Any recommendations for deep data structures with Backbone?

Question

I've run into a headache with Backbone. I have a collection of specified records, which have subrecords, for example: surgeons have scheduled procedures, procedures have equipment, some equipment has consumable needs (gasses, liquids, etc). If I have a Backbone collection surgeons, then each surgeon has a model-- but his procedures and equipment and consumables will all be plain ol' Javascript arrays and objects after being unpacked from JSON.

I suppose I could, in the SurgeonsCollection, use the parse() to make new ProcedureCollections, and in turn make new EquipmentCollections, but after a while this is turning into a hairball. To make it sensible server-side there's a single point of contact that takes one surgeon and his stuff as a POST-- so propagating the 'set' on a ConsumableModel automagically to trigger a 'save' down the hierarchy also makes the whole hierarchical approach fuzzy.

Has anyone else encountered a problem like this? How did you solve it?

score 15 · Accepted Answer · answered May 03 '11 at 13:42

15

This can be helpful in you case: https://github.com/PaulUithol/Backbone-relational

You specify the relations 1:1, 1:n, n:n and it will parse the JSON accordingly. It also create a global store to keep track of all records.

answered May 03 '11 at 13:42

Julien

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[Ligament.js](https://github.com/dbrady/ligament.js) is another possible solution. – user240515 May 03 '11 at 17:56
Backbone-relational is almost entirely the answer to my dreams. I was headed down that road early on, but this is better thought-out and more elegant. – Elf Sternberg May 03 '11 at 19:14

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 09 '12 at 12:49

So, one way I solved this problem is by doing the following:

Have all models inherit from a custom BaseModel and put the following function in BaseModel:

    convertToModel: function(dataType, modelType) {
        if (this.get(dataType)) {
            var map = { };
            map[dataType] = new modelType(this.get(dataType));
            this.set(map);
        }
    }

Override Backbone.sync and at first let the Model serialize as it normally would:

model.set(response, { silent: true });

Then check to see if the model has an onUpdate function:

            if (model.onUpdate) {
                model.onUpdate();
            }

Then, whenever you have a model that you want to generate submodels and subcollections, implement onUpdate in the model with something like this:

        onUpdate: function() {
            this.convertToModel('nameOfAttribute1', SomeCustomModel1);
            this.convertToModel('nameOfAttribute2', SomeCustomModel2);
        }

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered May 03 '11 at 01:14

2

I would separate out the different surgeons, procedures, equipment, etc. as different resources in your web service. If you only need to update the equipment for a particular procedure, you can update that one procedure.

Also, if you didn't always need all the information, I would also lazy-load data as needed, but send down fully-populated objects where needed to increase performance.

answered May 03 '11 at 01:14

Dan

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I just want to comment that your suggestion, while laudable, defeats the purpose of a RESTful interface, in which the coarse document (in this case, Procedure) is passed back-and-forth between the server and the client. – Elf Sternberg May 26 '11 at 23:25

Any recommendations for deep data structures with Backbone?

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