Backbone Nesty

Support nested data types like collections and models within your Backbone.js models

Install

NPM

Install: npm install --save backbone-nesty
Module: require('backbone-nesty')

Browserify

Install: npm install --save backbone-nesty
Module: require('backbone-nesty')
CDN URL: //wzrd.in/bundle/backbone-nesty@2.0.0

Ender

Install: ender add backbone-nesty
Module: require('backbone-nesty')

Editions

This package is published with the following editions:

backbone-nesty aliases backbone-nesty/index.js which uses Editions to automatically select the correct edition for the consumers environment
backbone-nesty/source/index.coffee is Source + CoffeeScript + Require
backbone-nesty/esnext/index.js is CoffeeScript Compiled + ESNext + Require
backbone-nesty/es2015/index.js is CoffeeScript Compiled + ES2015 + Require

Older environments may need Babel's Polyfill or something similar.

Usage

Example

// Import
var Backbone = require('backbone');
var BackboneNestyModel = require('backbone-nesty').BackboneNestyModel;

// Eye Model
var EyeModel = Backbone.Model.extend({
	attributes: {
		color: null,
		open: false
	}
});

// Eye Collection
var EyeCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
	model: EyeModel
});

// Mouth Model
var MouthModel = Backbone.Model.extend({
	attributes: {
		open: false
	}
});

// Head Model
var HeadModel = BackboneNestyModel.extend({
	// Define our nested collections
	collections: {
		eyes: EyeCollection
	},

	// Define our nested models
	models: {
		mouth: MouthModel
	}
});

// Instantiate our head with our nested data
var myHead = new HeadModel({
	// will create a mouth model with this data
	mouth: {
		open: true
	},
	// will create an eyes collection with this data
	eyes: [
		// will create an eye model with this data
		{
			id: 'left',
			color: 'green',
			open: true
		},
		// will create an eye model with this data
		{
			id: 'right',
			color: 'green',
			open: true
		}
	]
});

// Check
console.log(myHead.toJSON());
console.log(myHead.get('eyes.left.open')); // true
// ^ equiv to myHeader.get('eyes').get('left').get('open')

// Nested Setter
myHead.set('eyes.left.open', false);
// ^ equiv to myHeader.get('eyes').get('right').set('open', false)

// Check
console.log(myHead.toJSON());
console.log(myHead.get('eyes.left.open')); // false

BackboneNestyModel API

require('backbone-nesty').BackboneNestyModel is an extended Backbone.js Model that adds the following functionality:

properties
- collections defaults to {}, an object which keys are the attributes and values are the collection data type for the attribute
- models defaults to {}, an object which keys are the attributes and values are the model data type for the attribute
- embed defaults to {}, an object which keys are the attributes and values are boolean on whether or not we should embed the full data of this attribute when calling toJSON on the model or just an id listing
- strict defaults to true, a boolean for whether or not we should allow unknown attributes to be set on our model
methods
- toJSON() will serialize the model and all nested data types as well, if the embed property for an nested data type is false, that value will be replaced with an id listing instead
- get(key) adds support for nested gets
- set(attrs,opts) adds support for nested sets and will instantiate the value according to the nested data type if applicable