-click, and use "Save As")</span>
- </h2>
- <table>
- <tr>
- <td><a href="backbone.js">Development Version (0.3.3)</a></td>
- <td><i>35kb, Uncompressed with Comments</i></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><a href="backbone-min.js">Production Version (0.3.3)</a></td>
- <td><i>3.9kb, Packed and Gzipped</i></td>
- </tr>
- </table>
- <p>
- Backbone's only hard dependency is
- <a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/">Underscore.js</a>.
- For RESTful persistence, and DOM manipulation with
- <a href="#View">Backbone.View</a>,
- it's highly recommended to include
- <a href="http://www.json.org/json2.js">json2.js</a>, and either
- <a href="http://jquery.com">jQuery</a> or <a href="http://zeptojs.com/">Zepto</a>.
- </p>
- <h2 id="Introduction">Introduction</h2>
- <p>
- When working on a web application that involves a lot of JavaScript, one
- of the first things you learn is to stop tying your data to the DOM. It's all
- too easy to create JavaScript applications that end up as tangled piles of
- jQuery selectors and callbacks, all trying frantically to keep data in
- sync between the HTML UI, your JavaScript logic, and the database on your
- server. For rich client-side applications, a more structured approach
- is helpful.
- </p>
- <p>
- With Backbone, you represent your data as
- <a href="#Model">Models</a>, which can be created, validated, destroyed,
- and saved to the server. Whenever a UI action causes an attribute of
- a model to change, the model triggers a <i>"change"</i> event; all
- the <a href="#View">Views</a> that display the model's data are notified of the
- event, causing them to re-render. You don't have to write the glue
- code that looks into the DOM to find an element with a specific <i>id</i>,
- and update the HTML manually
- — when the model changes, the views simply update themselves.
- </p>
- <p>
- Many of the examples that follow are runnable. Click the <i>play</i> button
- to execute them.
- </p>
- <h2 id="Events">Backbone.Events</h2>
- <p>
- <b>Events</b> is a module that can be mixed in to any object, giving the
- object the ability to bind and trigger custom named events. Events do not
- have to be declared before they are bound, and may take passed arguments.
- For example:
- </p>
- <pre class="runnable">
- var object = {};
- _.extend(object, Backbone.Events);
- object.bind("alert", function(msg) {
- alert("Triggered " + msg);
- });
- object.trigger("alert", "an event");
- </pre>
- <p id="Events-bind">
- <b class="header">bind</b><code>object.bind(event, callback)</code>
- <br />
- Bind a <b>callback</b> function to an object. The callback will be invoked
- whenever the <b>event</b> (specified by an arbitrary string identifier) is fired.
- If you have a large number of different events on a page, the convention is to use colons to
- namespace them: <tt>"poll:start"</tt>, or <tt>"change:selection"</tt>
- </p>
- <p>
- Callbacks bound to the special
- <tt>"all"</tt> event will be triggered when any event occurs, and are passed
- the name of the event as the first argument. For example, to proxy all events
- from one object to another:
- </p>
- <pre>
- proxy.bind("all", function(eventName) {
- object.trigger(eventName);
- });
- </pre>
- <p id="Events-unbind">
- <b class="header">unbind</b><code>object.unbind([event], [callback])</code>
- <br />
- Remove a previously-bound <b>callback</b> function from an object. If no
- callback is specified, all callbacks for the <b>event</b> will be
- removed. If no event is specified, <i>all</i> event callbacks on the object
- will be removed.
- </p>
- <pre>
- object.unbind("change", onChange); // Removes just the onChange callback.
- object.unbind("change"); // Removes all "change" callbacks.
- object.unbind(); // Removes all callbacks on object.
- </pre>
- <p id="Events-trigger">
- <b class="header">trigger</b><code>object.trigger(event, [*args])</code>
- <br />
- Trigger callbacks for the given <b>event</b>. Subsequent arguments to
- <b>trigger</b> will be passed along to the event callbacks.
- </p>
- <h2 id="Model">Backbone.Model</h2>
- <p>
- <b>Models</b> are the heart of any JavaScript application, containing
- the interactive data as well as a large part of the logic surrounding it:
- conversions, validations, computed properties, and access control. You
- extend <b>Backbone.Model</b> with your domain-specific methods, and
- <b>Model</b> provides a basic set of functionality for managing changes.
- </p>
- <p>
- The following is a contrived example, but it demonstrates defining a model
- with a custom method, setting an attribute, and firing an event keyed
- to changes in that specific attribute.
- After running this code once, <tt>sidebar</tt> will be
- available in your browser's console, so you can play around with it.
- </p>
- <pre class="runnable">
- var Sidebar = Backbone.Model.extend({
- promptColor: function() {
- var cssColor = prompt("Please enter a CSS color:");
- this.set({color: cssColor});
- }
- });
- window.sidebar = new Sidebar;
- sidebar.bind('change:color', function(model, color) {
- $('#sidebar').css({background: color});
- });
- sidebar.set({color: 'white'});
- sidebar.promptColor();
- </pre>
- <p id="Model-extend">
- <b class="header">extend</b><code>Backbone.Model.extend(properties, [classProperties])</code>
- <br />
- To create a <b>Model</b> class of your own, you extend <b>Backbone.Model</b>
- and provide instance <b>properties</b>, as well as optional
- <b>classProperties</b> to be attached directly to the constructor function.
- </p>
- <p>
- <b>extend</b> correctly sets up the prototype chain, so subclasses created
- with <b>extend</b> can be further extended and subclassed as far as you like.
- </p>
- <pre>
- var Note = Backbone.Model.extend({
- initialize: function() { ... },
- author: function() { ... },
- allowedToEdit: function(account) { ... },
- coordinates: function() { ... }
- });
- </pre>
- <p class="warning">
- Brief aside on <tt>super</tt>: JavaScript does not provide
- a simple way to call super — the function of the same name defined
- higher on the prototype chain. If you override a core function like
- <tt>set</tt>, or <tt>save</tt>, and you want to invoke the
- parent object's implementation, you'll have to explicitly call it, along these lines:
- </p>
- <pre>
- var Note = Backbone.Model.extend({
- set: function(attributes, options) {
- Backbone.Model.prototype.set.call(this, attributes, options);
- ...
- }
- });
- </pre>
- <p id="Model-constructor">
- <b class="header">constructor / initialize</b><code>new Model([attributes])</code>
- <br />
- When creating an instance of a model, you can pass in the initial values
- of the <b>attributes</b>, which will be <a href="#Model-set">set</a> on the
- model. If you define an <b>initialize</b> function, it will be invoked when
- the model is created.
- </p>
- <pre>
- new Book({
- title: "One Thousand and One Nights",
- author: "Scheherazade"
- });
- </pre>
- <p id="Model-get">
- <b class="header">get</b><code>model.get(attribute)</code>
- <br />
- Get the current value of an attribute from the model. For example:
- <tt>note.get("title")</tt>
- </p>
- <p id="Model-escape">
- <b class="header">escape</b><code>model.escape(attribute)</code>
- <br />
- Similar to <a href="#Model-get">get</a>, but returns the HTML-escaped version
- of a model's attribute. If you're interpolating data from the model into
- HTML, using <b>escape</b> to retrieve attributes will prevent
- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_scripting">XSS</a> attacks.
