Can't access model attributes from Backbone View - backbone.js

I'm walking into a large Backbone.js project so I'm still getting my bearings. My template, my-group-item.jhbs has:
{{#if isComplete}}
.row-fluid
.span2
img.entity-image(src="/pictures/{{entityId}}.png")
.span10
.row-fluid
.span12
h3 {{entityName}}
p My first variable {{totalFirst}} and my second variable {{totalValue}}
{{/if}}
My View is:
module.exports = class MyItemView extends View
className: ->
templateData = #getTemplateData()
primaryData = #model.get('primaryData')
tagName: 'li'
template: require 'views/my-group-item'
initialize: () ->
super
primaryData = #model.get('primaryData')
In my template, the totalFirst and totalValue variables show nothing.
I'm calling my view with:
#groupView = new MyItemView
collection: groups
el: '.group-list'
How can I get these to show in the template?

You could pass more than 1 variable to your template, the first being your model and the second being the attributes of primaryData.

Related

Backbone Marionette Slow Composite Views (200+ collections)

When showing a dropdown composite view collection of around 200 countries my application gets far too slow.
What is the best way to increase performance when dealing with large collections in marionette composite views?
Here is the function in the controller that is very slow to load. It is fast with only the following lines removed:
#layout.shippingCountryRegion.show shippingCountryView
#layout.billingCountryRegion.show billingCountryView
So it appears to be a very slow rendering issue.
Show.Controller =
showProfile: ->
#layout = #getLayoutView()
#layout.on "show", =>
headerView = #getHeaderView()
#layout.headerRegion.show headerView
accessView = #getAccessView()
#layout.accessRegion.show accessView
billingReadmeView = #getBillingReadmeView()
#layout.billingReadmeRegion.show billingReadmeView
billingFieldsView = #getBillingFieldsView()
#layout.billingFieldRegion.show billingFieldsView
shippingReadmeView = #getShippingReadmeView()
#layout.shippingReadmeRegion.show shippingReadmeView
shippingFieldsView = #getShippingFieldsView()
#layout.shippingFieldRegion.show shippingFieldsView
MyApp.request "location:get_countries", (countries) =>
billingCountryView = #getBillingCountryView(countries)
#layout.billingCountryRegion.show billingCountryView
MyApp.request "location:get_states", MyApp.activeCustomer.get('billing_country_id'), (states) =>
billingStateView = #getBillingStatesView(states)
#layout.billingStateRegion.show billingStateView
MyApp.request "location:get_countries", (countries) =>
shippingCountryView = #getShippingCountryView(countries)
#layout.shippingCountryRegion.show shippingCountryView
MyApp.request "location:get_states", MyApp.activeCustomer.get('shipping_country_id'), (states) =>
shippingStateView = #getShippingStatesView(states)
#layout.shippingStateRegion.show shippingStateView
MyApp.mainRegion.show #layout
The billing country view:
class View.BillingCountryDropdownItem extends MyApp.Views.ItemView
template: billingCountryItemTpl
tagName: "option"
onRender: ->
this.$el.attr('value', this.model.get('id'));
if MyApp.activeCustomer.get('billing_country_id') == this.model.get('id')
this.$el.attr('selected', 'selected');
class View.BillingCountryDropdown extends MyApp.Views.CompositeView
template: billingCountryTpl
itemView: View.BillingCountryDropdownItem
itemViewContainer: "select"
The template, simply:
<label>Country
<select id="billing_country_id" name="billing_country_id">
<%- name %>
</select>
</label>
Your code can be optimized. Just move content of onRender method to the ItemView attributes.
class View.BillingCountryDropdownItem extends MyApp.Views.ItemView
template: billingCountryItemTpl
tagName: "option"
attributes: ->
var id = this.model.get('id');
var attributes = { 'value': id };
if MyApp.activeCustomer.get('billing_country_id') == this.model.get('id')
attributes['selected'] = 'selected';
return attributes
The difference between this method and onRender case is that, on render will execute when collection already rendered and 200+ operations will be done with DOM nodes, which will bring performance issues.
In case of attributes method, it executes upon view creation.
There are few advices you can follow:
1) Ask your self do you really need to render all items at once? Maybe you can render part of collection and render other items on scroll or use pagination or use 'virtual scrioll' with SlickGrid or Webix for example.
2) Checkout how often you re-render your view. Try to minify num of events cause re-render
3) Try to minify num of event listeners of ItemView. Its good practice to delegate context events to CollectionView
4) You can use setTimeout to render collection by parts. For example you divide you coll in 4 parts by 50 items and raise 4 timeouts to render it.
5) You can optimize underscore templating and get rid of with {} operator. http://underscorejs.org/#template
What's in your 'billingCountryItemTpl' varible? If it's just string with template ID then you could precompile your template using Marionette.TemplateCache.
So you'll have:
template: Marionette.TemplateCache.get(billingCountryItemTpl)

How to organize Backbone collection with a specific selection?

