Backbone Marionette: Don't render composite view if collection is empty - backbone.js

I have a CompositeView where I fetch its collection on initialize.
initialize: function() {
this.collection = this.model.things;
this.collection.fetch();
},
How do I not render this composite view if its collection is empty?
I'm aware of the EmptyView, but that still renders the composite view's template. I want to not render anything if the collection is empty.

The answer ended up being to render the composite view after the fetch's deferred objected returned.
initialize: function() {
var self = this;
this.collection = this.model.localFoods;
this.collection.fetch().then(function() {
self.render();
});
}
Current score
async:23, me:0
Async wins!

From the Docs:
When the collection's "reset" event is fired, it will only re-render
the collection within the composite, and not the wrapper template
So pass {reset: true} to the fetch(), so the collection will automatically be re-rendered:
initialize: function() {
this.collection = this.model.things;
this.collection.fetch({reset: true});
}

Related

Backbone pre rendering of collection models

I want to perform an action, clearing parent element, after a collection has fetched his models but prior to the models rendering.
I've stumbled upon before and after render methods yet they are model specific, which will cause my parent element to clear before every model rendering.
I'm able of course to perform the action pre-fetching yet I want it to occur when fetch is done and before models are rendered.
I tried using reset and change events listening on the collection yet both resulted unwanted end result.
Reset event seamed to go in that direction yet the passed argument was the entire collection and not a single model from the collection, therefore using the add event callback wasn't possible due to difference in argument type (collection and not a model as required)
Any ideas how to invoke a callback when fetch a collection fetch is successful yet models are yet to be rendered?
The model contains the returned attributes while collection contains url for fetching and parse method to return argument wrapped object.
Below is the code I use to render the collection view, which is basically rendering each model's view within the collection.
Collection View
---------------
var FoosView = Backbone.View.extend({
el: '#plans',
events: {
//'click tr': 'rowClick'
},
initialize: function() {
this.listenTo(this.collection, 'add', this.renderNew);
_.bindAll(this, "render");
this.render();
},
renderNew: function(FooModel) {
var item = new FooView({model: FooModel});
this.$el.prepend(item.render().$el);
}
...
});
The model view
--------
var FooView = Backbone.View.extend({
tagName: 'li',
initialize: function(options) {
this.options = options || {};
this.tpl = _.template(fooTpl);
},
render: function() {
var data = this.model.toJSON();
this.$el.html(this.tpl(data));
return this;
}
});
Thanks in advance.
OK, I think I understand your question and here is a proposed solution. You are now listening to the reset event on your collection and calling this.renderAll. this.renderAll will take the list of models from the collection and render them to the page, but only AFTER the list element has been emptied. Hope this helps :).
var FoosView = Backbone.View.extend({
el: '#plans',
collection: yourCollection, // A reference to the collection.
initialize: function() {
this.listenTo(this.collection, 'add', this.renderNew);
this.listenTo(this.collection, 'reset', this.renderAll);
},
renderAll: function() {
// Empty your list.
this.$el.empty();
var _views = []; // Create a list for you subviews
// Create your subviews with the models in this.collection.
this.collection.each(function(model) {
_views.push(new FooView({model: model});
});
// Now create a document fragment so as to not reflow the page for every subview.
var container = document.createDocumentFragment();
// Append your subviews to the container.
_.each(_views, function(subview) {
container.appendChild(subview.render().el);
});
// Append the container to your list.
this.$el.append(container);
},
// renderNew will only run on the collections 'add' event.
renderNew: function(FooModel) {
var item = new FooView({model: FooModel});
this.$el.prepend(item.render().$el);
}
});
I am forced to assume a few things about you html, but I think the above code should be enough to get you up and running. Let me know if it works.
I'm not totally sure about what you are asking but have you tried:
MyCollection.fetch({
success: function(models,response) {
//do stuff here
}
});
Also you may be interested taking a look at http://backbonejs.org/#Model-parse
Hope it helps!
Edit: there is no direct link between fetching and rendering my bet is that you binded rendering to model change.
USE===============>>>> http://backbonejs.org/#Model-parse