- </p>
- <pre class="runnable">
- var hacker = new Backbone.Model({
- name: "<script>alert('xss')</script>"
- });
- alert(hacker.escape('name'));
- </pre>
- <p id="Model-set">
- <b class="header">set</b><code>model.set(attributes, [options])</code>
- <br />
- Set a hash of attributes (one or many) on the model. If any of the attributes
- change the models state, a <tt>"change"</tt> event will be triggered, unless
- <tt>{silent: true}</tt> is passed as an option. Change events for specific
- attributes are also triggered, and you can bind to those as well, for example:
- <tt>change:title</tt>, and <tt>change:content</tt>.
- </p>
- <pre>
- note.set({title: "October 12", content: "Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet..."});
- </pre>
- <p>
- If the model has a <a href="#Model-validate">validate</a> method,
- it will be validated before the attributes are set, no changes will
- occur if the validation fails, and <b>set</b> will return <tt>false</tt>.
- You may also pass an <tt>error</tt>
- callback in the options, which will be invoked instead of triggering an
- <tt>"error"</tt> event, should validation fail.
- </p>
- <p id="Model-unset">
- <b class="header">unset</b><code>model.unset(attribute, [options])</code>
- <br />
- Remove an attribute by deleting it from the internal attributes hash.
- Fires a <tt>"change"</tt> event unless <tt>silent</tt> is passed as an option.
- </p>
- <p id="Model-clear">
- <b class="header">clear</b><code>model.clear([options])</code>
- <br />
- Removes all attributes from the model. Fires a <tt>"change"</tt> event unless
- <tt>silent</tt> is passed as an option.
- </p>
- <p id="Model-id">
- <b class="header">id</b><code>model.id</code>
- <br />
- A special property of models, the <b>id</b> is an arbitrary string
- (integer id or UUID). If you set the <b>id</b> in the
- attributes hash, it will be copied onto the model as a direct property.
- Models can be retrieved by id from collections, and the id is used to generate
- model URLs by default.
- </p>
- <p id="Model-cid">
- <b class="header">cid</b><code>model.cid</code>
- <br />
- A special property of models, the <b>cid</b> or client id is a unique identifier
- automatically assigned to all models when they're first created. Client ids
- are handy when the model has not yet been saved to the server, and does not
- yet have its eventual true <b>id</b>, but already needs to be visible in the UI.
- Client ids take the form: <tt>c1, c2, c3 ...</tt>
- </p>
- <p id="Model-attributes">
- <b class="header">attributes</b><code>model.attributes</code>
- <br />
- The <b>attributes</b> property is the internal hash containing the model's
- state. Please use <a href="#Model-set">set</a> to update the attributes instead of modifying
- them directly. If you'd like to retrieve and munge a copy of the model's
- attributes, use <a href="#Model-toJSON">toJSON</a> instead.
- </p>
- <p id="Model-defaults">
- <b class="header">defaults</b><code>model.defaults</code>
- <br />
- The <b>defaults</b> hash can be used to specify the default attributes
- for your model. When creating an instance of the model, any unspecified
- attributes will be set to their default value.
- </p>
- <pre class="runnable">
- var Meal = Backbone.Model.extend({
- defaults: {
- "appetizer": "caesar salad",
- "entree": "ravioli",
- "dessert": "cheesecake"
- }
- });
- alert("Dessert will be " + (new Meal).get('dessert'));
- </pre>
- <p id="Model-toJSON">
- <b class="header">toJSON</b><code>model.toJSON()</code>
- <br />
- Return a copy of the model's <a href="#Model-attributes">attributes</a> for JSON stringification.
- This can be used for persistence, serialization, or for augmentation before
- being handed off to a view. The name of this method is a bit confusing, as
- it doesn't actually return a JSON string — but I'm afraid that it's
- the way that the <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JSON#toJSON()_method">JavaScript API for <b>JSON.stringify</b> works</a>.
- </p>
- <pre class="runnable">
- var artist = new Backbone.Model({
- firstName: "Wassily",
- lastName: "Kandinsky"
- });
- artist.set({birthday: "December 16, 1866"});
- alert(JSON.stringify(artist));
- </pre>
- <p id="Model-fetch">
- <b class="header">fetch</b><code>model.fetch([options])</code>
- <br />
- Refreshes the model's state from the server. Useful if the model has never
- been populated with data, or if you'd like to ensure that you have the
- latest server state. A <tt>"change"</tt> event will be triggered if the
- server's state differs from the current attributes. Accepts
- <tt>success</tt> and <tt>error</tt> callbacks in the options hash, which
- are passed <tt>(model, response)</tt> as arguments.
- </p>
- <pre>
- // Poll every 10 seconds to keep the channel model up-to-date.
- setInterval(function() {
- channel.fetch();
- }, 10000);
- </pre>
- <p class="warning">
- <b>Cautionary Note:</b> When fetching or saving a model, make sure that the model is part of
- a collection with a <a href="#Collection-url">url</a> property specified,
- or that the model itself has a complete <a href="#Model-url">url</a> function
- of its own, so that the request knows where to go.
- </p>
- <p id="Model-save">
- <b class="header">save</b><code>model.save(attributes, [options])</code>
- <br />
- Save a model to your database (or alternative persistence layer),
- by delegating to <a href="#Sync">Backbone.sync</a>. If the model has a <a href="#Model-validate">validate</a>
- method, and validation fails, the model will not be saved. If the model
- <a href="#Model-isNew">isNew</a>, the save will be a <tt>"create"</tt>
- (HTTP <tt>POST</tt>), if the model already
- exists on the server, the save will be an <tt>"update"</tt> (HTTP <tt>PUT</tt>). Accepts
- <tt>success</tt> and <tt>error</tt> callbacks in the options hash, which
- are passed <tt>(model, response)</tt> as arguments. The <tt>error</tt> callback will
- also be invoked if the model has a <tt>validate</tt> method, and validation fails.
- </p>
- <p>
- In the following example, notice how because the model has never been
- saved previously, our overridden version of <tt>Backbone.sync</tt> receives a <tt>"create"</tt> request.
- </p>
- <pre class="runnable">
- Backbone.sync = function(method, model) {
- alert(method + ": " + JSON.stringify(model));
- };
- var book = new Backbone.Model({
- title: "The Rough Riders",
- author: "Theodore Roosevelt"
- });
- book.save();
- </pre>
- <p id="Model-destroy">
- <b class="header">destroy</b><code>model.destroy([options])</code>
- <br />
- Destroys the model on the server by delegating an HTTP <tt>DELETE</tt>
- request to <a href="#Sync">Backbone.sync</a>. Accepts
- <tt>success</tt> and <tt>error</tt> callbacks in the options hash.
- </p>
- <pre>
- book.destroy({success: function(model, response) {
- ...
- }});
- </pre>
- <p id="Model-validate">
- <b class="header">validate</b><code>model.validate(attributes)</code>
- <br />
- This method is left undefined, and you're encouraged to override it with
- your custom validation logic, if you have any that can be performed
- in JavaScript. <b>validate</b> is called before <tt>set</tt> and
- <tt>save</tt>, and is passed the attributes that are about to be updated.
- If the model and attributes are valid, don't return anything from <b>validate</b>;
- if the attributes are invalid, return an error of your choosing. It
- can be as simple as a string error message to be displayed, or a complete
- error object that describes the error programmatically. <tt>set</tt> and
- <tt>save</tt> will not continue if <b>validate</b> returns an error.
- Failed validations trigger an <tt>"error"</tt> event.
