neebz / backbone-parse

A Backbone plugin to make it work with Parse.com out of the box. :boom:

backbone-parse

backbone-parse overrides the Backbone.Sync method to automatically persist your backbone models on Parse using their REST API. Saving you from all the manual plumbing.

Installation

Step 1:

Download backbone-parse.js and include it in your application after backbone.js e.g.

<script src="backbone-min.js"></script>
<script src="backbone-parse-min.js"></script>

Step 2:

Open backbone-parse.js and replace following at the top with your Parse credentials:

var application_id = "CkWCHMSOgyqoNKoIc5hu09uvdZcJ9rpHJD4iwhxI";
var rest_api_key = "H5SIwarTRXqd07C0OIZPbcRTYTNLKsjFAJt5PrFY";
var api_version = "1";

How to use it:

Initialization:

Create a Backbone model and set the parse class name:

var Item = new Backbone.Model({
	_parse_class_name: "Item";
});

Similarly for Collections:

var ItemsCollection = new Backbone.Collection({
	_parse_class_name: "Item";
});

This class name will specify backbone-parse which class persists this model on the Parse server. It is case sensitive. If the class doesn't already exists, Parse will automatically create one.

If the class name is not specified, then the model will be persisted using the default Backbone Sync (i.e. you'll need to specify a url)

Querying

Parse.com provides an API to query your data.

backbone-parse provides an easier method for specifying query constraints*. All you need is to pass the constraints in fetch method of Backbone.Collection. e.g.

var ItemCollection = new Backbone.Collection({
	_parse_class_name: "Item"
});

var items = new ItemCollection();
items.fetch({
	query: {"in_stock":true}
});

This will fetch all the items which are in stock. For details about what constraints you can pass, read: https://parse.com/docs/rest#queries

Feedback welcome.

TODO:

• tests(!)
• extend Backbone.Model to tackle Parse User objects

License

Distributed under MIT license.

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*inspired by: http://houseofbilz.com/archives/2011/11/07/making-backbone-js-work-with-parse-com/