Current version: 1.2.3
2.0 Beta Now Available

Overview

An opinionated Backbone application framework providing a filesystem structure, on demand module loading, model and collection view binding, inheritable view and DOM events, data loading helpers, form serialization / population and validation. Built using Backbone, Underscore, Zepto, Handlebars, Stylus and Lumbar.

Quick Start

Thorax can be used standalone but is designed to work best with Lumbar. The easiest way to setup a new Thoax + Lumbar project is with the thorax command line tool or by downloading the sample project it creates. To use the command line tools you'll need node and npm.

npm install -g lumbar thorax
thorax create project-name
cd project-name
npm start

This will create a hello world project, for a more complete example clone the Thorax Todos project (demo).

Project Structure

• bin - executable node scripts
• generators - code generation templates used by the command line interface
• js - application code, models, collections, views, routers
• lumbar.json - see Lumbar docs
• static - static files / assets that will end up in the public folder
• styles
• templates
• thorax.json - configuration for the command line interface

Configuration

configure Thorax.configure(options)

Start Thorax and create the Application.layout object.

• layout - string css selector or Element where the Application.layout object will attach, defaults to .layout
• scope - object scope to configure, defaults to a new object in the global scope Application
• templatePathPrefix - Path where your templates are located. Defaults to "templates/"

Routers & Layout

In your lumbar.json file you can specify the modules that compose your application. Each module is composed of routes, scripts, styles and templates. Thorax + Lumbar creates an internal router that listens to all routes in the application, lazily loading modules then calling a method on the router in that module as you would normally expect in a Backbone application.

create Application.Router.create(module, protoProps [,classProps])

Generate an Application.Router subclass. The module object will be automatically available inside the router file. Thorax expects that you create one router of the same name as the module, per module. In the example project there is a hello-world module and a corresponding js/routers/hello-world.js file.

Application.Router.create(module, {
  index: function() {}
});

Each router method should redirect to another router method or call Application.layout.setView

view router.view(name [,attributes])

Create a new view instance, looking it up by the name property in the view's class definition.

layout Application.layout

Displays and manages views. By default there is only one layout object, Application.layout which is created then attached to the page when Thorax.configure is called. Additional layout objects having all of the same functionality as Application.layout can be created by calling new Thorax.Layout().

setView Application.layout.setView(view)

Append the view to the Application.layout object, displaying it on the page.

routerMethod: function(id) {
  var view = this.view('view/name');
  view.bind('ready', function() {
    view.$('input:first')[0].focus();
  });
  Application.layout.setView(view);
}

This will trigger two events on the layout object, both of which will receive the new view and the old view (if present):

• change:view:start - immediately after setView call
• change:view:end - old view destroyed, new view in DOM and ready

View Lifecycle Events

By calling setView on a layout object various events will be triggered on the view passed and the previous view that was passed if any.

• initialize:before - during constructor call, before initialize has been called
• initialize:after - during construcor call, after initialize has been called
• activated - immediately after setView was called with the view
• ready - view.el attached to parent
• deactivated - setView called with the next view, view.el still attached to parent
• destroyed - after the view.el has been removed from parent, immediately before view.el and child views are destroyed

anchorClick Application.layout.anchorClick

Layout objects listen for click a on all elements inside them (therefore inside any views passed to setView), triggering the corresponding route if one matches when clicked. Add a data-external attribute on links you want to be ignored by anchorClick.

