Marionette has a base Marionette.View
class that other views extend from.
This base view provides some common and core functionality for
other views to take advantage of.
Note: The Marionette.View
class is not intended to be
used directly. It exists as a base view for other view classes
to be extended from, and to provide a common location for
behaviors that are shared across all views.
Marionette.View extends Backbone.View
. It is recommended that you use
the listenTo
method to bind model, collection, or other events from Backbone
and Marionette objects.
var MyView = Marionette.ItemView.extend({
initialize: function(){
this.listenTo(this.model, "change:foo", this.modelChanged);
this.listenTo(this.collection, "add", this.modelAdded);
},
modelChanged: function(model, value){
},
modelAdded: function(model){
}
});
The context (this
) will automatically be set to the view. You can
optionally set the context by using _.bind
.
// Force the context of the "reconcileCollection" callback method to be the collection
// itself, for this event handler only (does not affect any other use of the
// "reconcileCollection" method)
this.listenTo(this.collection, "add", _.bind(this.reconcileCollection, this.collection));
onShow
- Called on the view instance when the view has been rendered and displayed.This event can be used to react to when a view has been shown via a region.
All views
that inherit from the base Marionette.View
class have this functionality, notably ItemView
, CollectionView
, CompositeView
, and LayoutView
.
Marionette.ItemView.extend({
onShow: function(){
// react to when a view has been shown
}
});
A common use case for the onShow
method is to use it to add children views.
var LayoutView = Marionette.LayoutView.extend({
regions: {
Header: 'header',
Section: 'section'
},
onShow: function() {
this.Header.show(new Header());
this.Section.show(new Section());
}
});
View implements a destroy
method, which is called by the region
managers automatically. As part of the implementation, the following
are performed:
onBeforeDestroy
event on the view, if one is providedonDestroy
event on the view, if one is providedthis.el
from the DOMlistenTo
eventsBy providing an onDestroy
method in your view definition, you can
run custom code for your view that is fired after your view has been
destroyed and cleaned up. The onDestroy
method will be passed any arguments
that destroy
was invoked with. This lets you handle any additional clean
up code without having to override the destroy
method.
var MyView = Marionette.ItemView.extend({
onDestroy: function(arg1, arg2){
// custom cleanup or destroying code, here
}
});
var v = new MyView();
v.destroy(arg1, arg2);
When destroying a view, an onBeforeDestroy
method will be called, if it
has been provided, just before the view destroys. It will be passed any arguments
that destroy
was invoked with.
Every view in Marionette has a special event called "attach," which is triggered anytime that showing
the view in a Region causes it to be attached to the document
. Like other Marionette events, it also
executes a callback method, onAttach
, if you've specified one. The "attach"
event is great for jQuery
plugins or other logic that must be executed after the view is attached to the document
.
The attach
event is only fired when the view becomes a child of the document
. If the Region you're showing the view in is not a child of the document
at the time that you call show
then the attach
event will not fire until the Region is a child of the document
.
This event is unique in that it propagates down the view tree. For instance, when a CollectionView's
attach
event is fired, all of its children views will have the attach
event fired as well. In
addition, deeply nested Layout View structures will all have their attach
event fired at the proper
time, too.
For more on efficient, deeply-nested view structures, refer to the LayoutView docs.
This is just like the attach event described above, but it's triggered right before the view is attached to the document.
Triggered after the view has been rendered, has been shown in the DOM via a Marionette.Region, and has been re-rendered.
This event / callback is useful for DOM-dependent UI plugins such as jQueryUI or KendoUI.
Marionette.ItemView.extend({
onDomRefresh: function(){
// manipulate the `el` here. it's already
// been rendered, and is full of the view's
// HTML, ready to go.
}
});
For more information about integration Marionette w/ KendoUI (also applicable to jQueryUI and other UI widget suites), see this blog post on KendoUI + Backbone.
Since Views extend from backbone's view class, you gain the benefits of the events hash.