- </p>
- <pre class="runnable">
- var Chapter = Backbone.Model.extend({
- validate: function(attrs) {
- if (attrs.end < attrs.start) {
- return "can't end before it starts";
- }
- }
- });
- var one = new Chapter({
- title : "Chapter One: The Beginning"
- });
- one.bind("error", function(model, error) {
- alert(model.get("title") + " " + error);
- });
- one.set({
- start: 15,
- end: 10
- });
- </pre>
- <p>
- <tt>"error"</tt> events are useful for providing coarse-grained error
- messages at the model or collection level, but if you have a specific view
- that can better handle the error, you may override and suppress the event
- by passing an <tt>error</tt> callback directly:
- </p>
- <pre>
- account.set({access: "unlimited"}, {
- error: function(model, error) {
- alert(error);
- }
- });
- </pre>
- <p id="Model-url">
- <b class="header">url</b><code>model.url()</code>
- <br />
- Returns the relative URL where the model's resource would be located on
- the server. If your models are located somewhere else, override this method
- with the correct logic. Generates URLs of the form: <tt>"/[collection]/[id]"</tt>.
- </p>
- <p>
- Delegates to <a href="#Collection-url">Collection#url</a> to generate the
- URL, so make sure that you have it defined.
- A model with an id of <tt>101</tt>, stored in a
- <a href="#Collection">Backbone.Collection</a> with a <tt>url</tt> of <tt>"/notes"</tt>,
- would have this URL: <tt>"/notes/101"</tt>
- </p>
- <p id="Model-parse">
- <b class="header">parse</b><code>model.parse(response)</code>
- <br />
- <b>parse</b> is called whenever a model's data is returned by the
- server, in <a href="#Model-fetch">fetch</a>, and <a href="#Model-save">save</a>.
- The function is passed the raw <tt>response</tt> object, and should return
- the attributes hash to be <a href="#Model-set">set</a> on the model. The
- default implementation is a no-op, simply passing through the JSON response.
- Override this if you need to work with a preexisting API, or better namespace
- your responses.
- </p>
- <p>
- If you're working with a Rails backend, you'll notice that Rails' default
- <tt>to_json</tt> implementation includes a model's attributes under a
- namespace. To disable this behavior for seamless Backbone integration, set:
- </p>
- <pre>
- ActiveRecord::Base.include_root_in_json = false
- </pre>
- <p id="Model-clone">
- <b class="header">clone</b><code>model.clone()</code>
- <br />
- Returns a new instance of the model with identical attributes.
- </p>
- <p id="Model-isNew">
- <b class="header">isNew</b><code>model.isNew()</code>
- <br />
- Has this model been saved to the server yet? If the model does not yet have
- an <tt>id</tt>, it is considered to be new.
- </p>
- <p id="Model-change">
- <b class="header">change</b><code>model.change()</code>
- <br />
- Manually trigger the <tt>"change"</tt> event.
- If you've been passing <tt>{silent: true}</tt> to the <a href="#Model-set">set</a> function in order to
- aggregate rapid changes to a model, you'll want to call <tt>model.change()</tt>
- when you're all finished.
- </p>
- <p id="Model-hasChanged">
- <b class="header">hasChanged</b><code>model.hasChanged([attribute])</code>
- <br />
- Has the model changed since the last <tt>"change"</tt> event? If an <b>attribute</b>
- is passed, returns <tt>true</tt> if that specific attribute has changed.
- </p>
- <pre>
- book.bind("change", function() {
- if (book.hasChanged("title")) {
- ...
- }
- });
- </pre>
- <p id="Model-changedAttributes">
- <b class="header">changedAttributes</b><code>model.changedAttributes([attributes])</code>
- <br />
- Retrieve a hash of only the model's attributes that have changed. Optionally,
- an external <b>attributes</b> hash can be passed in, returning
- the attributes in that hash which differ from the model. This can be used
- to figure out which portions of a view should be updated, or what calls
- need to be made to sync the changes to the server.
- </p>
- <p id="Model-previous">
- <b class="header">previous</b><code>model.previous(attribute)</code>
- <br />
- During a <tt>"change"</tt> event, this method can be used to get the
- previous value of a changed attribute.
- </p>
- <pre class="runnable">
- var bill = new Backbone.Model({
- name: "Bill Smith"
- });
- bill.bind("change:name", function(model, name) {
- alert("Changed name from " + model.previous("name") + " to " + name);
- });
- bill.set({name : "Bill Jones"});
- </pre>
- <p id="Model-previousAttributes">
- <b class="header">previousAttributes</b><code>model.previousAttributes()</code>
- <br />
- Return a copy of the model's previous attributes. Useful for getting a
- diff between versions of a model, or getting back to a valid state after
- an error occurs.
- </p>
- <h2 id="Collection">Backbone.Collection</h2>
- <p>
- Collections are ordered sets of models. You can to bind <tt>"change"</tt> events
- to be notified when any model in the collection has been modified,
- listen for <tt>"add"</tt> and <tt>"remove"</tt> events, <tt>fetch</tt>
- the collection from the server, and use a full suite of
- <a href="#Collection-Underscore-Methods">Underscore.js methods</a>.
- </p>
- <p>
- Collections may also listen for changes to specific attributes in their
- models, for example: <tt>Documents.bind("change:selected", ...)</tt>
- </p>
- <p id="Collection-extend">
- <b class="header">extend</b><code>Backbone.Collection.extend(properties, [classProperties])</code>
- <br />
- To create a <b>Collection</b> class of your own, extend <b>Backbone.Collection</b>,
- providing instance <b>properties</b>, as well as optional <b>classProperties</b> to be attached
- directly to the collection's constructor function.
- </p>
- <p id="Collection-model">
- <b class="header">model</b><code>collection.model</code>
- <br />
- Override this property to specify the model class that the collection
- contains. If defined, you can pass raw attributes objects (and arrays) to
- <a href="#Collection-add">add</a>, <a href="#Collection-create">create</a>,
- and <a href="#Collection-refresh">refresh</a>, and the attributes will be
- converted into a model of the proper type.
- </p>
- <pre>
- var Library = Backbone.Collection.extend({
- model: Book
- });
- </pre>
- <p id="Collection-constructor">
- <b class="header">constructor / initialize</b><code>new Collection([models], [options])</code>
- <br />
- When creating a Collection, you may choose to pass in the initial array of <b>models</b>.
- The collection's <a href="#Collection-comparator">comparator</a> function
- may be included as an option. If you define an <b>initialize</b> function, it will be
- invoked when the collection is created.
- </p>
- <pre>
- var tabs = new TabSet([tab1, tab2, tab3]);
- </pre>
- <p id="Collection-models">
- <b class="header">models</b><code>collection.models</code>
- <br />
- Raw access to the JavaScript array of models inside of the collection. Usually you'll
- want to use <tt>get</tt>, <tt>at</tt>, or the <b>Underscore methods</b>
- to access model objects, but occasionally a direct reference to the array
- is desired.
- </p>
- <p id="Collection-toJSON">
- <b class="header">toJSON</b><code>collection.toJSON()</code>
- <br />
- Return an array containing the attributes hash of each model in the
- collection. This can be used to serialize and persist the
- collection as a whole. The name of this method is a bit confusing, because
- it conforms to
- <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JSON#toJSON()_method">JavaScript's JSON API</a>.
