I must be doing something wrong because I can't get the non-collection portion of the CompositeView to render with a specified template. No matter how I try to specify the template, it doesn't render as expected.
Per the docs at https://github.com/derickbailey/backbone.marionette/blob/master/docs/marionette.compositeview.md
I've tried providing a string that points at a template stored in a script tag, and a pre-compiled template as the template argument like so:
Backbone.CompositeView.extend({
template: _.template( "<div><span class='items'></span></div>" )
});
Here's a live attempt in jsfiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/2PgrS/4/
You never rendered your view.
var view = new MyCompositeView({
collection: collection
});
// render the view
view.render();
view.$el.appendTo( "body" );
http://jsfiddle.net/derickbailey/XJLxv/1/
Related
I have some code which defines a backbone view being loaded as soon as a web page is loaded. The JavaScript is possibly executed before the DOM is fully loaded. If the dom element which becomes $el is not available when the code that defines the view is run is this a problem?
Programmatically I have something like this:
var view = Backbone.View.extend({
el: jQuery("#test")
events: {
}
render: function() {
this.$el.html();
}
//other view code
});
return view;
//some time passes
//with the view rendered above I now call :
view.render()
the problem is that when the render method is called this.$el is undefined. This is because when the first block of code was executed #test had not been loaded into the DOM. So; when the function Backbone.View.extend is called the 'el' element has to be loaded?
The context of this is a backbone application loaded via AMD. The first block of code is in a module. The module is 'required' before the DOM is loaded. Is this a common problem? How is it normally dealt with?
Thanks
el should not be a jQuery object but only a selector, $el will be the jQuery object for that selector. Also the id you specify as the el has to be found at initialization. So yes, the element has to be in the dom before you make it the el for the view.
If you're not creating / populating the view before making it a Backbone view you could do something like this to have backbone create the html tags etc. for you:
var view = Backbone.View.extend({
tagName: 'div',
id: 'test',
events: {
},
render: function() {
this.$el.html();
},
//other view code
});
You could then use templates to populate the view in your render function.
Short answer: Yes, the view element has to be loaded into the DOM when you initialize the view.
Our application uses Mustache templates in the index.mustache and makes the initial API call with Symfony instead of using Backbone. This is so the user won't be staring at a blank screen on initial page load.
Now how can we use Marionette afterwards to bind to the rendered page elements in the DOM (so we can manipulate the data and add interactivity), instead of passing a new template?
As far as our research suggests, we need to always pass in a template to Marionette Layout and ItemView, or we get a 'no template error'.
Is there an el property we can use, just like in Backbone?
The other option would be to extend Marionette.View, but it is not advised to do so.
You just should instantiate the view, without rendering.
http://jsfiddle.net/vpetrychuk/PkNTp/
var ItemView = Backbone.Marionette.ItemView.extend({
el : '.content',
events : {
'click' : 'clickHandler'
},
clickHandler : function () {
this.$el.append('clickHandler');
}
});
new ItemView();
I'm using a Marionette CompositeView to render an html table. Works great! Now I want to display a message when there are no records in the collection. I'm currently using the emptyView property to render this message. However, the message is rendered in the table wrapper and the tables column headers are still visible. Not exactly what I want. Ideally, I would like to hide/remove the table and display the empty records view and then show it when records are added. I'm struggling to find to best approach to handling this. Are there any suggestions out there?
EmptyView = Marionette.ItemView.extend({
template: "#empty-template"
});
SupportMemberView = Marionette.ItemView.extend({
template: "#member-template"
});
SupportTeamView = Marionette.CompositeView.extend({
template: "#support-team-template",
itemView: SupportMemberView,
emptyView: EmptyView,
itemViewContainer: 'tbody'
});
The accepted answer imposes a dependency between the empty view and the template, which does not feel right.
I think an alternative way to do this is to use dynamic templates in the composite view. This is done by overriding the base View getTemplate() method. Thus your composite view would be defined as follows, assuming you have access to the underscore.js library or equivalent to replace the "_.isEmpty()" function:
SupportTeamView = Marionette.CompositeView.extend({
getTemplate: function() {
if (_.isEmpty(this.collection)) {
return "#empty-template"
} else {
return "#support-team-template";
}
itemView: SupportMemberView,
emptyView: EmptyView,
itemViewContainer: 'tbody'
});
One thing that you can do is on your emprty View use the onRender function to hide the table. this function is called after the render function, so you will be able to manipulate the dom to look the way you want.
