I am building an app using Meteor and am having trouble understanding the relationship between Routes and Views. I have Routers working properly, but after having done research on calling new Views am baffled.
Do I use App.navigate ? Do I call something like:
var newView = new MyView();
within the proper router function? This is the code I am using (that works) and my app only has two pages - the index page and item view:
var Aphorism = Backbone.Router.extend({
routes: {
"saying/:id": "showSaying"
},
showSaying: function (id) {
alert('Saying id ' + id + '.');
}
});
You define what routes exist in the Router. You usually only need one of those, unless you have a very complex app.
Then you hook up links and buttons in the app to execute app.navigate when clicked. You can do this with a view or do it yourself with something like jQuery, it's up to you.
For instance:
<div id="myButton">Click me!</div>
var myView = Backbone.View.extend({
el: "#myButton",
events: {
"click": "go"
},
go: function() {
myRouter.navigate("/someUrl", {trigger: true});
}
});
Related
In the following code, I am trying to trigger an event using dynamic require. For some reason I am not able to access app object in the eventRouter method. I am getting "TypeError: app is undefined" error. I have implemented listener on show event in respective controller files.
My question is similar to this post except my listeners are in different controller files and I am not able to access app object as suggested in the post.
Help appreciated !!!!
define(["app",
"tpl!templates/nav/nav.tpl",
"tpl!templates/nav/navMenuItem.tpl",
"entities/navEntity"
],
function(app, navTpl, navMenuItem, navEntity){
navMenuItem = Backbone.Marionette.ItemView.extend({
template: navMenuItem,
events: {
"click a": "eventRouter"
},
eventRouter:function(ev)
{
var that = this;
var moduleName = $(ev.currentTarget).text().toLowerCase();
require(['controllers/' + moduleName + 'Controller'], function(controller){
app.trigger(moduleName + ':show');
});
}
});
navMenu = Backbone.Marionette.CollectionView.extend({
tagName: 'ul',
itemView: navMenuItem,
collection: navEntity.navItems,
});
return {
navMenu: navMenu,
navMenuItem: navMenuItem
}
});
To overcome Circular dependencies you can check the Following :
https://stackoverflow.com/a/4881496/2303999
Manage your modules accordingly and avoid dependencies. Make common js file for functions you use use now and then. You can even use Marionette Vent object to pass events and do according on that event.
My single page web application consists of 4-5 views stacked vertically, when a user chooses a menu item, the page will scroll to the appropriate view. When you come into the application for the first time this is not a problem, however if you deep link to a menu item my page throws a fit because it's trying to access properties of an element that does not yet exists.
The problem I am having is understanding why the elements do not exist at the time the router is trying to scroll the page.
If you load / and then select home no problems, but if you directly hit #home via browser that when I get jQuery undefined errors.
Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'top' of undefined
Inside router I am instantiating and rendering all of my views within the initialize function. The idea is the initialize will always happen before any of my routes, clearly not the case.
Again I've read a few threads that show how to have a before and after function for either all routes of individual routes but even using that approach scrollToById fails because it doesn't know what $(id) is at the time of being called.
define(function (require, exports, module) {
var Backbone = require('backbone');
return Backbone.Router.extend({
initialize: function(){
require(['ui/menu/menu','ui/home/home', 'ui/samples/samples', 'ui/resume/resume', 'ui/contact/contact'],
function(Menu, Home, Samples, Resume, Contact){
var menu = new Menu();
menu.render();
var home = new Home();
home.render();
var samples = new Samples();
samples.render();
var resume = new Resume();
resume.render();
var contact = new Contact();
contact.render();
});
},
routes: {
'' : 'init',
'home' : 'home',
'samples' : 'samples',
'resume' : 'resume',
'contact' : 'contact'
},
init: function(){
},
home: function (){
this.scrollToById($(".home-container"));
},
samples: function(){
this.scrollToById($(".samples-container"));
},
resume: function(){
this.scrollToById($(".resume-container"));
},
contact: function(){
this.scrollToById($(".contact-container"));
},
scrollToById: function(id) {
var val = $(id).offset().top - 127;
$('html, body').animate({
scrollTop: val
}, 2000);
}
});
});
Appreciate any tips or advice.