- </p>
- <pre class="runnable">
- var collection = new Backbone.Collection([
- {name: "Tim", age: 5},
- {name: "Ida", age: 26},
- {name: "Rob", age: 55}
- ]);
- alert(JSON.stringify(collection));
- </pre>
- <p id="Collection-Underscore-Methods">
- <b class="header">Underscore Methods (25)</b>
- <br />
- Backbone proxies to <b>Underscore.js</b> to provide 25 iteration functions
- on <b>Backbone.Collection</b>. They aren't all documented here, but
- you can take a look at the Underscore documentation for the full details…
- </p>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#each">forEach (each)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#map">map</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#reduce">reduce (foldl, inject)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#reduceRight">reduceRight (foldr)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#detect">find (detect)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#select">filter (select)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#reject">reject</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#all">every (all)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#any">some (any)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#include">include</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#invoke">invoke</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#max">max</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#min">min</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#sortBy">sortBy</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#sortedIndex">sortedIndex</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#toArray">toArray</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#size">size</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#first">first</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#rest">rest</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#last">last</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#without">without</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#indexOf">indexOf</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#lastIndexOf">lastIndexOf</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#isEmpty">isEmpty</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#chain">chain</a></li>
- </ul>
- <pre>
- Books.each(function(book) {
- book.publish();
- });
- var titles = Books.map(function(book) {
- return book.get("title");
- });
- var publishedBooks = Books.filter(function(book) {
- return book.get("published") === true;
- });
- var alphabetical = Books.sortBy(function(book) {
- return book.author.get("name").toLowerCase();
- });
- </pre>
- <p id="Collection-add">
- <b class="header">add</b><code>collection.add(models, [options])</code>
- <br />
- Add a model (or an array of models) to the collection. Fires an <tt>"add"</tt>
- event, which you can pass <tt>{silent: true}</tt> to suppress. If a
- <a href="#Collection-model">model</a> property is defined, you may also pass
- raw attributes objects.
- </p>
- <pre class="runnable">
- var ships = new Backbone.Collection;
- ships.bind("add", function(ship) {
- alert("Ahoy " + ship.get("name") + "!");
- });
- ships.add([
- {name: "Flying Dutchman"},
- {name: "Black Pearl"}
- ]);
- </pre>
- <p id="Collection-remove">
- <b class="header">remove</b><code>collection.remove(models, [options])</code>
- <br />
- Remove a model (or an array of models) from the collection. Fires a
- <tt>"remove"</tt> event, which you can use <tt>silent</tt>
- to suppress.
- </p>
- <p id="Collection-get">
- <b class="header">get</b><code>collection.get(id)</code>
- <br />
- Get a model from a collection, specified by <b>id</b>.
- </p>
- <pre>
- var book = Library.get(110);
- </pre>
- <p id="Collection-getByCid">
- <b class="header">getByCid</b><code>collection.getByCid(cid)</code>
- <br />
- Get a model from a collection, specified by client id. The client id
- is the <tt>.cid</tt> property of the model, automatically assigned whenever
- a model is created. Useful for models which have not yet been saved to
- the server, and do not yet have true ids.
- </p>
- <p id="Collection-at">
- <b class="header">at</b><code>collection.at(index)</code>
- <br />
- Get a model from a collection, specified by index. Useful if your collection
- is sorted, and if your collection isn't sorted, <b>at</b> will still
- retrieve models in insertion order.
- </p>
- <p id="Collection-length">
- <b class="header">length</b><code>collection.length</code>
- <br />
- Like an array, a Collection maintains a <tt>length</tt> property, counting
- the number of models it contains.
- </p>
- <p id="Collection-comparator">
- <b class="header">comparator</b><code>collection.comparator</code>
- <br />
- By default there is no <b>comparator</b> function on a collection.
- If you define a comparator, it will be used to maintain
- the collection in sorted order. This means that as models are added,
- they are inserted at the correct index in <tt>collection.models</tt>.
- Comparator functions take a model and return a numeric or string value
- by which the model should be ordered relative to others.
- </p>
- <p>
- Note how even though all of the chapters in this example are added backwards,
- they come out in the proper order:
- </p>
- <pre class="runnable">
- var Chapter = Backbone.Model;
- var chapters = new Backbone.Collection;
- chapters.comparator = function(chapter) {
- return chapter.get("page");
- };
- chapters.add(new Chapter({page: 9, title: "The End"}));
- chapters.add(new Chapter({page: 5, title: "The Middle"}));
- chapters.add(new Chapter({page: 1, title: "The Beginning"}));
- alert(chapters.pluck('title'));
- </pre>
- <p class="warning">
- Brief aside: This comparator function is different than JavaScript's regular
- "sort", which must return <tt>0</tt>, <tt>1</tt>, or <tt>-1</tt>,
- and is more similar to a <tt>sortBy</tt> — a much nicer API.
- </p>
- <p id="Collection-sort">
- <b class="header">sort</b><code>collection.sort([options])</code>
- <br />
- Force a collection to re-sort itself. You don't need to call this under
- normal circumstances, as a collection with a <a href="#Collection-comparator">comparator</a> function
- will maintain itself in proper sort order at all times. Calling <b>sort</b>
- triggers the collection's <tt>"refresh"</tt> event, unless silenced by passing
- <tt>{silent: true}</tt>
- </p>
- <p id="Collection-pluck">
- <b class="header">pluck</b><code>collection.pluck(attribute)</code>
- <br />
- Pluck an attribute from each model in the collection. Equivalent to calling
- <tt>map</tt>, and returning a single attribute from the iterator.
- </p>
- <pre class="runnable">
- var stooges = new Backbone.Collection([
- new Backbone.Model({name: "Curly"}),
- new Backbone.Model({name: "Larry"}),
- new Backbone.Model({name: "Moe"})
- ]);
- var names = stooges.pluck("name");
- alert(JSON.stringify(names));
- </pre>
- <p id="Collection-url">
- <b class="header">url</b><code>collection.url or collection.url()</code>
- <br />
- Set the <b>url</b> property (or function) on a collection to reference
- its location on the server. Models within the collection will use <b>url</b>
- to construct URLs of their own.
- </p>
- <pre>
- var Notes = Backbone.Collection.extend({
- url: '/notes'
- });
- // Or, something more sophisticated:
- var Notes = Backbone.Collection.extend({
- url: function() {
- return this.document.url() + '/notes';
- }
- });
- </pre>
- <p id="Collection-parse">
- <b class="header">parse</b><code>collection.parse(response)</code>
- <br />
- <b>parse</b> is called by Backbone whenever a collection's models are
- returned by the server, in <a href="#Collection-fetch">fetch</a>.
- The function is passed the raw <tt>response</tt> object, and should return
- the array of model attributes to be <a href="#Collection-add">added</a>
- to the collection. The default implementation is a no-op, simply passing
- through the JSON response. Override this if you need to work with a
- preexisting API, or better namespace your responses.
- </p>
- <pre>
- var Tweets = Backbone.Collection.extend({
- // The Twitter Search API returns tweets under "results".
- parse: function(response) {
- return response.results;
- }
- });
- </pre>
- <p id="Collection-fetch">
- <b class="header">fetch</b><code>collection.fetch([options])</code>
- <br />
- Fetch the default set of models for this collection from the server,
- refreshing the collection when they arrive. The <b>options</b> hash takes
- <tt>success</tt> and <tt>error</tt>
- callbacks which will be passed <tt>(collection, response)</tt> as arguments.
- When the model data returns from the server, the collection will
- <a href="#Collection-refresh">refresh</a>.
- Delegates to <a href="#Sync">Backbone.sync</a>
- under the covers, for custom persistence strategies.
- The server handler for <b>fetch</b> requests should return a JSON array of
- models.
- </p>
- <pre class="runnable">
- Backbone.sync = function(method, model) {
- alert(method + ": " + model.url);
- };
- var Accounts = new Backbone.Collection;
- Accounts.url = '/accounts';
- Accounts.fetch();
- </pre>
- <p>
- Note that <b>fetch</b> should not be used to populate collections on
- page load — all models needed at load time should already be
- bootstrapped in to place. <b>fetch</b> is intended for lazily-loading models
- for interfaces that are not needed immediately: for example, documents
- with collections of notes that may be toggled open and closed.