It is pretty basic thing but I still can't find the answer. I need to set View's el: to div which is in underscore.js template.
<script id="product" type="text/template">
<div class="productInfo"></div>
<div class="prices"></div>
<div class="photos"></div>
</script>
The first view renders the product template. I need to render other Views to divs in this template. I don't know how to set el:, because el: '.prices' just don't work with divs in template.
This Views structure is similar to How to handle initializing and rendering subviews in Backbone.js?. But I use template instead of rendering to existing divs.
So the problem is using a CSS selector string for this.el won't find anything if the matching <div> is not attached to the page's DOM. In the case of you <script> tag template, the contents of the <script> tag are not attached DOM nodes, there are just a single text node.
One option given your HTML would be to just forget about the <script> tag and put your empty <div> tags straight into the HTML. They are empty and thus should be harmless and invisible until you actual render some content within them. If you do that, el: '.productInfo:first' should work fine.
Other than that, you'll need to put logic into your parent view along these lines:
Render the template into a detached DOM node
Search that detached DOM node for subview divs
Map the subview div to the corresponding backbone view subclass
instantiate and render the subview, then use something like this.$el.find('.productInfo').replaceWith(productInfoView.el) to put the rendered HTML into the parent view at the right location
My general comment is that views should render to detached DOM nodes and leave it to other components such as the router or layout managers to decide where in the real DOM they get attached. I think this makes the views more reusable and testable.
Render the parent view, then assign the '.prices' as the el of the child:
var ParentView = Backbone.View.extend({
render : function() {
var html='<h1>Parent View</h1><div class="productInfo"></div><div class="prices"></div><div class="photos"></div>';
this.$el.html(html);
var prices = new PricesView({
el : this.$('.prices')
});
prices.render();
}
});
var PricesView = Backbone.View.extend({
render : function() {
var html='<h2>Prices View</h1>';
this.$el.html(html);
}
});
// Create a parent view instance and render it
var parent = new ParentView({
el : $('.parent')
});
parent.render();
Working example on jsfiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/JpeJs/
from version 0.9.9, backbone alaws you to define the el property of a view as a function :
When declaring a View, options, el and tagName may now be defined as functions, if you want their values to be determined at runtime.
Assuming that the subviews are created after the main view, this might help you if your subviews are aware of their parent :
SubView = Backbone.View.extend({
el : function(){
return this.parent.$('.prices');
}
});
var subViewInstance = new SubView({parent : theParentView});
I have model Post and collection Posts. And want to make form with list of all post in <select id="multi" multiple="multiple">. So i have to make a PostView render inside my #multi with just this template:
<option value=""><%= title %></option>
But finally I get it wrapped with div. Is there any solution for not wrapping this template with <div>?
If you don't define an el (or tagName) for the view (in the class or during instantiation) the view will be placed inside a div tag. http://documentcloud.github.com/backbone/#View-el
var PostView = Backbone.View.extend({
tagName: 'option'
});
UPDATE
Starting v0.9.0, Backbone has view.setElement(element) to get this done.
var PostView = Backbone.View.extend({
initialize: function() {
var template = _.template('<option value=""><%= title %></option>');
var html = template({title: 'post'});
this.setElement(html);
}
});
If you don't want to have the view wrap your HTML, you'll have to do a few things:
Replace this.el entirely
Call delegateEvents on the new el
render: function(){
var html = "some foo";
this.el = html;
this.delegateEvents(this.events);
}
Since Backbone generates a div or other tag (based on your tagName setting for the view), you have to replace it entirely. That's easy to do. When you do that, though, you lose your declared events because Backbone uses jQuery's delegate under the hood to wire them up. To re-enable your declared events, call delegateEvents and pass in your events declarations.
The result is that your view.el will be the <option> tag that you want, and nothing more.
In version 0.9.0, Backbone introduced view.setElement(element) to handle this operation.