I think the routes event handlers in the router are getting initialized at the same time as the initialize function. Because of this, route events are getting triggered before the DOM elements are rendered.
I would try making a new function outside of Router that contains everything currently inside the initialize function. Then the final thing in that function can be to create an instance of the router. This will ensure that no routes events are called until your scripts and DOM are loaded.
I'm brand new to backbone and just learning the basics. I am building an image gallery with backbone. I am displaying a large version of an image. The routing is working properly. When a url is passed with an id the appropriate JSON is loaded into the model and the html is injected into the dom. Everything displays as expected.
However, I tried entering a url for the JSON for an image that didn't exist and noticed that the view still rendered but with the previously rendered view's properties (image url) still present. How do I ensure that the view is refreshed - all empty properties? Or is it the model that needs to be refreshed?
Note: I am re-using the view to avoid the overhead of creating and dystroying the view itself.
Here is the view in question:
var ImageView = Backbone.View.extend({
template: Handlebars.compile(
'<div class="galleryImageSingle">'+
'<h2>{{title}}</h2>' +
'<img id="image" src="{{imageUrl}}" class="img-polaroid" />' +
'<div class="fb-share share-btn small"><img src="img/fb-share-btn- small.png"/></div>'+
'</div>' +
'<div class="black-overlay"></div>'
),
initialize: function () {
this.listenTo(this.model, "change", this.render);
//this.model.on('change',this.render,this);
},
fbSharePhoto: function () {
console.log('share to fb ' + this.model.attributes.shareUrl)
},
close: function () {
//this.undelegateEvents();
this.remove();
},
render: function () {
this.$el.html(this.template(this.model.attributes));
this.delegateEvents({
'click .fb-share' : 'fbSharePhoto',
'click .black-overlay' : 'close'
});
return this;
}
})
Here is the router:
var AppRouter = Backbone.Router.extend({
routes: {
"" : "dashboard",
"image/:iId" : "showImage",
},
initialize: function () {
// this.galleriesCollection = new GalleriesCollection(); //A collection of galleries
// this.galleriesCollection.fetch();
this.imageModel = new Image();
this.imageView = new ImageView ({ model: this.imageModel });
},
dashboard: function () {
console.log('#AppRouter show dashboard - hide everything else');
//$('#app').html(this.menuView.render().el);
},
showImage: function (iId) {
console.log('#AppRouter showPhoto() ' + iId);
this.imageModel.set('id', iId);
this.imageModel.fetch();
$('#imageViewer').html(this.imageView.render().el);
}
});
Is is it that the model still has the old info or the view, or both?
For extra credit, how could I detect a failure to fetch and respond to it by not triggering the corresponding view? Or I am I coming at it wrongly?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Looks like I found something that works. I think just the process of framing the question properly helps to answer it. (I'm not allowed to answer the question so I'll post what I found here)
It appears that its the model that needs refreshing in this case. In the app router when I call the showImage function I clear the model and reset its values to default before calling fetch and this did the trick. Ironically the trick here is showing a broken image tag.
showImage: function (iId) {
console.log('#AppRouter showPhoto() ' + iId);
this.imageModel.clear().set(this.imageModel.defaults);
this.imageModel.set('id', iId);
this.imageModel.fetch();
$('#imageViewer').html(this.imageView.render().el);
}
For my own extra credit offer: In the event of an error (if needed fetch() accepts success and error callbacks in the options hash). Still definitely open to hearing about a way of doing this thats baked in to the framework.
You can just update the model like this:
ImageView.model.set(attributes)
I am looking the best way to track the Site Activity in Google Analytics for a web app made with Backbone and Requires.
Looking At Google's Page, I found this drop-in plugin - Backbone.Analytics.
My questions are:
1) using Backbone.Analytics, should I change backbone.analytics.js in order to add _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-X']);?
2) Are there other possible solutions/plugins?
I prefer "do it yourself" style :) It's really simple:
var Router = Backbone.Router.extend({
initialize: function()
{
//track every route change as a page view in google analytics
this.bind('route', this.trackPageview);
},
trackPageview: function ()
{
var url = Backbone.history.getFragment();
//prepend slash
if (!/^\//.test(url) && url != "")
{
url = "/" + url;
}
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', url]);
}
}
And you add google analytics script to your page as usual.