I have a collection of items. I would like to keep track of the current selection. When the user clicks on a different item in the collection, I want to indicate that the item is selected and display the details of the selected item. Think of this as a list with a detail view (like a typical email client).
Example of a master-detail layout (source):
I currently have something like this (written in CoffeeScript, templates use haml-coffee):
class Collections.Items extends Backbone.Collection
model: Models.Item
setCurrentSelection: (id)->
# what to do here? Is this even the right way to do it?
getCurrentSelection: ->
# what to do here? Is this even the right way to do it?
class Views.ItemsPage extends Backbone.View
list_template: JST['items/list']
details_template: JST['items/details']
events:
'click .item': 'updateSelection'
initialize: (options)->
#collection = options.collection
render: ->
$('#items_list').html(#list_template(collection: #collection.toJSON())) # not sure if this is how to render a collection
$('#item_details').html(#details_template(item: #collection.currentSelection().toJSON())) # how to implement currentSelection?
#
updateSelection: (event)->
event.preventDefault()
item_id = $(event.currentTarget).data('id')
# mark the item as selected
# re-render using the new selection
# templates/items/list.hamlc
%ul
- for item in #collection
%li{data:{id: item.id}, class: ('selected' if item.selected?)} # TODO: How to check if selected?
= item.name
# templates/items/details.hamlc
%h2= #item.name
I'm not sure if I'm following you (my CoffeeScript is a bit rusty), but I think what you're trying to do is set a selected property on the appropriate model in your updateSelection method, and then re-render your view.
In other words:
updateSelection: (event)->
event.preventDefault()
item_id = $(event.currentTarget).data('id')
model = this.collection.get(item_id) # get the model to select
model.selected = true # mark the item as selected
this.render() # re-render using the new selection
even saying "my CoffeeScript is a bit rusty" is too much for me. But i'll still attempt to explain as best as i can in js.
First the backbone way is to keep models as a representation of a REST resource document. (server side - persisted data).
Client side presentation logic should stick to views. to remember which list item is visible in in the details part is job of the that specific view. initiating change request for details view model is job of the list of items.
the ideal way is to have two separate views for list and details. (you can also go a bit more ahead and have a view for every item in the list view.
parent view
var PageView = Backbone.View.extend({
initialize: function() {
//initialize child views
this.list = new ItemListView({
collection : this.collection //pass the collection to the list view
});
this.details = new ItemDetailView({
model : this.collection.at(1) //pass the first model for initial view
});
//handle selection change from list view and replace details view
this.list.on('itemSelect', function(selectedModel) {
this.details.remove();
this.details = new ItemDetailView({
model : selectedModel
});
this.renderDetails();
});
},
render: function() {
this.$el.html(this.template); // or this.$el.empty() if you have no template
this.renderList();
this.renderDetails();
},
renderList : function(){
this.$('#items_list').append(this.list.$el); //or any other jquery way to insert
this.list.render();
},
renderDetails : function(){
this.$('#item_details').append(this.details.$el); //or any other jquery way to insert
this.details.render();
}
});
list view
var ItemListView = Backbone.View.extend({
events : {
'click .item': 'updateSelection'
},
render: function() {
this.$el.html(this.template);
this.delegateEvents(); //this is important
}
updateSelection : function(){
var selectedModel;
// a mechanism to get the selected model here - can be same as yours with getting id from data attribute
// or you can have a child view setup for each model in the collection. which will trigger an event on click.
// such event will be first captured by the collection view and thn retriggerd for page view to listen.
this.trigger('itemSelect', selectedModel);
}
});
details view
var ItemDetailView = Backbone.View.extend({
render: function() {
this.$el.html(this.template);
this.delegateEvents(); //this is important
}
});
This won't persist the state through routes if you don't reuse your views. in that case you need to have a global state/event saving mechanism. somthing like following -
window.AppState = {};
_.extend(window.AppState, Backbone.Events);
//now your PageView initilize method becomes something like this -
initialize: function() {
//initialize child views
this.list = new ItemListView({
collection : this.collection //pass the collection to the list view
});
var firstModel;
if(window.AppState.SelectedModelId) {
firstModel = this.collection.get(window.AppState.SelectedModelId);
} else {
firstModel = this.collection.at(1);
}
this.details = new ItemDetailView({
model : firstModel //pass the first model for initial view
});
//handle selection change from list view and replace details view
this.list.on('itemSelect', function(selectedModel) {
window.AppState.SelectedModelId = selectedModel.id;
this.details.remove();
this.details = new ItemDetailView({
model : selectedModel
});
this.renderDetails();
});
}
EDIT
Handling selected class (highlight) in list view . see comments for reference.
list view template -
<ul>
<% _.each(collection, function(item, index){ %>
<li data-id='<%= item.id %>'><%= item.name %></li>
<% }); %>
</ul>
inside list view add following method -
changeSelectedHighlight : function(id){
this.$(li).removeClass('selected');
this.$("[data-id='" + id + "']").addClass('selected');
}
simply call this method from updateSelection method and during PageView initialize.
this.list.changeSelectedHighlight(firstModel.id);

How to treat nested collection events in Marionette?