- </p>
- <p id="Collection-refresh">
- <b class="header">refresh</b><code>collection.refresh(models, [options])</code>
- <br />
- Adding and removing models one at a time is all well and good, but sometimes
- you have so many models to change that you'd rather just update the collection
- in bulk. Use <b>refresh</b> to replace a collection with a new list
- of models (or attribute hashes), triggering a single <tt>"refresh"</tt> event
- at the end. Pass <tt>{silent: true}</tt> to suppress the <tt>"refresh"</tt> event.
- </p>
- <p>
- Here's an example using <b>refresh</b> to bootstrap a collection during initial page load,
- in a Rails application.
- </p>
- <pre>
- <script>
- Accounts.refresh(<%= @accounts.to_json %>);
- </script>
- </pre>
- <p id="Collection-create">
- <b class="header">create</b><code>collection.create(attributes, [options])</code>
- <br />
- Convenience to create a new instance of a model within a collection.
- Equivalent to instantiating a model with a hash of attributes,
- saving the model to the server, and adding the model to the set after being
- successfully created. Returns
- the model, or <tt>false</tt> if a validation error prevented the
- model from being created. In order for this to work, your should set the
- <a href="#Collection-model">model</a> property of the collection.
- </p>
- <pre>
- var Library = Backbone.Collection.extend({
- model: Book
- });
- var NYPL = new Library;
- var othello = NYPL.create({
- title: "Othello",
- author: "William Shakespeare"
- });
- </pre>
- <h2 id="Controller">Backbone.Controller</h2>
- <p>
- Web applications often choose to change their URL fragment (<tt>#fragment</tt>)
- in order to provide shareable, bookmarkable URLs for an Ajax-heavy application.
- <b>Backbone.Controller</b> provides methods for routing client-side URL
- fragments, and connecting them to actions and events.
- </p>
- <p class="warning">
- Backbone controllers do not yet make use of HTML5 <b>pushState</b> and
- <b>replaceState</b>. Currently, <b>pushState</b> and <b>replaceState</b>
- need special handling on the server-side, cause you to mint duplicate URLs,
- and have an incomplete API. We may start supporting them in the future
- when these issues have been resolved.
- </p>
- <p>
- During page load, after your application has finished creating all of its controllers,
- be sure to call <tt>Backbone.history.start()</tt> to route the initial URL.
- </p>
- <p id="Controller-extend">
- <b class="header">extend</b><code>Backbone.Controller.extend(properties, [classProperties])</code>
- <br />
- Get started by creating a custom controller class. You'll
- want to define actions that are triggered when certain URL fragments are
- matched, and provide a <a href="#Controller-routes">routes</a> hash
- that pairs routes to actions.
- </p>
- <pre>
- var Workspace = Backbone.Controller.extend({
- routes: {
- "help": "help", // #help
- "search/:query": "search", // #search/kiwis
- "search/:query/p:page": "search" // #search/kiwis/p7
- },
- help: function() {
- ...
- },
- search: function(query, page) {
- ...
- }
- });
- </pre>
- <p id="Controller-routes">
- <b class="header">routes</b><code>controller.routes</code>
- <br />
- The routes hash maps URLs with parameters to functions on your controller,
- similar to the <a href="#View">View</a>'s <a href="#View-delegateEvents">events hash</a>.
- Routes can contain parameter parts, <tt>:param</tt>, which match a single URL
- component between slashes; and splat parts <tt>*splat</tt>, which can match
- any number of URL components.
- </p>
- <p>
- For example, a route of <tt>"search/:query/p:page"</tt> will match
- a fragment of <tt>#search/obama/p2</tt>, passing <tt>"obama"</tt>
- and <tt>"2"</tt> to the action. A route of <tt>"file/*path"</tt> will
- match <tt>#file/nested/folder/file.txt</tt>,
- passing <tt>"nested/folder/file.txt"</tt> to the action.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the visitor presses the back button, or enters a URL, and a particular
- route is matched, the name of the action will be fired as an
- <a href="#Events">event</a>, so that other objects can listen to the controller,
- and be notified. In the following example, visiting <tt>#help/uploading</tt>
- will fire a <tt>route:help</tt> event from the controller.
- </p>
- <pre>
- routes: {
- "help/:page": "help",
- "download/*path": "download",
- "folder/:name": "openFolder",
- "folder/:name-:mode": "openFolder"
- }
- </pre>
- <pre>
- controller.bind("route:help", function(page) {
- ...
- });
- </pre>
- <p id="Controller-constructor">
- <b class="header">constructor / initialize</b><code>new Controller([options])</code>
- <br />
- When creating a new controller, you may pass its
- <a href="#Controller-routes">routes</a> hash directly as an option, if you
- choose. All <tt>options</tt> will also be passed to your <tt>initialize</tt>
- function, if defined.
- </p>
- <p id="Controller-route">
- <b class="header">route</b><code>controller.route(route, name, callback)</code>
- <br />
- Manually create a route for the controller, The <tt>route</tt> argument may
- be a <a href="#Controller-routes">routing string</a> or regular expression.
- Each matching capture from the route or regular expression will be passed as
- an argument to the callback. The <tt>name</tt> argument will be triggered as
- a <tt>"route:name"</tt> event whenever the route is matched.
- </p>
- <pre>
- initialize: function(options) {
- // Matches #page/10, passing "10"
- this.route("page/:number", "page", function(number){ ... });
- // Matches /117-a/b/c/open, passing "117-a/b/c"
- this.route(/^(.*?)\/open$/, "open", function(id){ ... });
- }
- </pre>
- <p id="Controller-saveLocation">
- <b class="header">saveLocation</b><code>controller.saveLocation(fragment)</code>
- <br />
- Whenever you reach a point in your application that you'd like to save
- as a URL, call <b>saveLocation</b> in order to update the URL fragment
- without triggering a <tt>hashchange</tt> event. (If you would prefer to
- trigger the event and routing, you can just set the hash directly.)
- </p>
- <pre>
- openPage: function(pageNumber) {
- this.document.pages.at(pageNumber).open();
- this.saveLocation("page/" + pageNumber);
- }
- </pre>
- <h2 id="History">Backbone.history</h2>
- <p>
- <b>History</b> serves as a global router (per frame) to handle <tt>hashchange</tt>
- events, match the appropriate route, and trigger callbacks. You shouldn't
- ever have to create one of these yourself — you should use the reference
- to <tt>Backbone.history</tt> that will be created for you automatically if you make use
- of <a href="#Controller">Controllers</a> with <a href="#Controller-routes">routes</a>.
- </p>
- <p id="History-start">
- <b class="header">start</b><code>Backbone.history.start()</code>
- <br />
- When all of your <a href="#Controller">Controllers</a> have been created,
- and all of the routes are set up properly, call <tt>Backbone.history.start()</tt>
- to begin monitoring <tt>hashchange</tt> events, and dispatching routes.
- </p>
- <pre>
- $(function(){
- new WorkspaceController();
- new HelpPaneController();
- Backbone.history.start();
- });
- </pre>
- <h2 id="Sync">Backbone.sync</h2>
- <p>
- <b>Backbone.sync</b> is the function the Backbone calls every time it
- attempts to read or save a model to the server. By default, it uses
- <tt>(jQuery/Zepto).ajax</tt> to make a RESTful JSON request. You can override
- it in order to use a different persistence strategy, such as WebSockets,
- XML transport, or Local Storage.
