Backbone model empty after collection fetch - backbone.js

var app = {};
var FoodModel = Backbone.Model.extend({
url: "http://localhost/food"
});
var FoodCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
model: FoodModel,
url: "http://localhost/food"
});
var FoodView = Backbone.View.extend({
render: function(){
console.log(this.model.toJSON());
}
});
app.FoodModel = new FoodModel();
app.FoodCollection = new FoodCollection;
app.FoodCollection.fetch();
var myView = new FoodView({model: app.FoodModel})
In this piece of code, the console.log always returns null for data in this.model
If console.log the collection it is full of data, how can i get this.model inside the view to reflect the data in the collection?

I'm not sure where your app is triggering FoodView.render(). It won't happen automatically when you instantiate FoodView and it won't happen when the json response triggers a callback to app.FoodCollection.fetch() unless you are manually calling that in a success callback. If you are doing this, your context may have been lost.
Also, there are a few typos in your code (app.FoodCollection = new FoodCollection();). If not, then can you provide the exact code? Please include whatever code is calling render()
Also, I'm not sure your view is being associated with your model. Try:
var FoodView = Backbone.View.extend({
model: FoodModel,
render: function(){
console.log(this.model.toJSON());
}
});
Otherwise, Backbone has no way of knowing what model you are referring to.

Related

Add model to collection after fetching it

Im having trouble figuring out how to populate a model's attributes from the server and then add the populated model to a collection and have that collection rendered by a view. Here's the code I have:
var movieDetails = new cinephile.Models.MovieDetailsModel({ id: movie.get('id') });
this.collection.add(movieDetails);
Inside of the MovieDetailsModel:
cinephile.Models.MovieDetailsModel = Backbone.Model.extend({
url: function()
{
return '/cinephile/api/index.php?action=getMovieDetails&movieId=' + this.id;
},
initialize: function()
{
this.fetch();
}
});
And this.collection is just a collection with the model set to be a cinephile.Models.MovieDetailsModel
I am listening for items to be added to the collection and when they are, the following is executed:
displayMovie: function(movie)
{
var view = new cinephile.Views.MovieView({
model: movie,
className: 'movie clearfix',
template: JST['app/scripts/templates/MovieView.ejs'],
});
this.$("#my-movies").append(view.el);
},
MovieView looks like this:
cinephile.Views.MovieView = Backbone.View.extend({
initialize: function(options)
{
this.template = options.template;
this.render();
},
render : function()
{
this.$el.html(this.template(this.model.attributes));
return this;
},
});
The problem I have is that the template I'm using is trying to access an attribute of the model that is undefined. Im pretty sure it's undefined because the MoveDetailsModel hasn't finished fetching before the model is added to the collection and subsequently rendered to the view.
How can I solve this issue? I'd like to be able to create a MovieDetailsModel that takes in an id, use that id to get the movie details from the server and then add the populated model to a collection and then render that collection to the screen.
Any help is appreciated.
Backbone fetch returns a jqXHR object, which is a Deferred objects Promise.
When fetch is called, the attributes are not populated yet. Promise objects have a don
ejqXHR function, where a callback can be passed to be executed once the request is done.
I would recommend moving the fetch into another method not the constructor, because there You can return the jqXHR object and access its done function.
Here is an example:
var movieDetails = new cinephile.Models.MovieDetailsModel({ id: movie.get('id') });
var promise = movieDetails.fetch();
promise.done(function() {
var view = new cinephile.Views.MovieView({model: movieDetails});
view.render();
});

