Is there a restful way to tell Backbone to save only one attribute to the server?

Question

I have a collection that's attached to a model. When I click a button, I would like to be able to tell backbone to save only that one attribute (containing the collection) to the server

m.Survey = m.BaseModel.extend({
    relations: [{
        type: Backbone.HasMany,
        key: 'invites',
        relatedModel: 'APP.Models.SurveyInvite',
        collectionType: 'APP.Collections.SurveyInvites',
        //save invites separately
        includeInJSON: false, 
        reverseRelation: {
            key: 'survey',
            //We don't want to list the survey when doing toJSON()
            includeInJSON: false
        }
    }],
    //need this method
    saveInvites: function(){
         this.saveOnly('invites');
    });
});

And I want it to send to the server:

POST /api/surveys/123/

{
    invites: [
    {<invite1>}, {<invite2>}, {<invitex>}
    ] 
}

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 07 '13 at 22:12

You can use Model.save with the patch option:

saveInvites: function(){
     this.save({invites:this.get('invites')}, {patch:true});
});

Instead of a POST request, this will send a HTTP PATCH. Since you were asking for a RESTful way, patch is the correct verb to use here. If your server can't handle the patch request, you can force it to POST with the emulateHTTP option:

saveInvites: function(){
     this.save({invites:this.get('invites')}, {patch:true, emulateHTTP:true});
});

Thanks! I knew it was something like that, just didn't know the right verb ;) — Toli, Feb 07 '13 at 23:00

Is there a restful way to tell Backbone to save only one attribute to the server?

1 Answers1