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Marionette functions

Marionette provides a set of utility / helper functions that are used to facilitate common behaviors throughout the framework. These functions may be useful to those that are building on top of Marionette, as they provide a way to get the same behaviors and conventions from your own code.

Documentation Index

Marionette.extend

Backbone's extend function is a useful utility to have, and is used in various places in Marionette. To make the use of this method more consistent, Backbone's extend has been aliased to Marionette.extend. This allows you to get the extend functionality for your object without having to decide if you want to use Backbone.View or Backbone.Model or another Backbone object to grab the method from.

var Mn = require('backbone.marionette');

var Foo = function(){};

// use Marionette.extend to make Foo extendable, just like other
// Backbone and Marionette objects
Foo.extend = Mn.extend;

// Now Foo can be extended to create a new class, with methods
var Bar = Foo.extend({

  someMethod: function(){ ... }

  // ...
});

// Create an instance of Bar
var b = new Bar();

Live example

Marionette.isNodeAttached

Determines whether the passed-in node is a child of the document or not.

var Mn = require('backbone.marionette');

var div = document.createElement('div');
Mn.isNodeAttached(div);
// => false

$('body').append(div);
Mn.isNodeAttached(div);
// => true

Live example

Marionette.mergeOptions

A handy function to pluck certain options and attach them directly to an instance. All Marionette Classes, such as the Views, come with this method.

var Mn = require('backbone.marionette');

var options = {
  color: 'red',
  size: 'small',
  shape: 'square',
  weight: 'light'
}

var MyView = Mn.View.extend({
  myViewOptions: ['color', 'size', 'country'],

  initialize: function(options) {
    this.mergeOptions(options, this.myViewOptions);
  },

  onRender: function() {
    // The merged options will be attached directly to the prototype
    this.$el.addClass(this.color);
  }
});

var myView = new MyView(options);

Marionette.mergeOptions(myView, options, ['shape', 'weight']);

myView.getOption('color');   // red
myView.getOption('size');    // small
myView.getOption('country'); // undefined
myView.getOption('shape');   // square
myView.getOption('weight');  // light

Live example

Marionette.getOption

Retrieve an object's attribute either directly from the object, or from the object's this.options, with this.options taking precedence. All Marionette Classes, such as the Views, come with this method. this.getOption is used for instance of Marionette class. Marionette.getOption is used for instance of Backbone class.

var Mn = require('backbone.marionette');

var Obj = Mn.Object.extend({
  foo: 'bar',

  initialize: function(){
    var foo = this.getOption('foo');
    console.log(foo);
  }
});

var obj1 = new Obj(); // => 'bar'
var obj2 = new Obj({ foo: 'quux' }); // => 'quux'

Live example

var Bb = require('backbone');
var Mn = require('backbone.marionette');

var Model = Bb.Model.extend({
  foo: 'bar',

  initialize(attributes, options) {
    this.options = options;
    var foo = Mn.getOption(this, 'foo');
    console.log(foo);
  }
});

var model1 = new Model(); // => 'bar'
var model2 = new Model({}, { foo: 'quux' }); // => 'quux'

Live example

This is useful when building an object that can have configuration set in either the object definition or the object's constructor options.

Falsey values

The getOption function will return any falsey value from the options, other than undefined. If an object's options has an undefined value, it will attempt to read the value from the object directly.

For example:

var Bb = require('backbone');
var Mn = require('backbone.marionette');

var Model = Bb.Model.extend({
  foo: 'bar',

  initialize: function(){
    var foo = Mn.getOption(this, 'foo');
    console.log(foo);
  }
});

var model1 = new Model(); // => "bar"

var foo;
var model2 = new Model({}, { foo: foo }); // => "bar"

Live example

In this example, "bar" is returned both times because the second example has an undefined value for f.

Marionette.triggerMethod

Trigger an event and a corresponding method on the target object. All Marionette Classes, such as the Views, come with this method.

When an event is triggered, the first letter of each section of the event name is capitalized, and the word "on" is tagged on to the front of it. Examples:

All arguments that are passed to the triggerMethod call are passed along to both the event and the method, with the exception of the event name not being passed to the corresponding method.

triggerMethod('foo', bar) will call onFoo: function(bar){...})

var Mn = require('backbone.marionette');

var MyObject = Mn.Object.extend({
  initialize: function(){
    this.triggerMethod('foo', 'baz');
  },
  onFoo: function(bar){
    console.log(bar);
  }
});

var myObj = new MyObject(); // console.log "baz"

Mn.triggerMethod(myObj, 'foo', 'qux'); // console.log "qux"

Note: Some Marionette classes such as Views have an overridden triggerMethod. Using Mn.triggerMethod with a view will break event proxying. If you need to run triggerMethod on a Marionette class triggerMethodOn is recommended.

Marionette.triggerMethodOn

Invoke triggerMethod on a specific context.

