How should a Backbone model or collection handle views?

Question

I have a collection of models, each of which is attached a view. The collection also globally has a view. Is it best for the model views to take care of deleting the corresponding model, or should the collection (or collection view) do that?

Shane Shane · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-29T21:35:11

Collections have a .add and .remove method, when you use one of them, they fire an add or remove event on the collection. This is how you can bind without using a view at all.

var ships = new Backbone.Collection();
ships.bind('add', function(ship) {
  alert('Ahoy ' + ship.get('name') + '!');
});
ships.add([
  {name: 'Flying Dutchman'},
  {name: 'Black Pearl'}
]);

So attach the collection to the view, inside of the constructor. This simply makes the collection available via this.collection

var ShipView = Backbone.View.extend({
  collection: ships
});

This is how you can bind using the view.

// Create collection instance.
var ships = new Backbone.Collection();

// Create view class.
var ShipView = Backbone.View.extend({
  collection: ships,
  initialize: function() {
    // This is binding add, to the view function.
    this.collection.bind('add', this.add);
  },
  add: function(ship) {
    alert('Added ' + ship.get('name') + '!');
  }
  /*Optional for DOM.
  events: {
    'click .addMyShip': 'addShip'
  },
  addShip: function(eventObject) {
    this.collection.add([models]);
  }*/
});

// Create view instance.
var shipView = new ShipView();

// Add two ships.
ships.add([
  {name: 'Flying Dutchman'},
  {name: 'Black Pearl'}
]);

When the view initializes, it binds the collection's add event to run this.add which is a function of the view. Optionally, you can use the delegateEvents API to handle mapping DOM elements event selector to function that runs the function in the view. That function can call this.collection.add, of which will create the domino effect.

The way the view interacts with the collection, or model, is by binding to events, you can define those events and handle them inside the view. There are several special options that, if passed, will be available to the view: model, collection, el, id, className, and tagName.

How should a Backbone model or collection handle views?

1 Answers