Some preprocessing sugar is added on top to add the ability to cross utilize the ui
hash.
var MyView = Marionette.ItemView.extend({
// ...
ui: {
"cat": ".dog"
},
events: {
"click @ui.cat": "bark" //is the same as "click .dog":
}
});
Views can define a set of triggers
as a hash, which will
convert a DOM event into a
view.triggerMethod
call.
The left side of the hash is a standard Backbone.View DOM event configuration, while the right side of the hash is the view event that you want to trigger from the view.
var MyView = Marionette.ItemView.extend({
// ...
triggers: {
"click .do-something": "something:do:it"
}
});
var view = new MyView();
view.render();
view.on("something:do:it", function(args){
alert("I DID IT!");
});
// "click" the 'do-something' DOM element to
// demonstrate the DOM event conversion
view.$(".do-something").trigger("click");
The result of this is an alert box that says, "I DID IT!" Triggers can also be executed using the 'on{EventName}' attribute.
By default all triggers are stopped with preventDefault
and
stopPropagation
methods. But you can manually configure the triggers using
hash instead of event name. Example below triggers an event and prevents
default browser behaviour using preventDefault
method.
Marionette.CompositeView.extend({
triggers: {
"click .do-something": {
event: "something:do:it",
preventDefault: true, // this param is optional and will default to true
stopPropagation: false
}
}
});
You can also specify the triggers
as a function that
returns a hash of trigger configurations
Marionette.CompositeView.extend({
triggers: function(){
return {
"click .that-thing": "that:i:sent:you"
};
}
});
Trigger keys can be configured to cross utilize the ui
hash.
Marionette.ItemView.extend({
ui: {
'monkey': '.guybrush'
},
triggers: {
'click @ui.monkey': 'see:LeChuck' // equivalent of "click .guybrush"
}
});
Triggers work with all View classes that extend from the base Marionette.View.
A trigger
event handler will receive a single argument that
includes the following:
These properties match the view
, model
, and collection
properties of the view that triggered the event.
var MyView = Marionette.ItemView.extend({
// ...
triggers: {
"click .do-something": "some:event"
}
});
var view = new MyView();
view.on("some:event", function(args){
args.view; // => the view instance that triggered the event
args.model; // => the view.model, if one was set on the view
args.collection; // => the view.collection, if one was set on the view
});
Having access to these allows more flexibility in handling events from multiple views. For example, a tab control or expand/collapse widget such as a panel bar could trigger the same event from many different views and be handled with a single function.
Similar to the events
hash, views can specify a configuration
hash for collections and models. The left side is the event on
the model or collection, and the right side is the name of the
method on the view.
Marionette.CompositeView.extend({
modelEvents: {
"change:name": "nameChanged" // equivalent to view.listenTo(view.model, "change:name", view.nameChanged, view)
},
collectionEvents: {
"add": "itemAdded" // equivalent to view.listenTo(view.collection, "add", view.itemAdded, view)
},
// ... event handler methods
nameChanged: function(){ /* ... */ },
itemAdded: function(){ /* ... */ },
})
These will use the memory safe listenTo
, and will set the context
(the value of this
) in the handler to be the view. Events are
bound at the time of instantiation, and an exception will be thrown
if the handlers on the view do not exist.
The modelEvents
and collectionEvents
will be bound and
unbound with the Backbone.View delegateEvents
and undelegateEvents
method calls. This allows the view to be re-used and have
the model and collection events re-bound.
Multiple callback functions can be specified by separating them with a space.
Marionette.CompositeView.extend({
modelEvents: {
"change:name": "nameChanged thatThing"
},
nameChanged: function(){ },
thatThing: function(){ },
});
This works in both modelEvents
and collectionEvents
.
A single function can be declared directly in-line instead of specifying a callback via a string method name.
Marionette.CompositeView.extend({
modelEvents: {
"change:name": function(){
// handle the name changed event here
}
}
});
This works for both modelEvents
and collectionEvents
.
A function can be used to declare the event configuration as long as that function returns a hash that fits the above configuration options.
Marionette.CompositeView.extend({
modelEvents: function(){
return { "change:name": "someFunc" };
}
});
This works for both modelEvents
and collectionEvents
.
The serializeModel
method will serialize a model that is passed in as an argument.