<a href="#/internal">Internal</a>
<a href="/external" data-external="true">External</a>

Loading Data

Thorax is primarily a view framework but provides Thorax.Model and Thorax.Collection classes which should be used when passed to setModel or setCollection. These are subclassed as Application.Model and Application.Collection in all of the example projects.

load model/collection.load(callback [,failback [,options]])

Calls fetch on the model or collection ensuring the callbacks will only be called if the route does not change. callback and failback will be used as arguments to bindToRoute. options will be passed to the fetch call on the model or collection if present.

routerMethod: function(id) {
  var view = this.view('view/name');
  var model = new Application.Model({id: id});
  model.load(_.bind(function() {
    //callback only called if browser still on this route
    view.setModel(model);
    Application.layout.setView(view);
  }, this), function() {
    //failback only called if browser has left this route
  });
}

bindToRoute router.bindToRoute(callback [,failback])

Used by model/collection.load. Binds the callback to the current route. If the browser navigtates to another route in the time between when the callback is bound and when it is executed, callback will not be called. Else failback will be called if present.

routerMethod: function() {
  var callback = this.bindToRoute(function() {
    //callback called if browser is still on route
  });
  setTimeout(callback, 5000);
}

Events

Thorax adds to Backbone's event handling by enhancing the view.events hash, and providing a way of registering events for all views with registerEvents and unregisterEvents.

events Application.View.events

Thorax enhances the Backbone.View.events hash handling in the following ways:

• accepts functions as a value to the hash in addition to a string method name
• accepts non DOM event names that will be treated as view events
• accepts a collection or model hash of events that will be bound to the model or collection when setModel or setCollection are called, callbacks will be called with a context of the view instance

An example of a view implementing all of the above:

Application.View.extend({
  name: 'view-name',
  events: {
    custom: '_onCustom',
    'click a': '_onClick',
    model: {
      change: '_onChange'
    },
    collection: {
      add: function(model){}
    }
  },
  _onCustom: function(){},
  _onClick: function(event){},
  _onChange: function(){}
});

nested nested eventName [selector]

If a view has child views, the parent view by default will only listen for events triggered directly on the parent or DOM elements belonging directly to the parent, and not the children. The nested keyword can be used in the events hash or in a hash passed to registerEvents to listen for events triggered by the parents or it's children.

Application.View.extend({
  name: 'parent',
  events: {
    'nested eventName': function(view, arg) {
      //called with a context of parent, the triggering
      //view is always passed as the first argument followed
      //by any other arguments passed to trigger, if any
    },
    'nested click': function(event) {
      //always called with a context of parent
    }
  }
});

registerEvents Application.View.registerEvents(events)

Add events to all instances of a view. Accepts a hash in the same format as described in Application.View.events

Application.View.registerEvents({
  'click a': function() {
    //called on any a click for all instances
    //and subclasses of Application.View
  }
});

Subclass = Application.View.extend({});
Subclass.registerEvents({
  //events for all instances and subclasses of Subclass
});

unregisterEvents Application.View.unregisterEvents([event])

Unregister events for all instances and subclasses of a given view class. Note that calling unregisterEvents on Application.View will unregister the built in events that make setModel and setCollection work.

Subclass.unregisterEvents(); //all events
Application.View.unregisterEvents('click a');
Application.View.unregisterEvents('model', 'change');

freeze view.freeze([options])

setModel and setCollection add event handlers to the view, call freeze to remove them. options may contain a model or collection key that should contain the model or collection that was set with setModel or setCollection.

_addEvent view._addEvent(params)

This method is never called directly, but can be specified to override the behavior of the events hash or a hash passed to registerEvents. For each event passed _addEvent will be called with a hash containing:

• type "view" || "DOM"
• name (DOM events will begin with ".delegateEvents")
• originalName
• selector (DOM events only)
• handler
• nested (Boolean)

Templating

Thorax provides deep integration with Handlebars. By default one view maps to one Handlebars template of the same name. View attributes are made automatically availble to template as are model attributes if a model was set on a view with setModel. Views having a collection set via setCollection will look for corresponding view-name-item.handlebars and view-name-empty.handlebars templates. The view and template helpers are provided to allow the direct inclusion of other views or templates inside of templates.

name view.name

Every view descending from Application.View must have a name attribute. render will look for a corresponding handlebars template of the same name.

