1

I'm looking for something to accomplish in Backbone. Here is the explanation.

I have backbone routes like 

{
    '': 'defaultRoute',
    'test': 'test',
    'testing': 'testing'
}

Assuming my root url is '/routes'

Now when I say 'router.navigate('test', {trigger: true});' url changes to /routes/test.

Similar way when I call 'router.navigate('testing', {trigger: true});' url changes to /routes/testing.

But when I call 'router.navigate('', {trigger: true});' url changes to /routes/.

You know i didn't expect that / at the end. I never passed that. It should have been back to root url i.e. '/routes'.

Adding / at the end makes lot of difference/meaning. Checkout 'http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.in/2010/04/to-slash-or-not-to-slash.html'

Any fix for that (i.e. not having / at the end for default route)?

Umakant Patil
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  • This line of backbone force root to always have trailing and leading slash : `this.root = ('/' + this.root + '/').replace(rootStripper, '/');` line#1379 of BackboneV1.0 – KiT O Oct 24 '13 at 10:27

3 Answers3

0

Try to override Backbone.History.prototype.navigate.

Copy default function and change this line :

  var url = this.root + fragment;

to :

  if(this.root !== '/' && fragment === ''){
    var url = this.root.replace(trailingSlash, '');
  }else{
    var url = this.root + fragment;
  }
KiT O
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  • Thanks Kit O. Got you. But I don't want to update a library file. Of-course it creates another problems for me when I update the library version. – Umakant Patil Nov 12 '13 at 05:58
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First things first:

If your application is not being served from the root url / of your domain, be sure to tell History where the root really is, as an option: Backbone.history.start({pushState: true, root: "/public/search/"}) Backbone#History

In your case, it is most likely to be something like root: "/routes". Something you need to keep in mind is that your website is seen in the browser as either a resource or a remote folder, therefore the default route without a trailing slash may not fully work by just leaving it as "" because that means usually "the current folder". You could try to set your root url as root: "/" instead (just as it should be by default) and create a "routes" resource as your default route, something like the following:

{
    'test':    'test',
    'testing': 'testing',
    'routes':  'defaultRoute',
    '*':       'catchAll'
}

Another recommendation that I am doing to you (as you can see it above) is to set your a catch all URL at the end in case someone enters a non-existent one, and you can also use it to redirect your users to your default route.

// your code above ...
defaultRoute: function() {
  // your default route code...
},

catchAll: function() {
  this.navigate('routes', {trigger: true});
}
// your code below ...

Finally, by any reason mess up with Backbone URLs manually, you are highly risking yourself to break the whole thing AND if in the future the API changes it should be easier to update if you just follow the intended use.

  • Well totally agree with ya. But the point here being is that all of my URLs here are like http://xyz.com/lmno or http://xyz.com/lmno/pqr i.e. I don't use trailing slash at all i.e. google has also crawled the pages same way. It's only the backbone who adds it. I'm sure lot of sites don't use trailing slash. See this page (no trailing slash) http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19557934/avoid-traliing-slash-for-default-routes-in-backbone-js/19566400 . I hope I end up with some good solution. – Umakant Patil Nov 12 '13 at 05:51
  • Obviously I won't go and edit Backbone file. I hate that practice. All I wanted it as a feature in Backbone may be or some other way to put it to work. Thanks – Umakant Patil Nov 12 '13 at 06:00
0

Update:-

This has been already fixed in Backbone's latest version. I asked a question on there forum and found the answer. I'm adding it here as an answer if it helps anyone who is looking for the same thing.

https://github.com/jashkenas/backbone/issues/2871

Umakant Patil
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