In several cases you need to access ui elements inside the view
to retrieve their data or manipulate them. For example you have a
certain div element you need to show/hide based on some state,
or other ui element that you wish to set a css class to it.
Instead of having jQuery selectors hanging around in the view's code
you can define a ui
hash that contains a mapping between the
ui element's name and its jQuery selector. Afterwards you can simply
access it via this.ui.elementName
.
See ItemView documentation for examples.
This functionality is provided via the bindUIElements
method.
Since View doesn't implement the render method, then if you directly extend
from View you will need to invoke this method from your render method.
In ItemView and CompositeView this is already taken care of.
The preferred way to manage your view's options is with mergeOptions
. It accepts two arguments: the options
object
and the keys to merge onto the instance directly.
var ProfileView = Marionette.ItemView.extend({
profileViewOptions: ['user', 'age'],
initialize: function(options) {
this.mergeOptions(options, this.profileViewOptions);
console.log('The merged options are:', this.user, this.age);
}
});
More information mergeOptions
Retrieve an object's attribute either directly from the object, or from the object's this.options, with this.options taking precedence.
More information getOption
Helps bind a backbone "entity" to methods on a target object. bindEntityEvents is used to support modelEvents
and collectionEvents
.
More information bindEntityEvents
There are times when a view's template needs to have some logic in it and the view engine itself will not provide an easy way to accomplish this. For example, Underscore templates do not provide a helper method mechanism while Handlebars templates do.
A templateHelpers
attribute can be applied to any View object that
renders a template. When this attribute is present its contents
will be mixed in to the data object that comes back from the
serializeData
method. This will allow you to create helper methods
that can be called from within your templates. This is also a good place
to add data not returned from serializeData
, such as calculated values.
<script id="my-template" type="text/html"></script>
var MyView = Marionette.ItemView.extend({
template: "#my-template",
templateHelpers: function () {
return {
showMessage: function(){
return this.name + " is the coolest!";
},
percent: this.model.get('decimal') * 100
};
}
});
var model = new Backbone.Model({
name: "Marionette",
decimal: 1
});
var view = new MyView({
model: model
});
view.render(); //=> "I 100% think that Marionette is the coolest!";
The templateHelpers
can also be provided as a constructor parameter
for any Marionette view class that supports the helpers.
var MyView = Marionette.ItemView.extend({
// ...
});
new MyView({
templateHelpers: {
doFoo: function(){ /* ... */ }
}
});
In order to access data from within the helper methods, you
need to prefix the data you need with this
. Doing that will
give you all of the methods and attributes of the serialized
data object, including the other helper methods.
templateHelpers: {
something: function(){
return "Do stuff with " + this.name + " because it's awesome.";
}
}
templateHelpers
You can specify an object literal (as shown above), a reference
to an object literal, or a function as the templateHelpers
.
If you specify a function, the function will be invoked with the current view instance as the context of the function. The function must return an object that can be mixed in to the data for the view.
Marionette.ItemView.extend({
templateHelpers: function(){
return {
foo: function(){ /* ... */ }
}
}
});
There may be some cases where you need to change the template that is
used for a view, based on some simple logic such as the value of a
specific attribute in the view's model. To do this, you can provide
a getTemplate
function on your views and use this to return the
template that you need.
var MyView = Marionette.ItemView.extend({
getTemplate: function(){
if (this.model.get("foo")){
return "#some-template";
} else {
return "#a-different-template";
}
}
});
This applies to all view classes.
Marionette UI offers a convenient way to reference jQuery elements. UI elements can also be interpolated into event and region selectors.
In this example, the buy button is referenced in a DOM event and the checkout section is referenced in the region selector.
var MyView = Marionette.ItemView.extend({
ui: {
buyButton: '.buy-button',
checkoutSection: '.checkout-section'
},
events: {
'click @ui.buyButton': 'onClickBuyButton'
},
regions: {
checkoutSection: '@ui.checkoutSection'
},
onShow: function() {
this.getRegion('checkoutSection').show(new CheckoutSection({
model: this.checkoutModel
}));
}
});