Application.View.extend({
  name: 'view-name'
  // templates/view-name.handlebars should exist
});

Application.Router and Application.View instances both have a view method that will look up the view class by name and create new instance.

var instance = this.view('view-name');

Each DOM element on the page containing a view will have the name set on the data-view-name attribute, allowing you to style your views with the following selector:

[data-view-name="view-name"] {
  font-size: 2em;
}

registerHelper Application.View.registerHelper(name, callback)

Register a new helper that will be available in all handlebars templates. HTML generated from helpers should always be returned in a new Handlebars.SafeString object.

Application.View.registerHelper('bold', function(content, options) {
  //options.hash contains key, value pairs from named / html arguments
  //to the helper
  return new Handlebars.SafeString('<b>' + content + '</b>');
});

{{bold "Text"}}

template view.template(name [,attributes])

Render a given template by file name sans extension. render and renderCollection both use this method. The scope inside of a template will contain all of the non function attributes of a view (which can be passed to the view constructor) and a cid attribute which is a unique id for each rendering of a given template.

var klass = Application.View.extend({
  name: 'view-name'
});
var view = new klass({
  title: 'The Title'
});    
console.log(view.template({
  body: 'The Body'
}));

// templates/view-name.handlebars
<h1>{{title}}</h1>
<p>{{body}}</p>

This method is also available as a template helper, it will only render the template as a string, if there is a corresponding view it will not be initialized. The scope of the current template will be carried inward to the rendred template.

{{template "header" key="value"}}
<h1>{{title}}</h1>
<p>{{body}}</p>
{{template "footer"}}

view view.view(name [,attributes])

Create a new view instance, looking it up by the name property in the view's class definition.

Application.View.extend({
  name: 'header'
});
Application.View.extend({
  name: 'footer'
});
Application.View.extend({
  name: 'main',
  initialize: function() {
    this.header = this.view('header');
  }
});

This method is also available as a template helper which can receive a string name of a view to initialize and append, or a reference to an already initialized view.

// templates/main.handlebars
{{view header}}
<h1>{{title}}</h1>
<p>{{body}}</p>
{{view "footer"}}

html view.html([content])

Replace the HTML in a given view. The collection element and the child views appended by the {{view}} helper will be automatically preserved if present.

render view.render([content])

Render a template with the filename of the view's name attribute (sans extension), calling view.html() with the result. Triggers the rendered event.

To implement custom rendering behavior in a subclass override the method and pass a content argument to render which may be an HTML string, DOM Element or an array of DOM Elements.

Application.View.extend({
  name: 'child',
  render: function() {
    return Application.View.prototype.render.call(this, 'content');
  }
});

setModel view.setModel(model, options)

Set the *modelattribute of the view. By default when the model is populated (either when it is passed tosetModelor after it is fetched) therenderwill be called on the view, with the view's attributes and the model'sattributesavailable inside of the template. Achangeevent on the model (often triggered by the model'ssetmethod) will cause the view to callrender` again.

• fetch - auto fetch the model if empty, defaults to true, if an object is passed it will be used as the options to fetch
• success - a callback to call when fetch() succeeds, defaults to false
• render - wether to call render after setModel and on the model's change event, defaults to true
• populate - wether to auto call populate, defaults to true. if there is no form in the view populate will have no effect
• errors - wether to bubble the error event from the model to the view

setModel will trigger the model set event:

Application.View.extend({
  name: 'view-name',
  events: {
    model: {
      set: function(model) {}
    }
  }
});

context view.context([model])

Specify this function to override what attributes will be passed from a model set with setModel to a template.

Application.View.extend({
  name: 'view-name',
  context: function(model) {
    return _.extend({}, model.attributes, {
      title: model.getTitle()
    });
  }
});

setCollection view.setCollection(collection [,options])

Set the collection attribute of the view. This will bind events on collection add, remove and reset, updating the collection element (specified by the collection view helper) as needed. options may contain:

• fetch - auto fetch, defaults to true, if an object is passed it will be used as the options to fetch
• success - a callback to call when fetch() succeeds, defaults to false
• errors - wether to bubble error events from the collection to the view, defaults to true

Collection rendering assumes that the following templates will be present.

