Backbone.Model: set collection as property - backbone.js

Question

I'm new with backbone and faced the following problems. I'm trying to emulate some sort of "has many relation". To achieve this I'm adding following code to initialize method in the model:
defaults: {
name: '',
tags: []
},
initialize: function() {
var tags = new TagsCollection(this.get('tags'));
tags.url = this.url() + "/tags";
return this.set('tags', tags, {
silent: true
});
}
This code works great if I fetch models through collection. As I understand, first collection gets the data and after that this collection populates models with this data. But when I try to load single model I get my property being overridden with plain Javascript array.
m = new ExampleModel({id: 15})
m.fetch() // property tags get overridden after load
and response:
{
name: 'test',
tags: [
{name: 'tag1'},
{name: 'tag2'}
]
}
Anyone know how to fix this?
One more question. Is there a way to check if model is loaded or not. Yes, I know that we can add callback to the fetch method, but what about something like this model.isLoaded or model.isPending?
Thanks!

Answer 1

"when I try to load single model I get my property being overridden with plain Javascript array"
You can override the Model#parse method to keep your collection getting overwritten:
parse: function(attrs) {
//reset the collection property with the new
//tags you received from the server
var collection = this.get('tags');
collection.reset(attrs.tags);
//replace the raw array with the collection
attrs.tags = collection;
return attrs;
}
"Is there a way to check if model is loaded or not?"
You could compare the model to its defaults. If the model is at its default state (save for its id), it's not loaded. If it doesn't, it's loaded:
isLoaded: function() {
var defaults = _.result(this, 'defaults');
var current = _.wíthout(this.toJSON(), 'id');
//you need to convert the tags to an array so its is comparable
//with the default array. This could also be done by overriding
//Model#toJSON
current.tags = current.tags.toJSON();
return _.isEqual(current, defaults);
}
Alternatively you can hook into the request, sync and error events to keep track of the model syncing state:
initialize: function() {
var self = this;
//pending when a request is started
this.on('request', function() {
self.isPending = true;
self.isLoaded = false;
});
//loaded when a request finishes
this.on('sync', function() {
self.isPending = false;
self.isLoaded = true;
});
//neither pending nor loaded when a request errors
this.on('error', function() {
self.isPending = false;
self.isLoaded = false;
});
}