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- }
- </style>
- </head>
- <body>
- <div id="sidebar" class="interface">
- <a class="toc_title" href="#">
- Backbone.js
- </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-set">set</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#Model-unset">unset</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-toJSON">toJSON</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-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-Underscore-Methods"><b>Underscore Methods (24)</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="#Model-url">url</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="#Sync">
- Sync
- </a>
- <ul class="toc_section">
- <li>– <a href="#Sync">Backbone.sync</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-jQuery">$ (jQuery)</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#View-render">render</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#View-make">make</a></li>
- <li>– <a href="#View-handleEvents">handleEvents</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>.
- </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 (0.1.1)</a></td>
- <td><i>21kb, Uncompressed with Comments</i></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><a href="backbone-min.js">Production Version (0.1.1)</a></td>
- <td><i>2kb, 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://jquery.com">jQuery</a>,
- and <a href="http://www.json.org/json2.js">json2.js</a>
- (both of which you may already have on the page).
- </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>
- <i>How is this different than
- <a href="http://www.sproutcore.com/">SproutCore</a> or
- <a href="http://cappuccino.org/">Cappuccino</a>?
- </i>
- </p>
- <p>
- 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>2 kilobyte</i> include that provides
- just the core concepts of models, events, collections, views, and persistence.
- </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>
- <i>
- Brief aside on </i><tt>super</tt>: <i>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
- </i><tt>set</tt>,<i> or </i><tt>save</tt>, <i>and you want to invoke the
- parent object's implementation, you'll have to explicitly call it, along these lines:
- </i>
- </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-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 fired, unless
- <tt>{silent: true}</tt> is passed as an option.
- </p>
- <p>
- If the model has a <a href="#Model-validate">validate</a> method,
- it will be validated before the attributes are set, and no changes will
- occur if the validation fails.
- </p>
- <pre>
- note.set({title: "October 12", content: "Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet..."});
- </pre>
- <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-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-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-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.
- </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 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>
- 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-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 " + bill.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 bind callbacks to be notified
- when any model in the collection is changed, 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 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-Underscore-Methods">
- <b class="header">Underscore Methods (24)</b>
- <br />
- Backbone proxies to <b>Underscore.js</b> to provide 24 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>
- </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>
- <i>
- Brief aside: This comparator function is different than JavaScript's regular
- "sort", which must return </i><tt>0</tt>, <tt>1</tt>, or <tt>-1</tt>,<i>
- and is more similar to a </i><tt>sortBy</tt><i> — a much nicer API.
- </i>
- </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-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.
- </p>
- <p>
- The server handler for <b>fetch</b> requests should return a JSON list of
- models, namespaced under "models": <tt>{"models": [...]}</tt> —
- instead of returning the
- array directly, we ask you to namespace your models like this by default,
- so that it's possible to send down out-of-band information
- for things like pagination or error states.
- </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="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.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>
- When formulating server responses for <b>Backbone.sync</b> requests,
- model attributes will be sent up, serialized as JSON, under the <tt>model</tt>
- parameter. When returning a JSON response, send down the model's representation
- under the <tt>model</tt> key, and other keys can be used for additional out-of-band
- information. When responding to a <tt>"read"</tt> request from a collection,
- send down the array of model attribute hashes under the <tt>models</tt> key.
- </p>
- <p>
- For example, a Rails handler responding to an <tt>"update"</tt> call from
- <b>Backbone.sync</b> would 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 JSON.parse params[:model]
- render :json => {:model => account}
- end
- </pre>
- <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,
- it should look more like:
- <tt>model.bind('change', renderView)</tt> — 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-handleEvents">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-jQuery">
- <b class="header">$ (jQuery)</b><code>view.$(selector)</code>
- <br />
- If jQuery is included on the page, each view has a <b>$</b> or <b>jQuery</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-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-handleEvents">
- <b class="header">handleEvents</b><code>handleEvents([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>).
- </p>
- <p>
- Using <b>handleEvents</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>handleEvents</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()));
- this.handleEvents();
- return this;
- },
- open: function() {
- window.open(this.model.get("viewer_url"));
- },
- select: function() {
- this.model.set({selected: true});
- },
- ...
- });
- </pre>
- <h2 id="changelog">Change Log</h2>
-
- <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-1.1.0.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>
- </body>
- </html>