backbone-data

Backbone Data

A simple data store for backbone models and collections inspired by Ember Data and angular-data.

Key Features

• Automatic Caching and Identity Mapping - If a model had already been loaded, asking for it a second time will always return the same object instance. This minimizes the number of round-trips to the server.
• Provides a single point of entry for data access through the global variable DS
• Works with existing Backbone models and collections.
• Manages singletons for models and each collection type.
  • Many times you'll need the same collection instance in multiple views. Just ask for a collection type from the store (DS.getAll('person'), DS.findAll('person')) and it will return or resolve with the same collection instance each time.
  • Maybe you have a single model instance in your application, like a UserProfile model. The data store can also manage it as a singleton so that you get the same UserProfile instance every time.
• Load models into the store specified as incomplete (lacking details). Extra details about the model can be fetched and cached on subsequent requests. Particularly useful if your models have a lot of data that might not be needed.
• Easily create new filtered collections
• AMD compatible
• 933 bytes gzipped and minified

Install

Grab the minified or unminified file from the dist directory and include it on your page.

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

Or install through Bower

bower install backbone-data

Or install through NPM

npm install backbone-data

This library exposes a global variable called DS (Data Store) and it is also registers itself for AMD (Require.js).

Collection Resources

Synchronous Methods

• DS.defineResource(resourceDefinition) - Create a new resource for the store to manage
• DS.inject(resourceName, model(s)) - Put models into the store
• DS.get(resourceName, id) - Return a single model from the store, or null otherwise
• DS.getAll(resourceName) - Return a collection of models from the store
• DS.where(resourceName, attributes) - Similar to Backbone.Collection's where method but returns a new collection instance of the collection type specified for resourceName
• DS.filter(resourceName, predicate) - Proxies to collection.filter() but returns a new collection instance of the collection type specified for resourceName
• DS.createInstance(resourceName) - Create a new Backbone model instance
• DS.ejectAll(resourceName) - Remove all models from the store for a resource

Asynchronous Methods

These methods return a promise

• DS.find(resourceName, id [, options]) - Resolves with the model retrieved and injected into the store
• DS.findAll(resourceName [, options]) - Resolves with the collection instance managed by the store for resourceName
• DS.create(resourceName, model) - Resolves with the newly created and injected model
• DS.destroy(resourceName, id) - Destroy a model in the store
• DS.update(resourceName, id, properties) - Update a model in the store and resolves with model

Model Resources

This is useful if you want to manage a single model in your application, like a user profile that is tied to the user's session.

Synchronous Methods

• DS.defineResource(resourceDefinition)
• DS.inject(resourceName, model)
• DS.get(resourceName)

Asynchronous Methods

• DS.find(resourceName) - Makes a request for a model only once and resolves with the model

API Documentation

Tests

Tests are using Mocha, Chai, and Sinon. Run tests with karma.

bower install
npm install
karma start

Build

This will create the distribution files in the dist folder

gulp