How to pass collection inside jeditable function? - backbone.js

Question

I want to edit my collection using jeditable, where modifyCollection is a function associated with the event dblclick. I have the following code:
initialize : function(options) {
view.__super__.initialize.apply(this, arguments);
this.collection = this.options.collection;
this.render();
},
render : function() {
var template = _.template(tpl, {
collectionForTemplate : this.collection ,
});
this.el.html(template);
return this;
},
modifyCollection : function (event){
$('#name').editable(function(value, settings) {
return (value);
}
,
{ onblur: function(value) {
this.modelID=event.target.nameID;
this.collection = this.options.collection;
console.log("This Collection is: " + this.collection); //Shows : undefined
//
this.reset(value);
$(this).html(value);
return (value);
}
});
The idee is to update the model and subsequently, the collection by means of jeditable. The in place editing works fine, but the problem is, I am not able to pass the collection into the function. I want to save all the changes to my collection locally and send them to the server at a later time. What am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

Moved the comment to a formal answer in case other people find this thread.
The this inside your onblur() function is not pointing to this collection. Try adding var self = this; inside your modifyCollection() function then in your onblur() change this.collection to self.collection like so:
modifyCollection : function (event) {
var self = this; // Added this line
// When working with functions within functions, we need
// to be careful of what this actually points to.
$('#name').editable(function(value, settings) {
return (value);
}, {
onblur: function(value) {
// Since modelID and collection are part of the larger Backbone object,
// we refer to it through the self var we initialized.
self.modelID = event.target.nameID;
self.collection = self.options.collection;
// Self, declared outside of the function refers to the collection
console.log("This Collection is: " + self.collection);
self.reset(value);
// NOTICE: here we use this instead of self...
$(this).html(value); // this correctly refers to the jQuery element $('#name')
return (value);
}
});
});
UPDATE - Foreboding Note on self
#muistooshort makes a good mention that self is actually a property of window so if you don't declare the var self = this; in your code, you'll be referring to a window obj. Can be aggravating if you're not sure why self seems to exist but doesn't seem to work.
Common use of this kind of coding tends to favor using that or _this instead of self. You have been warned. ;-)