How to retrieve an object from Parse.com after saving it

I'm creating an application for Phonegap using Backbone framework and Parse.com as backend service. I create an object with Parse.com (corresponding to Backbone models).
This object has a saveDraftToP() method that calls the Parse.com function save().
After this method is called from a view, I'd like to retrieve the updated object.
To do so I'm binding the 'change' event to the model but the Parse assigned ID is undefined.
Here is the code of the model:
var Match = Parse.Object.extend("Match", {
states: {'DRAFT': 0, 'RUNNING': 1, 'ENDED': 2},
saveDraftToP: function () {
var self = this;
this.save({
user: Parse.User.current(),
ACL: new Parse.ACL(Parse.User.current()),
state: self.states.DRAFT
}, {
success: function (result) {
self = result;
},
error: function (e) {
}
});
}
});`
And here is the code for the view:
var vmNuovaPartita = Parse.View.extend({
template: Handlebars.compile(template),
model: new Match(),
collection: new HintCollection(),
initialize: function () {
this.bind("change:model", console.log(this.model.id) , this);
},
render: function (eventName) {
var match = this.model.toJSON();
$(this.el).html(this.template(match));
return this;
}
});
I'm not quite sure why you have a save function wrapped in another save-like function. :-)
Say you have something like myMatch which is an object.
Through your UI, a button click saves the object data. You can just use myMatch.save({attr:val, ...}) straight out of the box. Backbone (and Parse) by default are optimistic. That means, you it will set the values of the model with the expectation that persisting to the server will succeed.
Thus, you don't need to retrieve anything extra. You already have the model in it's most current state.
To have a model view that responds to these changes, I'd design the view a little differently.
var vmNuovaPartita = Parse.View.extend({
template: Handlebars.compile(template),
initialize: function () {
this.model.on('change', this.render);
},
render: function (eventName) {
var match = this.model.toJSON();
$(this.el).html(this.template(match));
return this;
}
});
var myView = new vmNuovaPartita({
model: myModel
});
I'd initialize the model outside of the view, then pass it in as an option when you generate a new view. When you pass a model in as an option, it's special and will be attached directly to the view ... view.model which you can refer inside your view code as this.model
In the init we place a listener on the model for change events, then fire off a rerender of the view. Or a nicer way to go about this sort of thing is to throw in the newer Backbone Events with the .listenTo() method.

backbone collections' population with server data

I have a backbone collection. I fetch. The server comes back with a JSON. How do I populate the collection witht he fresh data? Here's my code:
var Todos = Backbone.Collection.extend({
url: "server/todos-service.php", // this does what it is supposed to do so no worries!
model: Todo,
initialize: function(attributes, options) {
// IN HERE WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO?
// WHAT EVENT SHALL I BIND TO TO REACT THE DATA DELIVERY?
// AND WHAT SHALL I DO NEXT TO POPULATE THE DAMN THINGS
}
});
// CLIENT CODE
new Todos().fetch();
Can anyone tell me how this is supposed to be done?
Cheers
The fetch will start the ajax call to your server. When the data is returned it is automatically put the data into your collection, and the collection will fire a reset being like "I'm done fetching data bro, you can use it now."
You would usually call fetch() from inside your view, and have the view listen to the reset event. When the reset event is trigger, the view renders the collection.
var Todo = Backbone.Model.extend({
// my model
});
var TodoList = Backbone.Collection.extend({
url: myurl
model: Todo
// my collection (usually nothing in the initialize function)
});
var AppView = Backbone.View.extend({
initialize: function() {
// instantiate the collection
this.collection = new TodoList();
//listen to the reset event on the collection. When the reset event trigger, call the render function.
this.collection.on('reset', this.render, this);
// get the data from the backend
this.collection.fetch();
},
render: function() {
// render the collection like a boss
}
});
//instantiate the view
var App = new AppView;
Also as a resource, I found this tutorial to be really helpful in understanding the basics of backbone http://net.tutsplus.com/sessions/build-a-contacts-manager-using-backbone-js/

Backbone.js: retrieving a collection from the server in PHP

I'm having a look at Backbone.js, but I'm stuck. The code until now is as simple as is possible, but I seem not to get it. I use Firebug and this.moments in the render of MomentsView is an object, but all the methods from a collection don't work (ie this.moments.get(1) doesn't work).
The code:
var Moment = Backbone.Model.extend({
});
var Moments = Backbone.Collection.extend({
model: Moment,
url: 'moments',
initialize: function() {
this.fetch();
}
});
var MomentsView = Backbone.View.extend({
el: $('body'),
initialize: function() {
_.bindAll(this, 'render');
this.moments = new Moments();
},
render: function() {
_.each(this.moments, function(moment) {
console.log(moment.get('id'));
});
return this;
}
})
var momentsview = new MomentsView();
momentsview.render();
The (dummy) response from te server:
[{"id":"1","title":"this is the moment","description":"another descr","day":"12"},{"id":"2","title":"this is the mament","description":"onother dascr","day":"14"}]
The object has two models according to the DOM in Firebug, but the methods do not work. Does anybode have an idea how to get the collection to work in the view?
The problem here is that you're fetching the data asynchronously when you initialize the MomentsView view, but you're calling momentsview.render() synchronously, right away. The data you're expecting hasn't come back from the server yet, so you'll run into problems. I believe this will work if you call render in a callback to be executed once fetch() is complete.
Also, I don't think you can call _.each(this.moments) - to iterate over a collection, use this.moments.each().
Try removing the '()' when instantiate the collection.
this.moments = new Moments;
Also, as it's an asynchronous call, bind the collection's 'change' event with the rendering.
I hope it helps you.