This is useful when it's not clear that the object has triggerMethod defined. In the case of views, Marionette.View defines triggerMethod, but Backbone.View does not.

var Mn = require('backbone.marionette');

Mn.triggerMethodOn(ctx, 'foo', bar);
// will invoke `onFoo: function(bar){...})`
// will trigger "foo" on ctx

Marionette.bindEvents

This method is used to bind a backbone "entity" (e.g. collection/model) to methods on a target object. This will work with any class that works with the Backbone.Events API. All Marionette Classes, such as the Views, come with this method.

var Bb = require('backbone');
var Mn = require('backbone.marionette');

var MyView = Bb.View.extend({

  modelEvents: {
    'change:foo': 'doSomething'
  },

  initialize: function(){
    Mn.bindEvents(this, this.model, this.modelEvents);
  },

  doSomething: function(){
    // the "change:foo" event was fired from the model
    // respond to it appropriately, here.
    this.trigger('something');
  }

});

var model = new Bb.Model();

var myView = new MyView({ model: model });

var MyObject = Mn.Object.extend({
  initialize: function() {
    this.bindEvents(myView, this.myEvents);
  },
  myEvents: {
    'something': 'onViewSomething'
  },
  onViewSomething: function() {
    console.log('view something');
  }
});

new MyObject();

model.set('foo')

Live example

The first parameter, target, must have the Backbone.Events module mixed in.

The second parameter is the entity (Backbone.Model, Backbone.Collection or any object that has Backbone.Events mixed in) to bind the events from.

The third parameter is a hash of { 'event:name': 'eventHandler' } configuration. A function can be supplied instead of a string handler name.

Note Multiple handlers are deprecated

Multiple handlers can be separated by a space.

Marionette.unbindEvents

This method can be used to unbind callbacks from entities' (e.g. collection/model) events. It's the opposite of bindEvents, described above. Consequently, the APIs are identical for each method. All Marionette Classes, such as the Views, come with this method.

// Just like the above example we bind our model events.
// This time, however, we unbind them on close.
var Bb = require('backbone');
var Mn = require('backbone.marionette');

Bb.View.extend({

  modelEvents: {
    'change:foo': 'doSomething'
  },

  initialize: function(){
    Mn.bindEvents(this, this.model, this.modelEvents);
  },

  doSomething: function(){
    // the "change:foo" event was fired from the model
    // respond to it appropriately, here.
  },

  onClose: function() {
    Mn.unbindEvents(this, this.model, this.modelEvents);
  }

});

Live example

Marionette.bindRequests

This method is used to bind radio requests to methods on a target object. All Marionette Objects come with this method.

var Mn = require('backbone.marionette');
var Radio = require('backbone.radio');

var MyView = Mn.View.extend({
  channelName: 'myChannelName',

  radioRequests: {
    'foo:bar': 'fooBar'
  },

  initialize: function() {
    var channel = Radio.channel(this.channelName);
    Mn.bindRequests(this, channel, this.radioRequests);
  },

  fooBar: function() {
      console.log('foo:bar event was called')
  }
 });

var myView = new MyView();
var channel = Radio.channel('myChannelName');
channel.request('foo:bar'); // Logs 'foo:bar event was called'

Live example

The first parameter, this, is a context of current entity.

The second parameter, channel, reference to a channel by name.

The third parameter is a hash either { 'event:name': 'eventHandler' } or { 'event:name': 'eventHandler', 'event:otherName': 'otherEventHandler', ...} of configuration.

Marionette.unbindRequests

This method is used to unbind radio requests to methods on a target object. All Marionette Objects come with this method.

Calling this method without a radio requests hash will unbind all requests from the channel.

NOTE: To avoid memory leaks, unbindRequests should be called in or before onBeforeDestroy.

var Mn = require('backbone.marionette');
var Radio = require('backbone.radio');

var MyView = Mn.View.extend({
  channelName: 'myChannelName',

  radioRequests: {
    'foo:bar': 'fooBar'
  },

  onAttach: function() {
    var channel = Radio.channel(this.channelName);
    Mn.bindRequests(this, channel, this.radioRequests);
  },

  onDetach: function() {
    var channel = Radio.channel(this.channelName);
    Mn.unbindRequests(this, channel, this.radioRequests);
  }
 });

Live examples

The first parameter, this, is a context of current entity.

The second parameter, channel, reference to a channel by name.

The third parameter is a hash either { 'event:name': 'eventHandler' } or { 'event:name': 'eventHandler', 'event:otherName': 'otherEventHandler', ...} of configuration.

Marionette.normalizeMethods

Receives a hash of event names and functions and/or function names, and returns the same hash with the function names replaced with the function references themselves. All Marionette Classes, such as the Views, come with this method.

var Mn = require('backbone.marionette');

var View = Mn.View.extend({

  initialize: function() {
    var hash = {
      'action:one': 'handleActionOne', // This will become a reference to `this.handleActionOne`
      'action:two': this.handleActionTwo
    };

    this.normalizedHash = this.normalizeMethods(hash);
    // or equivalent Mn.normalizeMethods(this, hash);
  },

  do: function(action) {
    this.normalizedHash[action]();
  },

  handleActionOne: function() {
    console.log('action:one was fired');
  },

  handleActionTwo: function() {
    console.log('action:two was fired');
  }

});

var myView = new MyView();
myView.do('action:one');
myView.do('action:two');

Live example

Marionette.noConflict

Allows you to run multiple instances of Marionette in the same application. After loading the new version, call noConflict() to get a reference to it. At the same time the old version will be returned to Backbone.Marionette.

var Mn = require('backbone.marionette');

var MnV3 = require('backbone.marionette/v3');

// Creates non-conflicting reference to secondary Marionette instance
MnV3 = MnV3.noConflict()
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