What is the least ugly way to force Backbone.sync updates to use POST instead of PUT?

Question

Some of my Backbone models should always use POST, instead of POST for create and PUT for update. The server I persist these models to is capable of supporting all other verbs, so using Backbone.emulateHTTP is not a perfect solution either.

Currently I override the isNew method for these models and have it return true, but this is not ideal.

Other than modifying the backbone.js code directly, is there a simple way to achieve this goal on a model-by-model basis? Some of my models can use PUT (they are persisted to a different server that supports all verbs, including PUT), so replacing Backbone.sync with one that converts the 'update' method to 'create' is not ideal either.

You can declare a `sync` method for your models that need POST instead of PUT and implement it locally on your models that way. You don't have to overwrite it for all models. Take a look at this answer on SO: http://stackoverflow.com/a/5096624/844726 — swatkins, Dec 15 '11 at 22:51
Isn't this what [`Backbone.emulateHTTP`](http://documentcloud.github.com/backbone/#Sync-emulateHTTP) is for? — Roatin Marth, Dec 16 '11 at 21:24

score 56 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 21 '15 at 21:19

56

For anyone who needs to force a POST/PUT request on the instance directly:

thing = new ModelThing({ id: 1 });
thing.save({}, { // options
    type: 'post' // or put, whatever you need
})

edited Oct 21 '15 at 21:19

alxndr

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answered Feb 27 '13 at 19:13

Andrés Torres Marroquín

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While the accepted answer works and is versatile, I think this is the more appropriate answer to the question. – Matt Kenefick Aug 18 '14 at 16:42

score 15 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 06 '12 at 05:50

15

Short and Sweet is put this on Top

Backbone.emulateHTTP = true;

This will use Get for Pull and Post for All pushes (read Create, Update, Delete)

answered Mar 06 '12 at 05:50

Maanas Royy

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score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 15 '11 at 23:50

8

add a sync(method, model, [options]) directly to your models you need to override.

YourModel = Backbone.Model.extend({
  sync: function(method, model, options) {
    //perform the ajax call stuff
  }
}

Here's some more information: http://documentcloud.github.com/backbone/#Sync

edited Dec 15 '11 at 23:50

Yehuda Katz

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answered Dec 15 '11 at 23:05

Paul

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score 5 · Answer 4 · answered May 20 '12 at 19:15

the way I've done it is to override sync() thusly

Models.Thing = Backbone.Model.extend({
    initialize: function() {
        this.url = "/api/thing/" + this.id;
    },
    sync: function(method, model, options) {
        if (method === "read") method = "create";    // turns GET into POST
        return Backbone.sync(method, model, options);
    },
    defaults: {
        ...

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 06 '15 at 18:22

I used a modification of Andres' answer and instead of havivng to remember to pass the option { type: 'post' } everywhere that I call .save() I instead just replaced the save function on the model to have it always add that option then call the base implementation. It felt cleaner...

module.exports = Backbone.Model.extend({
  idAttribute: 'identifier',
  urlRoot: config.publicEndpoint,

  save: function (attributes, options) {
    // because the 'identifier' field is filled in by the user, Backbone thinks this model is never new. This causes it to always 'put' instead of 'post' on save.
    // overriding save here to always pass the option use post as the HTTP action.
    options = _.extend(options || {}, { type: 'post' });
    return Backbone.Model.prototype.save.call(this, attributes, options);
  }
});

What is the least ugly way to force Backbone.sync updates to use POST instead of PUT?

5 Answers5

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