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I'm diving into the whole "single page application" and Backbone.js (specifically Marionette) stuff. I'm working on a decently complicated application. I'm wondering how you set up the router to handle nested views so the "containing views" are also rendered. For instance let's say I have an Admin section and under that I have a Users section. Under Users I have tabs to "Add User" and "Search Users".

If I've selected "Add User", I imagine my URL has the fragment "#admin/users/add". That routes to a view that has the add user form. However, if you go directly to that URL I want to show that form again, but also the top navigation bar with "Admin" highlighted, the admin specific sidebar with my admin navigation and have "Users" button highlighted. I need the whole HTML page, not just the Add User ItemView.

How to do say when the page first loads (refresh or from a bookmark), to load the html structure and "parent views" as well? Thanks!

Jeremy
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  • check this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16422246/how-correctly-change-url-hash-with-bootstrap-tabspills-using-marionettejs/16429664#16429664 – danikoren May 12 '13 at 22:12

2 Answers2

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This is the way you need to think about the app's behavior:

  • the controller needs to create view instances and pass in the data they need (models, collections, etc.), and then display the views within the regions
  • the ONLY thing the router does is is match a URL to a controller action (i.e. "if this URL is entered in the address bar, the application should launch this controller action")

So bascially, this is your problem: you're missing a controller action (e.g. MyApp.AdminApp.Users.New.newUser() which will render the views you want, which you can then call from your router...)

One thing that helps (although not related to the problem you're currently facing), is to always call the navigate method with trigger: false (which is the default). This ensures that your app is behaving properly and that the router is limited to matching URLs to controller actions.

Regarding the menu (with highlighted current entry), I would make it a separate Marionette module (https://github.com/marionettejs/backbone.marionette/blob/master/docs/marionette.application.module.md), and have a collection of models (that don't get saved on the server) to list your menu entries. That way, you can manage the current entry by setting its model activeattribute to true (and checking that attribute in the view to highlight the current entry).

This is probably a lot to take in at first, but after a few more hours of working with Marionette it will all make sense...

(Shameless plug: I'm writing a book on Marionette that takes you from beginner to fully independent with Marionette. In there, I'll be covering this type of functionality, especially the menu management and how to highlight the current option. If you'd like to check it out, there's a free 55-page sample at http://samples.leanpub.com/marionette-gentle-introduction-sample.pdf and the book (which is still being written) is at https://leanpub.com/marionette-gentle-introduction)

David Sulc
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I had the same question a time ago, what I strongly recommend is to get involved with Marionette layouts, collections, composite and collection views, regions and how to display content within templates.

Is not hard as you keep reading tutorials, I recommend reading lostechis.com which is a very educational blog from the creator of Marionette, Derick Bailey, also the Marionette Official website.

This is just about educating yourself doing tests and when some question comes to your mind search it and if not found dont doubt to ask it right here.

For the side bar and some other stuff you can just use JQuery-ui or Twitter bootstrap, it is very easy to integrate them with backbone/marionette views, but you just have to read to achieve that.

Which you luck.

Uuid
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