Expanding on @try-catch-finally's comment, I'm going to show you how to create your own route with a simple RegEx pattern that will match your conditions.
Here's the regex we'll use:
^\w+? # match one word (or at least a character) at the
# beginning of the route
[=] # until we parse a single 'equals' sign
( # then start saving the match inside the parenthesis
[a-zA-Z0-9]* # which is any combination of letters and numbers
) # and stop saving
Putting it all together the regex looks like: /^\w+?[=]([a-zA-Z0-9]*)/.
Now we set up our router,
var MyRouter = Backbone.Router.extend({
initialize: function(options) {
// Matches t=b, passing "b" to this.open
this.route(/^\w+?(?<=[=])(.*)/, "testFn");
},
routes: {
// Optional additional routes
},
testFn: function (id) {
console.log('id: ' + id );
}
});
var router = new MyRouter();
Backbone.history.start();
The TL;DR is that in the MyRouter.initialize we added a route that takes the regex above and invokes the MyRouter.testFn function. Any call to http://yourdomain.com#word1=word2 will call the MyRouter.testFn with the word after the parenthesis as a parameter. Of course, your word place setting could be a single character like in your question t=b.
Expanding your parameters
Say you want to pull multiple parameters, not just the one. The key to understanding how Backbone pulls your parameters is the capturing group (). A capturing group allows your to "save" the match defined within the parenthesis into variables local to the regex expression. Backbone uses these saved matches as the parameters it applies to the the route callback.
So if you want to capture two parameters in your route you'd use this regex:
^\w+?[=]([a-zA-Z0-9]*)[,]\w+?[=]([a-zA-Z0-9]*)
which simply says to expect a comma delimiter between the two parameter placeholders. It would match,
t=b,some=thing
More general route patterns
You can repeat the [,]\w+?[=]([a-zA-Z0-9]*) pattern as many times as you need. If you want to generalize the pattern, you cold use the non-capturing token (?: ... ) and do something like,
^\w+?[=]([a-zA-Z0-9]*)(?:[,]\w+?[=]([a-zA-Z0-9]*))?(?:[,]\w+?[=]([a-zA-Z0-9]*))?
The regex above will look for at least one match and will optionally take two more matches. By placing a ? token at the end of the (?: ... ) group, we say the pattern in the parenthesis may be found zero or one times (i.e. it may or may not be there). This allows you to set a route when you know you can expect up to 3 parameters, but sometimes you may want only one or two.
Is there a truly general route?
You may be asking yourself, why not simply use one greedy (?: ... ) group that will allow an unlimited number of matches. Something like,
^\w+?[=]([a-zA-Z0-9]*)(?:[,]\w+?[=]([a-zA-Z0-9]*))*
With this regex pattern you must supply one parameter, but you can take an unlimited number of subsequent matches. Unfortunately, while the regex will work fine, you won't get the desired result. (See, for example, this Question.)
That's a limitation of JavaScript. With repeating capturing-groups (i.e. the ([a-zA-Z0-9]*) capturing-group will repeat with every repetition of the (?: ... ) non-capturing-group) JavaScript only saves the last match. So if you pass a route like t=b,z=d,g=f,w=1ee, you'll only save 1ee. So, unfortunately you have to have an idea of what the maximum number of parameters your route should take, and manually code them into your regex pattern like we did above.
