Output of icanhaz.js templete is [object Array] instead of the rendered template

Question

I am using Zepto.js, ICanHaz.js, and Backbone.js. I have a couple of templates that I am trying to render. After rendering the template and inserting the result into the page, the only output that I seeing is [object Array] or [object HTMLTableElement].

Here is the backbone.js Router

InspectionsRouter = Backbone.Router.extend({
    routes: {
        "signin": "signin",
        "orders": "orders"
    },
    signin: function() {
        var signinForm = new SignInForm();
        $('div#content').html(signinForm.render());
    },
    orders: function() {
        InspectionsApp.active_orders = new Orders();
        InspectionsApp.active_orders.fetch({
            success: function() {
                var order_list = new OrderList({
                    collection: InspectionsApp.active_orders
                });
                $('div#content').html(order_list.render());
            },
            error: function() {
                Dialog.error("Unable to Load Active Orders");
            }
         });
    }
}); 

The first template is static and has no data inserted. Here is code

SignInForm = Backbone.View.extend({
    render: function() {
        this.el = ich.sign_in_form({});
        return this.el;
    }
});

The other template is somewhat more complicated.

var OrderList = Backbone.View.extend({
    tagName: 'table',
    id: 'order_list',
    initialize: function() {
        _.bindAll(this, 'render');
    },
    render: function() {
        var active_orders = {};
        active_orders.orders = this.collection;
        $(this.el).html(ich.order_list(active_orders));
        return this.el;
    }
});

The actual templates aren't very complicated. The first is a simple sign in form. The next is a table.

Here is the first template.

<script id="sign_in_form" type="text/html">
    <h2 class="page_title">Sign In</h2>
    <form action="action/login.php" method="post" id="frm_login" name="frm_login">
         <fieldset id="credentials">
             <ol>
                 <li class="login">
                     <label for="email">E-mail Address</label>
                     <input type="email" name="email" id="email" tabindex="1" required>
                 </li>
                 <li class="login">
                     <label for="password">Password</label>
                     <input type="password" name="password" id="password" tabindex="2" required>
                 </li>
            </ol>
        </fieldset>
        <button class="button" id="btn_sign_in" type="submit" tabindex="3"><img src="icons/door_in.png">Sign In</button>
     </form>    
</script>

Here is the second template.

<script id="order_list" type="text/html">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>Name</th>
            <th>E-mail</th>
            <th>Status</th>
            <th>Created</th>
            <th>Assigned To</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody id="order_list_body">
        {{#orders}}
            <tr>
                <td>{{last_name}}, {{first_name}}</td>
                <td>{{email}}</td>
                <td>{{status}}</td>
                <td>{{created_at}}</td>
                <td>{{assigned_to}}</td>
            </tr>
        {{/orders}}
    </tbody>
</script>

Any help would be appreciated. The problem seems to be with ICanHaz or in Backbone. I have tried alerting this.el from with the render method and still get the same issue.

Answer 1

I figured out the issue. ICanHaz.js by default returns a jQuery or Zepto object. (I was expecting a string.) You can add a second parameter to the ich.template function to trigger the raw string output. Returning the Zepto object wouldn't be a problem except that, in Zepto, $.html() doesn't accept a Zepto object. The options are to have ICanHaz.js output the raw string, or to use one of the Zepto methods that accept a Zepto object (append, prepend, before, after).

To render the array to a string, just use: ich.myRenderFunction(myObject, true);

Answer 2

That happens to me when the template wasn't properly parsed: typically an error in the actual template. Verify there are no issues with the template data and that it is being properly loaded.