I have an API resource that gives me a list of users that each have several items. The hierarchy is like so:
- users
- user
- items
- item
- item
- item
- user
- items
- item
- item
- item
I would like to display the list of users on a single page, with each user entry displaying each of its items on the page as well.
When any one of these items is clicked, it should set an chosen attribute that is accessible through the overall users collection.
I'm having difficulty getting the item click information to bubble back up. My current implementation is creating a separate items collection in order to render the view, but then I lose the connection to its original user model, so I can't notify it when the item is selected.
My views are structured like so:
class List.Item extends Marionette.ItemView
template: "path/to/template"
events:
"click" : "choose"
choose: (e) ->
# what to do?
class List.User extends Marionette.CompositeView
collection: #collection
template: "path/to/template"
itemView: List.Item
itemViewContainer: "span"
initialize: ->
#collection = new App.Entities.Items(#model.get("items"), parent: #)
events:
"click a" : "toggleChoose"
#include "Chooseable"
class List.Users extends Marionette.CollectionView
itemView: List.User
Is there a better way to structure these collections or views, or is there a way to pass the information from the List.Item view to the parent List.User view and then into the users collection?
EDIT
I have tried backbone-relational, but it didn't seem to quite do what I need. Please correct me if I'm wrong here.
Your List.Item should contain it's current model with all properties at the time when choose is triggered. In this way, you can trigger other events with the List.Item's model values:
choose(e) : ->
trigger("mylistitem:choose", model)
Then listen for the event elsewhere :
itemView.on("itemview:mylistitem:choose", ( childView, model ) -> {
alert(model.get('..whatever..')
}
It is actually possible to instantiate the items collection to reference the parent user and vice-versa directly in Backbone:
class Entities.User extends Backbone.Model
...
initialize: ->
#items = new Entities.Items #get("items"),
user: #
class Entities.Items extends Backbone.Collection
...
initialize: (models, options) ->
#user = options?.user
So now the List.User CompositeView can pass this information to the List.Item ItemView:
class List.User extends Marionette.CompositeView
collection: #collection
...
initialize: ->
#collection = #model.items
With this in place, it is possible to access the user directly from the ItemView:
class List.Item extends Marionette.ItemView
...
events:
"click" : "choose"
choose: (e) ->
e.preventDefault()
user = #model.collection.user
console.log "user: ", user
And from there it's possible to take any necessary actions on the user and its collection.

How to assign different class name on view element

In my Backbone view, i am setting tagname, classname, temp value.. all are works fine apart from classname..
how do i set the classname.. or what is the mistake on my code..
define(["singleton","listCollection","listModel"],function(singleton,collection,listModel){
singleton.view = Backbone.View.extend({
tagName :'article',
className :'indBoard',
projectName : true,
template0 : _.template($('#listTemplate').html()),
template1 : _.template($('#boardTemplate').html()),
initialize :function(options){
this.template = this['template'+options.tempNo];
this.tagName = options.tagName;
//i am changing to 'li' works
this.className = options.cName;
//changing to new class name not working
console.log(options.cName);//consoles new class name properly
this.projectName = options.subTempNo == 0 ?true:false;
//condition as well works..
},
render:function(){
var temp = this.template;
this.$el.html(temp(this.model.toJSON()));
return this;
}
});
return singleton.view;
});
If you set options.className when you create your view instance instead of options.cName, you don't need to try to set it in initialize like that (same for tagName).
Try something like this instead:
var view = new singleton.view({className: 'someClass'});
className is one of the special options that Backbone looks for during the view creation.
From Backbone source:
// List of view options to be merged as properties.
var viewOptions = ['model', 'collection', 'el', 'id', 'attributes', 'className', 'tagName', 'events'];
Actually, I think the reason tagName is working for you is because it is being merged in by Backbone, and not because you are setting it in initialize.

Backbone.js - Build view with sub models

I have an edit view for a Backbone Model that I create each time the the element is clicked on. The problem I have is that the edit view needs two Backbone collections to create the edit form (it contains two <select> lists).
The view:
MyApp.elementView = Backbone.View.extend({
events: {
'click .edit': 'editForm',
},
editForm: function(ev) {
var editView = new TimeTrack.Views.EditJob({
model: this.model
// This view needs two more collections
// for the <select> elements
});
...
}
});
Instantiate the view:
var elementView = new MyApp.elementView({
collection: elementCollection
});
What is the best way to push the needed collections to the edit view? Do I have to pass the collections need for the edit view from the elementView form the instantiation? Or is there a better way of doing this?
I did so, passed in view 2 collections, 1 - the main and the other as follows:
to elementView - second collection and in elementView recive her.
example:
in router I'm
initialize: ->
(YourNameSpace).secondCollection = new (YourNameSpace).secondCollection
elements: =>
view = new (YourNameSpace).elementView( secondCollection: #secondCollection )
$('.l-yield').html(view.render().el)

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