google like search of backbone collection - backbone.js

Question

I'd like to be able to search model attributes contained within a backbonejs collection. This is how I do it now...
wherePartial: function(attrs) {
// this method is really only tolerant of string values. you can't do partial
// matches on objects, but you can compare a list of strings. If you send it a list
// of values; attrs={keyA:[1,2,3],keyB:1}, etc the code will loop through the entire
// attrs obj and look for a match. strings are partially matched and if a list is found
// it's expected that it contains a list of string values. The string values should be considered
// to be like an OR operation in a query. Non-list items are like an AND.
if (_.isEmpty(attrs)) return [];
var matchFound = false;
return this.filter(function(model) {
// this is in the outer for loop so that a function isn't created on each iteration
function listComparator(value, index, list){
return model.get(key).toLowerCase().indexOf(value.toLowerCase()) >= 0;
}
for (var key in attrs) {
if (_.isArray(attrs[key])){
matchFound = _.any(attrs[key],listComparator);
if (matchFound !== true) return false;
} else {
matchFound = model.get(key).toLowerCase().indexOf(attrs[key].toLowerCase()) >= 0;
if (matchFound === false) return false;
}
}
return true;
});
}
Assume "C" is an instantiated collection, this is how I use it:
name:joe (nickname:joe the man nickname:joe cool nickname:joey)
is typed into a textbox and converted into this:
C.wherePartial({name:"joe",nicknames:["joe the man","joe cool","joey"]})
The above method returns all models that have the name joe and within that scope, any of the models that have the name joe and any of the nicknames. It works well for what I use it for. However, I'd really like to make a search that doesn't require the key:value pattern. I'd like to do this in a search box like when using a search engine on the web. I thought about just looking at every attribute on each model, but that takes awhile when you have a large collection (160k+ models).
Has anyone come across a need like this in the past? If so, how did you solve it? I'd like to keep the search contained on the client and not use any ajax calls to the backend. The reason for this is that the entire collection is already loaded on the client.

Answer 1

I thought of a way to do it. Serialize the attributes to a string during model instantiation. Listen for updates and update the serialization.
serializeAttr: function(){
this.serializedAttr = "";
var self = this;
_.each(this.toJSON(),function(value, key, list){
self.serializedAttr += value;
});
}
Then I can do simple searches on that cached value:
cc.serializedAttr.toLowerCase().indexOf("joe") >= 0