Marionette ItemView not re-rendering on model change from collection view

I have created a collection passing a collection view and a collection. The collection references a model I have created. when fetching the collection the items get rendered succesfully, but when the models change, the itemViews are not being re-rendered as expected.
for example, the itemAdded function in the tweetCollectionView is called twice ( two models are added on fetch ) but even though the parse function returns different properties over time for those models ( I assume this would call either a change event on the collection, or especially a change event on the model, which I have tried to catch in the ItemView ) the itemChanged is never called, and the itemViews are never re-rendered, which i would expect to be done on catching the itemViews model change events.
The code is as follows below:
function TweetModule(){
String.prototype.parseHashtag = function() {
return this.replace(/[#]+[A-Za-z0-9-_]+/g, function(t) {
var tag = t;
return "<span class='hashtag-highlight'>"+tag+"</span>";
});
};
String.prototype.removeLinks = function() {
var urlexp = new RegExp( '(http|ftp|https)://[\w-]+(\.[\w-]+)+([\w.,#?^=%&:/~+#-]*[\w#?^=%&/~+#-])?' );
return this.replace( urlexp, function(u) {
var url = u;
return "";
});
};
var TweetModel = Backbone.Model.extend({
idAttribute: 'id',
parse: function( model ){
var tweet = {},
info = model.data;
tweet.id = info.status.id;
tweet.text = info.status.text.parseHashtag().removeLinks();
tweet.name = info.name;
tweet.image = info.image_url;
tweet.update_time_full = info.status.created_at;
tweet.update_time = moment( tweet.update_time_full ).fromNow();
return tweet;
}
});
var TweetCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
model: TweetModel,
url: function () {
return '/tweets/game/1'
}
});
var TweetView = Backbone.Marionette.ItemView.extend({
template: _.template( require('./templates/tweet-view.html') ),
modelEvents:{
"change":"tweetChanged"
},
tweetChanged: function(){
this.render();
}
})
var TweetCollectionView = Marionette.CompositeView.extend({
template: _.template(require('./templates/module-twitter-feed-view.html')),
itemView: TweetView,
itemViewContainer: '#tweet-feed',
collection: new TweetCollection([], {}),
collectionEvents: {
"add": "itemAdded",
"change": "itemChanged"
},
itemAdded: function(){
console.log('Item Added');
},
itemChanged: function(){
console.log("Changed Item!");
}
});
this.startInterval = function(){
this.fetchCollection();
this.interval = setInterval( this.fetchCollection, 5000 );
}.bind(this);
this.fetchCollection = function(){
this.view.collection.fetch();
this.view.render();
}.bind(this);
//build module here
this.view = new TweetCollectionView();
this.startInterval();
};
I may be making assumptions as to Marionette handles event bubbling, but according to the docs, I have not seen anything that would point to this.
Inside your CollectionView, do
this.collection.trigger ('reset')
after model have been added.
This will trigger onRender () method in ItemView to re-render.
I know I'm answering an old question but since it has a decent number of views I thought I'd answer it correctly. The other answer doesn't address the problem with the code and its solution (triggering a reset) will force all the children to re-render which is neither required nor desired.
The problem with OP's code is that change is not a collection event which is why the itemChanged method is never called. The correct event to listen for is update, which according to the Backbone.js catalog of events is a
...single event triggered after any number of models have been added
or removed from a collection.
The question doesn't state the version of Marionette being used but going back to at least version 2.0.0 CollectionView will intelligently re-render on collection add, remove, and reset events. From CollectionView: Automatic Rendering
When the collection for the view is "reset", the view will call render
on itself and re-render the entire collection.
When a model is added to the collection, the collection view will
render that one model in to the collection of child views.
When a model is removed from a collection (or destroyed / deleted),
the collection view will destroy and remove that model's child view
The behavior is the same in v3.

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();
});

Bind a view to collections in backbone.js

I'm semi-new to backbone. I'm trying to bind a collection to a view so that when a new model is added to a collection, the view is updated. I think when you do this with models you can bind to the model's change event. But how do you do the same with collections?
App.Views.Hotels = Backbone.View.extend({
tagName: 'ul',
render: function() {
this.collection.each(this.addOne, this);
var floorplanView = new App.Views.Floorplans({collection:floorplanCollection});
$('.floorplans').html(floorplanView.render().el);
return this;
},
events: {'click': 'addfloorplan'},
addOne: function(hotel) {
var hotelView = new App.Views.Hotel ({model:hotel});
this.$el.append(hotelView.render().el);
},
addfloorplan: function() {
floorplanCollection.add({"name": "another floorplan"});
}
});
App.Collections.Floorplans = Backbone.Collection.extend({
model: App.Models.Floorplan,
initialize: function () {
this.bind( "add", function() {console.log("added");} );
}
});
The click event fires and adds to the collection. But how do I get it to update the view?
You can listen to the collection's add event, which fires when a new item is added to the collection. In modern versions of Backbone, the method listenTo is preferred to bind or on for listening to events. (Read de documentation for more info)
For example, in your case this should do the trick:
App.Views.Hotels = Backbone.View.extend({
initialize: function() {
this.listenTo(this.collection,'add', this.addOne);
},
//rest of code
Hope this helps!
Here is a nice tutorial I had followed long ago.
An Intro to Backbone.js: Part 3 – Binding a Collection to a View
It helps you define a DonutCollectionView that will, when given a collection of donuts, render an UpdatingDonutView for each donut.

Backbone.js: How do I force the View to automatically refresh when changing a models collection

So I have a View that looks like this.
//base class
var SelectListView = Backbone.View.extend({
initialize: function() {
_.bindAll(this, 'addOne', 'addAll');
this.collection.bind('reset', this.addAll);
},
addAll: function() {
this.collection.each(this.addOne);
},
events: {
"change": "changedSelected"
},
changedSelected: function() {
this.selected = $(this.el);
this.setSelectedId($(this.el).val());
}
});
//my extended view
var PricingSelectListView = SelectListView.extend({
addOne: function(item) {
$(this.el).append(new PricingView({ model: item }).render().el);
}
});
I have instantiated the view like this...
var products = new ProductPricings();
var pricingsView = new PricingSelectListView({
el: $("#sel-product"),
collection: products
});
Somewhere else (another views custom method)I have updated the pricing view's collection
pricingsView.collection = new ProductPricings(filtered);
This does not seen to do anything.
pricingsView.render();
So now the collection has fewer items but the new view is never rendered or refreshed in the DOM.
How to I do I 1.) refresh the rendering in the DOM? 2.) Make it automatically refresh the DOM? Do I have to somehow tell it to render when ever the collection changes?
You bound addOne() to a reset event. When you just replace the pricingsView.collection instance then that event is not triggered and addOne() is not executed.
Try instead:
pricingsView.collection.reset(filtered);
This might work since you bind to collection's reset event already:
pricingsView.collection.reset(filtered);
http://backbonejs.org/#Collection-reset
You still have tweak your rendering logic to remove old markup from the view when reset happens.

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