Advice on structuring Backbone array data

Question

I'm in the middle of a process where I'm retrieving data from a REST API for use in my Backbone.js application. At this point I don't need to do any manipulations to the data except for the fact that the data returned is an array. However, the future might bring such requests, so I've already created a Backbone model and collection for this type of data.

I've read that you could map your Array data into an object inside your Backbone collection, but I'm wondering since I already have a model, if it would be better practise to already map each element inside my Backbone model.

Since I'm not an expert in the Backbone.js framework, any links with more documentation about this section would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: I was actually looking for the parse method that is provided by the BackboneJS framework. By transforming the Array into an Object in the parse function I was able to solve the question. You can use the parse method to parse any kind of transformation you'd like to do, like e.g. copying attributes, modifying attributes etc. More information : http://backbonejs.org/#Collection-parse

it's not clear what you mean with _map your Array data into an object inside your Backbone collection_, can you provide the format of the data you are working with, or equivalent — mikeapr4, Dec 02 '16 at 11:54
At this point my data is returned from my API as an array: ['item1', 'item2', 'item3'] I found [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/31556954/how-to-convert-an-array-to-collection-in-backbone) that I needed to map my Array to an object — webdev_be, Dec 02 '16 at 13:46

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

Just as in the question you mentioned, this can achieved using parse, either on the Collection or the Model.

var UserModel = Backbone.Model.extend({

  // String name is mapped to an object with the name property
  parse: function(name) {
    return {
      name: name
    };
  }
});

var UserCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
  model: UserModel
});

var collection = new UserCollection(['Ann', 'Joe', 'Jim', 'Bob'], {parse: true});
console.log(collection.at(0).get('name'));

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/underscore.js/1.8.3/underscore-min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/backbone.js/1.3.3/backbone-min.js"></script>

In the example above, the collection is instantiated with data, in this case, parse doesn't run by default, so it needs to be set in the options, however if the collection normally gets its data from fetch, this will by default always parse.

Thank you, this was the answer to my question. – webdev_be Dec 06 '16 at 15:07 — webdev_be, Dec 06 '16 at 15:07

Advice on structuring Backbone array data

1 Answers1