- </p>
- <p>
- The method signature of <b>Backbone.sync</b> is <tt>sync(method, model, success, error)</tt>
- </p>
- <ul>
- <li><b>method</b> – the CRUD method (<tt>"create"</tt>, <tt>"read"</tt>, <tt>"update"</tt>, or <tt>"delete"</tt>)</li>
- <li><b>model</b> – the model to be saved (or collection to be read)</li>
- <li><b>success({model: ...})</b> – a callback that should be fired if the request works</li>
- <li><b>error({model: ...})</b> – a callback that should be fired if the request fails</li>
- </ul>
- <p>
- With the default implementation, when <b>Backbone.sync</b> sends up a request to save
- a model, its attributes will be passed, serialized as JSON, and sent in the HTTP body
- with content-type <tt>application/json</tt>. When returning a JSON response,
- send down the attributes of the model that have been changed by the server, and need
- to be updated on the client. When responding to a <tt>"read"</tt> request from a collection
- (<a href="#Collection#fetch">Collection#fetch</a>), send down an array
- of model attribute objects.
- </p>
- <p>
- The default <b>sync</b> handler maps CRUD to REST like so:
- </p>
- <ul>
- <li><b>create → POST </b><tt>/collection</tt></li>
- <li><b>read → GET </b><tt>/collection[/id]</tt></li>
- <li><b>update → PUT </b><tt>/collection/id</tt></li>
- <li><b>delete → DELETE </b><tt>/collection/id</tt></li>
- </ul>
- <p>
- As an example, a Rails handler responding to an <tt>"update"</tt> call from
- <tt>Backbone</tt> might look like this: <i>(In real code, never use
- </i><tt>update_attributes</tt><i> blindly, and always whitelist the attributes
- you allow to be changed.)</i>
- </p>
- <pre>
- def update
- account = Account.find params[:id]
- account.update_attributes params
- render :json => account
- end
- </pre>
- <p>
- One more tip for Rails integration is to disable the default namespacing for
- <tt>to_json</tt> calls on models by setting <tt>ActiveRecord::Base.include_root_in_json = false</tt>
- </p>
- <p id="Sync-emulateHTTP">
- <b class="header">emulateHTTP</b><code>Backbone.emulateHTTP = true</code>
- <br />
- If you want to work with a legacy web server that doesn't support Backbones's
- default REST/HTTP approach, you may choose to turn on <tt>Backbone.emulateHTTP</tt>.
- Setting this option will fake <tt>PUT</tt> and <tt>DELETE</tt> requests with
- a HTTP <tt>POST</tt>, and pass them under the <tt>_method</tt> parameter. Setting this option
- will also set an <tt>X-HTTP-Method-Override</tt> header with the true method.
- </p>
- <pre>
- Backbone.emulateHTTP = true;
- model.save(); // POST to "/collection/id", with "_method=PUT" + header.
- </pre>
- <p id="Sync-emulateJSON">
- <b class="header">emulateJSON</b><code>Backbone.emulateJSON = true</code>
- <br />
- If you're working with a legacy web server that can't handle requests
- encoded as <tt>application/json</tt>, setting <tt>Backbone.emulateJSON = true;</tt>
- will cause the JSON to be serialized under a <tt>model</tt> parameter, and
- the request to be made with a <tt>application/x-www-form-urlencoded</tt>
- mime type, as if from an HTML form.
- </p>
- <h2 id="View">Backbone.View</h2>
- <p>
- Backbone views are almost more convention than they are code — they
- don't determine anything about your HTML or CSS for you, and can be used
- with any JavaScript templating library.
- The general idea is to organize your interface into logical views,
- backed by models, each of which can be updated independently when the
- model changes, without having to redraw the page. Instead of digging into
- a JSON object, looking up an element in the DOM, and updating the HTML by hand,
- you can bind your view's <tt>render</tt> function to the model's <tt>"change"</tt>
- event — and now everywhere that
- model data is displayed in the UI, it is always immediately up to date.
- </p>
- <p id="View-extend">
- <b class="header">extend</b><code>Backbone.View.extend(properties, [classProperties])</code>
- <br />
- Get started with views by creating a custom view class. You'll want to
- override the <a href="#View-render">render</a> function, specify your
- declarative <a href="#View-delegateEvents">events</a>, and perhaps the
- <tt>tagName</tt>, <tt>className</tt>, or <tt>id</tt> of the View's root
- element.
- </p>
- <pre>
- var DocumentRow = Backbone.View.extend({
- tagName: "li",
- className: "document-row",
- events: {
- "click .icon": "open",
- "click .button.edit": "openEditDialog",
- "click .button.delete": "destroy"
- },
- initialize: function() {
- _.bindAll(this, "render");
- },
- render: function() {
- ...
- }
- });
- </pre>
- <p id="View-constructor">
- <b class="header">constructor / initialize</b><code>new View([options])</code>
- <br />
- When creating a new View, the options you pass are attached to the view
- as <tt>this.options</tt>, for future reference. There are several special
- options that, if passed, will be attached directly to the view:
- <tt>model</tt>, <tt>collection</tt>,
- <tt>el</tt>, <tt>id</tt>, <tt>className</tt>, and <tt>tagName</tt>.
- If the view defines an <b>initialize</b> function, it will be called when
- the view is first created. If you'd like to create a view that references
- an element <i>already</i> in the DOM, pass in the element as an option:
- <tt>new View({el: existingElement})</tt>
- </p>
- <pre>
- var doc = Documents.first();
- new DocumentRow({
- model: doc,
- id: "document-row-" + doc.id
- });
- </pre>
- <p id="View-el">
- <b class="header">el</b><code>view.el</code>
- <br />
- All views have a DOM element at all times (the <b>el</b> property),
- whether they've already been inserted into the page or not. In this
- fashion, views can be rendered at any time, and inserted into the DOM all
- at once, in order to get high-performance UI rendering with as few
- reflows and repaints as possible.
- </p>
- <p>
- <tt>this.el</tt> is created from the view's <tt>tagName</tt>, <tt>className</tt>,
- and <tt>id</tt> properties, if specified. If not, <b>el</b> is an empty <tt>div</tt>.
- </p>
- <p id="View-dollar">
- <b class="header">$ (jQuery or Zepto)</b><code>view.$(selector)</code>
- <br />
- If jQuery or Zepto is included on the page, each view has a
- <b>$</b> function that runs queries scoped within the view's element. If you use this
- scoped jQuery function, you don't have to use model ids as part of your query
- to pull out specific elements in a list, and can rely much more on HTML class
- attributes. It's equivalent to running: <tt>$(selector, this.el)</tt>
- </p>
- <pre>
- ui.Chapter = Backbone.View.extend({
- serialize : function() {
- return {
- title: this.$(".title").text(),
- start: this.$(".start-page").text(),
- end: this.$(".end-page").text()
- };
- }
- });
- </pre>
- <p id="View-render">
- <b class="header">render</b><code>view.render()</code>
- <br />
- The default implementation of <b>render</b> is a no-op. Override this
- function with your code that renders the view template from model data,
- and updates <tt>this.el</tt> with the new HTML. A good
- convention is to <tt>return this</tt> at the end of <b>render</b> to
- enable chained calls.
- </p>
- <pre>
- var Bookmark = Backbone.View.extend({
- render: function() {
- $(this.el).html(this.template(this.model.toJSON()));
- return this;
- }
- });
- </pre>
- <p>
- Backbone is agnostic with respect to your preferred method of HTML templating.
- Your <b>render</b> function could even munge together an HTML string, or use
- <tt>document.createElement</tt> to generate a DOM tree. However, we suggest
- choosing a nice JavaScript templating library.