Failing to pass models correctly from collection view?

I've been staring at this for a while and trying various tweaks, to no avail.
Why am I getting a "this.model is undefined" error at
$(function(){
window.Sentence = Backbone.Model.extend({
initialize: function() {
console.log(this.toJSON())
}
});
window.Text = Backbone.Collection.extend({
model : Sentence,
initialize: function(models, options){
this.url = options.url;
}
});
window.SentenceView = Backbone.View.extend({
initialize : function(){
_.bindAll(this, 'render');
this.template = _.template($('#sentence_template').html());
},
render : function(){
var rendered = this.template(this.model.toJSON());
$(this.el).html(rendered);
return this;
}
})
window.TextView = Backbone.View.extend({
el : $('#notebook') ,
initialize : function(){
_.bindAll(this, 'render');
},
render : function(){
this.collection.each(function(sentence){
if (sentence === undefined){
console.log('sentence was undefined');
};
var view = new SentenceView({model: sentence});
this.$('ol#sentences').append(view.render().el);
});
return this;
}
});
function Notebook(params){
this.text = new Text(
// models
{},
// params
{
url: params.url
}
);
this.start = function(){
this.text.fetch();
this.textView = new TextView({
collection: this.text
});
$('body').append(this.textView.render().el);
};
}
window.notebook = new Notebook(
{ 'url': 'js/mandarin.js' }
);
window.notebook.start();
})
There's an online version wher eyou can see the error in a console at:
http://lotsofwords.org/languages/chinese/notebook/
The whole repo is at:
https://github.com/amundo/notebook/
The offending line appears to be at:
https://github.com/amundo/notebook/blob/master/js/notebook.js#L31
I find this perplexing because as far as I can tell the iteration in TextView.render has the right _.each syntax, I just can't figure out why the Sentence models aren't showing up as they should.
var view = new SentenceView({model: sentence});
I'm pretty sure when you pass data to a backbone view constructor, the data is added to the Backbone.View.options property.
Change this line
var rendered = this.template(this.model.toJSON());
to this
var rendered = this.template(this.options.model.toJSON());
and see if it works
UPDATE:
From the doco:
When creating a new View, the options you pass are attached to the view as this.options, for future reference. There are several special options that, if passed, will be attached directly to the view: model, collection, el, id, className, and tagName
So, disregard the above advice - the model should by default be attached directly to the object
Things to check next when debugging:
confirm from within the render() method that this is actually the SentenceView object
confirm that you are not passing in an undefined sentence here:
var view = new SentenceView({model: sentence});
UPDATE2:
It looks like the collection is borked then:
this.textView = new TextView({
collection: this.text
});
To debug it further you'll need to examine it and work out what's going on. When I looked in firebug, the collection property didn't look right to me.
You could have a timing issue too. I thought the fetch was asynchronous, so you probably don't want to assign the collection to the TextView until you are sure it has completed.
Backbone surfaces underscore.js collection methods for you so you can do this. See if this works for you:
this.collection.each(function(sentence) {
// YOUR CODE HERE
});
I think the problem is on line 48 of notebook.js shown below:
render : function(){
_(this.collection).each(function(sentence){
var view = new SentenceView({model: sentence});
this.$('ol#sentences').append(view.render().el);
});
The problem is you are wrapping the collection and you don't have to. Change it to
this.collection.each(function(sentence){ ...
hope that fixes it
EDIT:
OK i'm going to take another crack at it now that you mentioned timing in one of your comments
take a look at where you are fetching and change it to this:
this.start = function(){
this.text.fetch({
success: _.bind( function() {
this.textView = new TextView({
collection: this.text
});
$('body').append(this.textView.render().el);
}, this)
);
};
I typed this manually so there may be mismatching parentheses. The key is that fetch is async.
Hope this fixes it
try using _.each
_.each(this.collection, function(sentence){
if (sentence === undefined){
console.log('sentence was undefined');
};
var view = new SentenceView({model: sentence});
this.$('ol#sentences').append(view.render().el);
},this);

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