You shouldn't have to change anything. Just add your Google Analytics code snippet, like normal, and include Backbone.Analytics as you would any other Javascript library.
Just figured i'd share how i'm doing it. This might not work for larger apps but I like manually telling GA when to track page views or other events. I tried binding to "all" or "route" but couldn't quite get it to record all the actions that I need automajically.
App.Router = BB.Router.extend({
//...
track: function(){
var url = Backbone.history.getFragment();
// Add a slash if neccesary
if (!/^\//.test(url)) url = '/' + url;
// Record page view
ga('send', {
'hitType': 'pageview',
'page': url
});
}
});
So i just call App.Router.Main.track(); after I navigate or do anything i want to track.
Do note that I use the new Analytics.js tracking snippet which is currently in public beta but has an API so intuitive that it eliminates the need for a plugin to abstract any complexity what so ever. For example: I keep track of how many people scroll to end of an infinite scroll view like this:
onEnd: function(){
ga('send', 'event', 'scrollEvents', 'Scrolled to end');
}
Good luck.
I wrote a small post on this, hope it helps someone:
http://sizeableidea.com/adding-google-analytics-to-your-backbone-js-app/
var appRouter = Backbone.Router.extend({
initialize: function() {
this.bind('route', this.pageView);
},
routes: {
'dashboard': 'dashboardPageHandler'
},
dashboardPageHandler: function() {
// add your page-level logic here...
},
pageView : function(){
var url = Backbone.history.getFragment();
if (!/^\//.test(url) && url != ""){
url = "/" + url;
}
if(! _.isUndefined(_gaq)){
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', url]);
}
}
});
var router = new appRouter();
Backbone.history.start();
Regarding other possible solutions/plugins, I've used https://github.com/aterris/backbone.analytics in a few projects and it works quite well as well. It also has options for a few more things like event tracking which can be handy at some point in your analytics integration.
If you use the new universal analytics.js, you can do that like this:
var Router = Backbone.Router.extend({
routes: {
"*path": "page",
},
initialize: function(){
// Track every route and call trackPage
this.bind('route', this.trackPage);
},
trackPage: function(){
var url = Backbone.history.getFragment();
// Add a slash if neccesary
if (!/^\//.test(url)) url = '/' + url;
// Analytics.js code to track pageview
ga('send', {
'hitType': 'pageview',
'page': url
});
},
// If you have a method that render pages in your application and
// call navigate to change the url, you can call trackPage after
// this.navigate()
pageview: function(path){
this.navigate(path);
pageView = new PageView;
pageView.render();
// It's better call trackPage after render because by default
// analytics.js passes the meta tag title to Google Analytics
this.trackPage();
}
}
All answers seem to be almost good, but out-of-date (Sept. 2015). Following this Google devs guide: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/single-page-applications
Here's my version of the solution (I've added the suggested call to ga('set'...) ):
MyRouter = Backbone.Router.extend
...
initialize: () ->
# Track every route and call trackPage
#bind 'route', #trackPage
trackPage: () ->
url = Backbone.history.getFragment()
# Add a slash if neccesary
if not /^\//.test(url) then url = '/' + url
# Analytics.js code to track pageview
global.ga('set', {page: url})
global.ga('send', 'pageview')
...
Just posting an update to this question as it seems to be one I get a lot from backbone.js developers I know or work with who seem to fall at the last hurdle.
The Javascript:
App.trackPage = function() {
var url;
if (typeof ga !== "undefined" && ga !== null) {
url = Backbone.history.getFragment();
return ga('send', 'pageview', '/' + url);
}
};
Backbone.history.on("route", function() {
return App.trackPage();
});
The Tracking Snippet:
<head>
<script>
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||
function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();
a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;
a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script',
'//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');
ga('create', 'UA-XXXXXXXX-X', 'auto');
</script>
</head>
The Tracking Snippet should be available on any page you wish to track activity. This could be your index.html where all your content is injected, but some sites may have multiple static pages or a mix. You can include the ga('send') function if you wish, but it will only fire on a page load.
