Difference between $(this.el) and this.$el in Backbone - backbone.js

Question

I'm developing a single-page web application using Backbone and Laravel. I've set my router to use pushState and configured Laravel to send all other requests to the main view of the backbone application, where backbone takes care of the routing.
My problem/question is as follows:
I have a route called 'dashboard', this route is the main application view and is shown after login. It uses a collection called Clients.
dashboard:function(uri){
dashboardCallback = function(data){
if(data.check){
console.log('generate dashboard');
//get clients collection
clientsCollection = new Dash.Collections.Clients();
clientsCollection.fetch().then(function(clients){
//genenerate dashboard view
new Dash.Views.Dashboard({collection:clientsCollection}).renderDashboard();
});
}
else{
router.navigate('/', {trigger:true, replace:true});
}
}
Dash.Utilities.user.isLoggedIn(dashboardCallback);
},
The Dash.Views.Dashboard view takes care of all the views in the application, when calling the renderDashboard(); method, it starts rendering all client views. This is where it gets interesting.
The code for rendering all the client views is as follows:
renderClients:function(){
console.log('Rendering all clients', this.collection);
clientsView = new Dash.Views.Clients({collection:this.collection}).render();
$(this.el).html(clientsView.el);
}
with the above code, it works in all cases. With that i mean when I log in first and the application routes me to the dashboard view all the clients gets rendered and appended to the DOM, the same thing happens when I access /dashboard immediately (afther the application checks if i'm logged in).
But, when I use the following code it doesn't load the client views when I first log in. It does load the client views when i access /dashboard directly.
renderClients:function(){
console.log('Rendering all clients', this.collection);
clientsView = new Dash.Views.Clients({collection:this.collection}).render();
this.$el.html(clientsView.el);
}
It took me a while to figure out that the fix of the problem was that I had to replace this.$el with $(this.el), but I alway's thought it didn't matter because they are essentially the same, or am I wrong in this assumption?
Can someone explain to me this weird behaviour?
As requested, here is my global Dashboard view
Dash.Views.Dashboard = Backbone.View.extend({
tagName:'div',
id:'main',
className:'dashboard',
initialize: function(){
console.log('Initializing Global Dashboard View');
//make sure the main element is only added once.
if(!$('.dashboard').length){
$('body').append(this.el);
}
else{
this.el = $('.dashboard');
}
},
renderDashboard: function(){
console.log('Render all Dashboard components');
this.renderNavBar();
this.renderClients();
},
renderNavBar: function(){
var navBarView = new Dash.Views.NavBar().render();
$(this.el).before(navBarView.el);
},
renderLogin: function(){
var logInView = new Dash.Views.Login().render();
$(this.el).html(logInView.el);
},
renderWhoops:function(error){
console.log('Render Whoops from Global Dashboard');
var whoopsModel = new Dash.Models.Whoops(error);
$(this.el).html(new Dash.Views.Whoops({model:whoopsModel}).render().el)
},
renderClients:function(){
console.log('Rendering all clients', this.collection);
clientsView = new Dash.Views.Clients({collection:this.collection}).render();
$(this.el).html(clientsView.el);
}
});

Answer 1

I'd guess that your problem is right here:
if(!$('.dashboard').length){
$('body').append(this.el);
}
else{
this.el = $('.dashboard'); // <----- Broken
}
If there is no .dashboard then you directly assign to this.el and that's a mistake as it won't update this.$el. The result is that this.el and this.$el reference different things and nothing works. You should use setElement to change a view's el:
setElement view.setElement(element)
If you'd like to apply a Backbone view to a different DOM element, use setElement, which will also create the cached $el reference and move the view's delegated events from the old element to the new one.
So you should be saying this:
if(!$('.dashboard').length){
$('body').append(this.el);
}
else{
this.setElement($('.dashboard')); // <----- Use setElement
}