Trunk Relational Models Not Created

Question

I'm trying to create a nested, relational base project, but I'm really struggling. A rough idea of ​​what I'm trying to do is shown below, but I was impressed when I called fetch () on the client, a series of orders will be automatically created based on orders returned as JSON.

The format of my JSON can be seen under the MVC path:

/**************************************************** /* CLIENT MODEL - Logically the top of the tree /* has a BookingsCollection containing numerous Booking(s) /* Client /* -Bookings [BookingsCollection] /* -Booking [Booking] /* -Booking [Booking] /*****************************************************/ var Client = Backbone.RelationalModel.extend({ urlRoot: '/URL-THAT-RETURNS-JSON/', relations: [ { type: Backbone.HasMany, key: 'Booking', relatedModel: 'Booking', collectionType: 'BookingsCollection' } ], parse: function (response) { }, initialize: function (options) { console.log(this, 'Initialized'); } }); var Booking = Backbone.RelationalModel.extend({ initialize: function (options) { console.log(this, 'Initialized'); } }); var BookingsCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({ model: Booking }); 

Any help setting forth what I am doing wrong would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

EDIT

Thanks for taking the time to post a review, this is exactly what I was hoping for.

Is there a case where JSON physically defines the actual attributes of models if you are not trying to manually set the attributes? In other words, if I return JSON, as you said above, will the Backbone just create a Client object (with 4 attributes id, title, firstname and surname), as well as 2 objects for reservation (each of which has 4 attributes and presumably each member BookingsCollection)?

If so, what is the format for referencing the attributes of each object? When I created the non-backbone-relational widget, I found myself in a situation where I could just refer to attributes using Client.Attribute or booking [0] .EventDate, for example. I can't seem to do this in the format you specified above.

Thanks again.

Answer 1

The returned JSON is not what Backbone or Backbone-Relational expects by default.

Waiting for Backbone and Backbone-Relational is:

 { "id": "123456", "Title":"Mr", "FirstName":"Joe", "Surname":"Bloggs", "Bookings": [ { "id": "585462542", "EventName": "Bla", "Location":"Dee Bla", "EventDate":"November 1, 2012" }, { "id": "585462543", "EventName": "Bla", "Location":"Dee Bla", "EventDate":"November 1, 2012" } ] } 

To use your answer, you need to create a parse function on the client model, which will return the structure published above.

JsFiddle example for your model definitions working with my JSON example: http://jsfiddle.net/edwardmsmith/jVJHq/4/

Other notes

• The trunk expects the ID fields to be called "id" by default. To use another field as an ID for the model, use Model.idAttribute
• The "key" for the collection of orders I changed to "Orders"

Code example:

 Client = Backbone.RelationalModel.extend({ urlRoot: '/URL-THAT-RETURNS-JSON/', relations: [ { type: Backbone.HasMany, key: 'Bookings', relatedModel: 'Booking', collectionType: 'BookingsCollection' } ], parse: function (response) { }, initialize: function (options) { console.log(this, 'Initialized'); } }); Booking = Backbone.RelationalModel.extend({ initialize: function (options) { console.log(this, 'Initialized'); } }); BookingsCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({ model: Booking }); myClient = new Client( { "id": "123456", "Title":"Mr", "FirstName":"Joe", "Surname":"Bloggs", "Bookings": [ { "id": "585462542", "EventName": "Bla", "Location":"Dee Bla", "EventDate":"November 1, 2012" }, { "id": "585462543", "EventName": "Bla", "Location":"Dee Bla", "EventDate":"November 1, 2012" } ] }); console.log(myClient);​ 

Post Editing

Yes, JSON pretty much defines model attributes. You can use a combination of parse() , defaults , validate() to better control which attributes are valid and allowed.

The canonical way to read and set properties on the base model is get() , escape() and set() functions.

set especially important, as it does a bunch of housekeeping, for example, checking an attribute and value against your validate function (if any) and triggering change events for the model that your views will view.

In the specific case of the situation in this answer you can

 myClient.get('Title'); // => "Mr" myClient.get('Bookings'); //=> an instance of a BookingsCollection with 2 models. myClient.get('Bookings').first().get('Location'); //=> "Dee Bla" myClient.get('Bookings').last().get('Location'); //=> "Dee Bla" myClient.get('Bookings').first().set({location:"Bora Bora"}); myClient.get('Bookings').first().get('Location'); //=> "Bora Bora" myClient.get('Bookings').last().get('Location'); //=> "Dee Bla"