I wrote a blog post that goes in to more detail, explaining rather than showing, the full process which you can find here: http://v9solutions.co.uk/tech/2016/02/15/how-to-add-google-analytics-to-backbone.js.html
I'm in the process of creating a Backbone.js app using Require.js. Each view file corresponds to one resource (e.g. 'News'). Within each view file, I declare a backbone
view for each action ('index', 'new', etc). At the bottom of the view file I receive
the necessary info from the router and then decide which view to instantiate (based on the info passed in from the router).
This all works well, but it requires lots of code and doesn't seem to be the 'backbone.js way'. For one thing, I'm rellying on the url to manage state. For another, I'm not using _.bind which pops up in a lot of backbone.js examples. In other words, I don't think I'm doing it right, and my code base smells... Any thoughts on how to structure my app better?
router.js
define([
'jquery',
'underscore',
'backbone',
'views/news'],
function($, _, Backbone, newsView){
var AppRouter = Backbone.Router.extend({
routes:{
'news':'news',
'news/:action':'news',
'news/:action/:id':'news'
},
news: function(action, id){
newsView(this, action, id).render();
}
});
var intialize = function(){
new AppRouter;
Backbone.history.start()
};
return{
initialize: initialize;
};
}
news.js ('views/news')
define([
'jquery',
'underscore',
'backbone',
'collections/news',
'text!templates/news/index.html',
'text!templates/news/form.html'
], function($, _, Backbone, newsCollection, newsIndexTemplate, newsFormTemplate){
var indexNewsView = Backbone.View.extend({
el: $("#content"),
initialize: function(router){
...
},
render: function(){
...
}
});
var newNewsView = Backbone.View.extend({
el: $("#modal"),
render: function(){
...
}
});
...
/*
* SUB ROUTER ACTIONS
*/
var defaultAction = function(router){
return new newsIndexView(router);
}
var subRouter = {
undefined: function(router){return defaultAction(router);},
'index': function(router){ return defaultAction(router);},
'new': function(){
return new newNewsView()
},
'create': function(router){
unsavedModel = {
title : $(".modal-body form input[name=title]").val(),
body : $(".modal-body form textarea").val()
};
return new createNewsView(router, unsavedModel);
},
'edit': function(router, id){
return new editNewsView(router, id);
},
'update': function(router, id){
unsavedModel = {
title : $(".modal-body form input[name=title]").val(),
body : $(".modal-body form textarea").val()
};
return new updateNewsView(router, id, unsavedModel);
},
}
return function(router, action, id){
var re = /^(index)$|^(edit)$|^(update)$|^(new)$|^(create)$/
if(action != undefined && !re.test(action)){
router.navigate('/news',true);
}
return subRouter[action](router, id);
}
});
While I feel like it's important to emphasize that there isn't really a "Backbone.js way", it does seem like you're replicating work Backbone should be doing for you.
I agree that it makes sense to have a specialized Router for each independent section of your application. But it looks at first glance like what you're doing in your "sub-router" section is just recreating the Backbone.Router functionality. Your AppRouter doesn't need to deal with /news URLs at all; you can just initialize a NewsRouter with news-specific routes, and it will deal with news-related URLs:
var NewsRouter = Backbone.Router.extend({
routes:{
'news': 'index',
'news/create': 'create',
'news/update/:id': 'update',
'news/edit/:id': 'edit'
},
index: function() { ... },
create: function() { ... },
// etc
});
As long as this is initialized before you call Backbone.history.start(), it will capture URL requests for its routes, and you never have to deal with the AppRouter. You also don't need to deal with the ugly bit of code at the bottom of your view - that's basically just doing what the core Backbone.Router does for you.
I'm using require.js and backbone as well I think the main difference that i'd suggest is that each file should return just one view, model, router or collection.
so my main html page requires my main router. That router is a module that requires a few views based on each of it's routes, and a bootstrapped model. Each router method passes the relevant bootstrapped model piece to the relevant view.
From there it stays really clean as long as each file is just 1 backbone thing (model, collection, view, router) and requires just the elements it uses. This makes for a lot of js files (I have about 100 for my current project) but that's where require.js optimization comes into play.
I hope that helps.
Why don't you structure your routes like this:
routes:{
'news':'news',
'news/edit/:id':'editNews',
'news/new':'newNews',
...
}