- <a href="http://github.com/janl/mustache.js">Mustache.js</a>,
- <a href="http://github.com/creationix/haml-js">Haml-js</a>, and
- <a href="http://github.com/sstephenson/eco">Eco</a> are all fine alternatives.
- Because <a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/">Underscore.js</a> is already on the page,
- <a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#template">_.template</a>
- is available, and is an excellent choice if you've already XSS-sanitized
- your interpolated data.
- </p>
- <p>
- Whatever templating strategy you end up with, it's nice if you <i>never</i>
- have to put strings of HTML in your JavaScript. At DocumentCloud, we
- use <a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/jammit/">Jammit</a> in order
- to package up JavaScript templates stored in <tt>/app/views</tt> as part
- of our main <tt>core.js</tt> asset package.
- </p>
- <p id="View-remove">
- <b class="header">remove</b><code>view.remove()</code>
- <br />
- Convenience function for removing the view from the DOM. Equivalent to calling
- <tt>$(view.el).remove();</tt>
- </p>
- <p id="View-make">
- <b class="header">make</b><code>view.make(tagName, [attributes], [content])</code>
- <br />
- Convenience function for creating a DOM element of the given type (<b>tagName</b>),
- with optional attributes and HTML content. Used internally to create the
- initial <tt>view.el</tt>.
- </p>
- <pre class="runnable">
- var view = new Backbone.View;
- var el = view.make("b", {className: "bold"}, "Bold! ");
- $("#make-demo").append(el);
- </pre>
- <div id="make-demo"></div>
- <p id="View-delegateEvents">
- <b class="header">delegateEvents</b><code>delegateEvents([events])</code>
- <br />
- Uses jQuery's <tt>delegate</tt> function to provide declarative callbacks
- for DOM events within a view.
- If an <b>events</b> hash is not passed directly, uses <tt>this.events</tt>
- as the source. Events are written in the format <tt>{"event selector": "callback"}</tt>.
- Omitting the <tt>selector</tt> causes the event to be bound to the view's
- root element (<tt>this.el</tt>). By default, <tt>delegateEvents</tt> is called
- within the View's constructor for you, so if you have a simple <tt>events</tt>
- hash, all of your DOM events will always already be connected, and you will
- never have to call this function yourself.
- </p>
- <p>
- Using <b>delegateEvents</b> provides a number of advantages over manually
- using jQuery to bind events to child elements during <a href="#View-render">render</a>. All attached
- callbacks are bound to the view before being handed off to jQuery, so when
- the callbacks are invoked, <tt>this</tt> continues to refer to the view object. When
- <b>delegateEvents</b> is run again, perhaps with a different <tt>events</tt>
- hash, all callbacks are removed and delegated afresh — useful for
- views which need to behave differently when in different modes.
- </p>
- <p>
- A view that displays a document in a search result might look
- something like this:
- </p>
- <pre>
- var DocumentView = Backbone.View.extend({
- events: {
- "dblclick" : "open",
- "click .icon.doc" : "select",
- "contextmenu .icon.doc" : "showMenu",
- "click .show_notes" : "toggleNotes",
- "click .title .lock" : "editAccessLevel",
- "mouseover .title .date" : "showTooltip"
- },
- render: function() {
- $(this.el).html(this.template(this.model.toJSON()));
- return this;
- },
- open: function() {
- window.open(this.model.get("viewer_url"));
- },
- select: function() {
- this.model.set({selected: true});
- },
- ...
- });
- </pre>
- <h2 id="examples">Examples</h2>
- <p>
- <a href="http://jgn.me/">Jérôme Gravel-Niquet</a> has contributed a
- <a href="examples/todos/index.html">Todo List application</a>
- that is bundled in the repository as Backbone example. If you're wondering
- where to get started with Backbone in general, take a moment to
- <a href="docs/todos.html">read through the annotated source</a>. The app uses a
- <a href="docs/backbone-localstorage.html">LocalStorage adapter</a>
- to transparently save all of your todos within your browser, instead of
- sending them to a server. Jérôme also has a version hosted at
- <a href="http://localtodos.com/">localtodos.com</a> that uses a
- <a href="http://github.com/jeromegn/backbone-mootools">MooTools-backed version of Backbone</a>
- instead of jQuery.
- </p>
- <div style="text-align: center;">
- <a href="examples/todos/index.html">
- <img src="docs/images/todos.png" alt="Todos" style="margin: 10px auto;" />
- </a>
- </div>
- <p>
- The <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/">DocumentCloud</a> workspace
- is built on Backbone.js, with <i>Documents</i>, <i>Projects</i>,
- <i>Notes</i>, and <i>Accounts</i> all as Backbone models and collections.
- </p>
- <div style="text-align: center;">
- <img src="docs/images/dc-workspace.png" alt="DocumentCloud Workspace" style="margin: 10px auto;" />
- </div>
- <p>
- <a href="http://bennolan.com/">Ben Nolan</a> created
- <a href="http://bennolan.com/2010/11/24/backbone-jquery-demo.html">an example "Backbone Mobile" application</a>, combining Backbone.js
- with <a href="http://jquerymobile.com/">jQuery Mobile</a>. You can
- <a href="http://bennolan.com/science/backbone-mobile/">try the app</a>
- in your browser, or view the
- <a href="https://github.com/bnolan/backbone-mobile">source code</a> on Github.
- </p>
- <div style="text-align: center;">
- <a href="http://bennolan.com/science/backbone-mobile/">
- <img src="docs/images/backbone-mobile.png" alt="Backbone Mobile" style="margin: 10px auto;" />
- </a>
- </div>
- <h2 id="faq">F.A.Q.</h2>
- <p id="FAQ-events">
- <b class="header">Catalog of Events</b>
- <br />
- Here's a list of all of the built-in events that Backbone.js can fire.
- You're also free to trigger your own events on Models and Views as you
- see fit.
- </p>
- <ul>
- <li><b>"add"</b> (model, collection) — when a model is added to a collection. </li>
- <li><b>"remove"</b> (model, collection) — when a model is removed from a collection. </li>
- <li><b>"refresh"</b> (collection) — when the collection's entire contents have been replaced. </li>
- <li><b>"change"</b> (model, collection) — when a model's attributes have changed. </li>
- <li><b>"change:[attribute]"</b> (model, collection) — when a specific attribute has been updated. </li>
- <li><b>"error"</b> (model, collection) — when a model's validation fails, or a <a href="#Model-save">save</a> call fails on the server. </li>
- <li><b>"route:[name]"</b> (controller) — when one of a controller's routes has matched. </li>
- <li><b>"all"</b> — this special event fires for <i>any</i> triggered event, passing the event name as the first argument. </li>
- </ul>
- <p id="FAQ-nested">
- <b class="header">Nested Models & Collections</b>
- <br />
- It's common to nest collections inside of models with Backbone. For example,
- consider a <tt>Mailbox</tt> model that contains many <tt>Message</tt> models.
- One nice pattern for handling this is have a <tt>this.messages</tt> collection
- for each mailbox, enabling the lazy-loading of messages, when the mailbox
- is first opened ... perhaps with <tt>MessageList</tt> views listening for
- <tt>"add"</tt> and <tt>"remove"</tt> events.
- </p>
- <pre>
- var Mailbox = Backbone.Model.extend({
- initialize: function() {
- this.messages = new Messages;
- this.messages.url = '/mailbox/' + this.id + '/messages';
- this.messages.bind("refresh", this.updateCounts);
- },
- ...
- });
- var Inbox = new Mailbox;
- // And then, when the Inbox is opened:
- Inbox.messages.fetch();
- </pre>
- <p id="FAQ-mvc">
- <b class="header">How does Backbone relate to "traditional" MVC?</b>
- <br />
- Different implementations of the
- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model–View–Controller">Model-View-Controller</a>
- pattern tend to disagree about the definition of a controller. If it helps any, in
- Backbone, the <a href="#View">View</a> class can also be thought of as a
- kind of controller, dispatching events that originate from the UI, with
- the HTML template serving as the true view. We call it a View because it
- represents a logical chunk of UI, responsible for the contents of a single
- DOM element.
- </p>
-
- <p id="FAQ-this">
- <b class="header">Binding "this"</b>
- <br />
- Perhaps the single most common JavaScript "gotcha" is the fact that when
- you pass a function as a callback, it's value for <tt>this</tt> is lost. With
- Backbone, when dealing with <a href="#Events">events</a> and callbacks,
- you'll often find it useful to rely on
- <a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#bind">_.bind</a> and
- <a href="http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/#bindAll">_.bindAll</a>
- from Underscore.js. <tt>_.bind</tt> takes a function and an object to be
- used as <tt>this</tt>, any time the function is called in the future.
- <tt>_.bindAll</tt> takes an object and a list of method names: each method
- in the list will be bound to the object, so that it's <tt>this</tt> may
- not change. For example, in a <a href="#View">View</a> that listens for
- changes to a collection...
- </p>
- <pre>
- var MessageList = Backbone.View.extend({
- initialize: function() {
- _.bindAll(this, "addMessage", "removeMessage", "render");
- var messages = this.collection;
- messages.bind("refresh", this.render);
- messages.bind("add", this.addMessage);
- messages.bind("remove", this.removeMessage);
- }
- });
- // Later, in the app...
- Inbox.messages.add(newMessage);
- </pre>
- <p id="FAQ-rias">
- <b class="header">
- How is Backbone different than
- <a href="http://www.sproutcore.com/">SproutCore</a> or
- <a href="http://cappuccino.org/">Cappuccino</a>?
- </b>
- <br />
- This question is frequently asked, and all three projects apply general
- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model–View–Controller">Model-View-Controller</a>
- principles to JavaScript applications. However, there isn't much basis
- for comparison. SproutCore and Cappuccino provide rich UI widgets, vast
- core libraries, and determine the structure of your HTML for you.
- Both frameworks measure in the hundreds of kilobytes when packed and
- gzipped, and megabytes of JavaScript, CSS, and images when loaded in the browser
- — there's a lot of room underneath for libraries of a more moderate scope.
- Backbone is a <i>4 kilobyte</i> include that provides
- just the core concepts of models, events, collections, views, controllers,
- and persistence.
- </p>
- <h2 id="changelog">Change Log</h2>
- <p>
- <b class="header">0.3.3</b> — <small><i>Dec 1, 2010</i></small><br />
- Backbone.js now supports <a href="http://zeptojs.com">Zepto</a>, alongside
- jQuery, as a framework for DOM manipulation and Ajax support.
- Implemented <a href="#Model-escape">Model#escape</a>, to efficiently handle
- attributes intended for HTML interpolation. When trying to persist a model,
- failed requests will now trigger an <tt>"error"</tt> event. The
- ubiquitous <tt>options</tt> argument is now passed as the final argument
- to all <tt>"change"</tt> events.
- </p>
- <p>
- <b class="header">0.3.2</b> — <small><i>Nov 23, 2010</i></small><br />
- Bugfix for IE7 + iframe-based "hashchange" events. <tt>sync</tt> may now be
- overridden on a per-model, or per-collection basis. Fixed recursion error
- when calling <tt>save</tt> with no changed attributes, within a
- <tt>"change"</tt> event.
- </p>
- <p>
- <b class="header">0.3.1</b> — <small><i>Nov 15, 2010</i></small><br />
- All <tt>"add"</tt> and <tt>"remove"</tt> events are now sent through the
- model, so that views can listen for them without having to know about the
- collection. Added a <tt>remove</tt> method to <a href="#View">Backbone.View</a>.
- <tt>toJSON</tt> is no longer called at all for <tt>'read'</tt> and <tt>'delete'</tt> requests.
- Backbone routes are now able to load empty URL fragments.
- </p>
- <p>
- <b class="header">0.3.0</b> — <small><i>Nov 9, 2010</i></small><br />
- Backbone now has <a href="#Controller">Controllers</a> and
- <a href="#History">History</a>, for doing client-side routing based on
- URL fragments.
- Added <tt>emulateHTTP</tt> to provide support for legacy servers that don't
- do <tt>PUT</tt> and <tt>DELETE</tt>.
- Added <tt>emulateJSON</tt> for servers that can't accept <tt>application/json</tt>
- encoded requests.
- Added <a href="#Model-clear">Model#clear</a>, which removes all attributes
- from a model.
- All Backbone classes may now be seamlessly inherited by CoffeeScript classes.
- </p>
- <p>
- <b class="header">0.2.0</b> — <small><i>Oct 25, 2010</i></small><br />
- Instead of requiring server responses to be namespaced under a <tt>model</tt>
- key, now you can define your own <a href="#Model-parse">parse</a> method
- to convert responses into attributes for Models and Collections.
- The old <tt>handleEvents</tt> function is now named
- <a href="#View-delegateEvents">delegateEvents</a>, and is automatically
- called as part of the View's constructor.
- Added a <a href="#Collection-toJSON">toJSON</a> function to Collections.
- Added <a href="#Collection-chain">Underscore's chain</a> to Collections.
- </p>
- <p>
- <b class="header">0.1.2</b> — <small><i>Oct 19, 2010</i></small><br />
- Added a <a href="#Model-fetch">Model#fetch</a> method for refreshing the
- attributes of single model from the server.
- An <tt>error</tt> callback may now be passed to <tt>set</tt> and <tt>save</tt>
- as an option, which will be invoked if validation fails, overriding the
- <tt>"error"</tt> event.
- You can now tell backbone to use the <tt>_method</tt> hack instead of HTTP
- methods by setting <tt>Backbone.emulateHTTP = true</tt>.
- Existing Model and Collection data is no longer sent up unnecessarily with
- <tt>GET</tt> and <tt>DELETE</tt> requests. Added a <tt>rake lint</tt> task.
- Backbone is now published as an <a href="http://npmjs.org">NPM</a> module.
- </p>
- <p>
- <b class="header">0.1.1</b> — <small><i>Oct 14, 2010</i></small><br />
- Added a convention for <tt>initialize</tt> functions to be called
- upon instance construction, if defined. Documentation tweaks.
- </p>
- <p>
- <b class="header">0.1.0</b> — <small><i>Oct 13, 2010</i></small><br />
- Initial Backbone release.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br />
- <a href="http://documentcloud.org/" title="A DocumentCloud Project" style="background:none;">
- <img src="http://jashkenas.s3.amazonaws.com/images/a_documentcloud_project.png" alt="A DocumentCloud Project" style="position:relative;left:-10px;" />
- </a>
- </p>
- </div>
- <script src="test/vendor/underscore-1.1.3.js"></script>
- <script src="test/vendor/jquery-1.4.2.js"></script>
- <script src="test/vendor/json2.js"></script>
- <script src="backbone.js"></script>
- <script>
- // Set up the "play" buttons for each runnable code example.
- $(function() {
- $('.runnable').each(function() {
- var code = this;
- var button = $('<div class="run" title="Run"></div>');
- $(button).insertBefore(code).bind('click', function(){
- eval($(code).text());
- });
- });
- });
- </script>
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