• templates/name.handlebars - must contain the {{collection helper}}
• templates/name-item.handlebars - must have at least one outer HTML element
• templates/name-empty.handlebars - must have at least one outer HTML element

To display a collection in your template use the {{collection}} view helper. You can pass a custom tag name (defaults to "div") or any HTML attributes.

{{collection tag="ul" class="my-list"}}

The following events will be triggered when the collection is rendered:

• rendered:collection - called when renderCollection is called, receives the the collection element
• rendered:item - called for each item rendered in a non empty collection after renderCollection is called, receives the item element or view after it has been rendered
• rendered:empty - called when renderCollection is called with an empty collection, receives the the collection element

renderCollection view.renderCollection()

Re-render the entire collection. If you need custom behavior when a collection is rendered it is better to use the rendered or rendered:collection events. This method looks for this.collection which should be set by setCollection and ignores any arguments passed.

renderItem view.renderItem(model, index)

Override this method to specify how an item is rendered. May return a string or another view.

renderItem: function(model) {
  return new MyItemView({
    model: model
  });
}

renderItem: function(model, i) {
  return this.template(this.name + '-item', this.itemContext(model, i));
}

itemContext view.itemContext(model, index)

Just like the context method, but called for each item in the collection.

renderEmpty view.renderEmpty()

Override this method to specify what happens when renderCollection is called when the collection is empty. May return a string or another view. The default implementation is:

renderEmpty: function() {
  return this.template(this.name + '-empty');
}

emptyContext view.emptyContext()

Just like the context method, but called when renderEmpty is called.

appendItem view.appendItem(item [,index])

Append and item at a given index. If no index is passed the index of the model in the current collection will be used, if the first argument is not a model, 0 will be used. item may be:

• a model which will be passed to renderItem
• an arbitrary html string which should contain exactly one outer element
• a view instance

Form Handling

Thorax provides helpers to assist with form handling, but makes no user interface decisions for you. Use the validate and error events to implement error messages in your application.

Application.View.registerEvents({
  validate: function(attributes, errors) {
    //clear previous errors if present
  },
  error: function(errors) {
    errors.forEach(function(error) {
      //lookup input by error.name
      //display error from error.message
    });
  }
});

serialize view.serialize([event], callback [,options])

Serializes a form. callback will receive the attributes from the form and will only be called if validateInput returns nothing or an empty array. If an event is passed a check will be run to prevent duplicate submission. options may contain:

• set - defaults to true, wether or not to set the attributes if valid on a model if one was set with setModel
• validate - defaults to true, wether or not to call validateInput` during serialization

Each form input in your application should contain a corresponding label. Since you may want to re-use the same form multiple times in the same view a cid attribute with a unique value is provided to each render call of each template:

<label for="{{cid}}-last-name"/>
<input name="last-name" id="{{cid}}-last-name" value="Beastridge"/>
<label for="{{cid}}-last-name"/>
<input name="address[street]" value="123 Chestnut" id="{{cid}}-address[street]"/>

Phoenix.View.extend({
  name: "address-form",
  events: {
    "submit form": "_handleSubmit"
  },
  _handleSubmit: function(event) {
    this.serialize(event, function(attributes) {
      attributes["last-name"] === "Beastridge";
      attributes.address.street === "123 Chestnut";
    });
  }
});

serialize Triggers the following events:

• serialize - called before validation with serialized attributes
• validate - with an attributes hash and errors array after validateInput is called
• error - with an errors array, if validateInput returned an array with any errors

If your view uses inputs with non standard names (or no names, multiple inputs with the same name, etc), use the serialize event:

this.bind('serialize', _.bind(function(attributes) {
  attributes.custom = this.$('.my-input').val();
}, this));

populate view.populate([attributes])

Populate the form fields in the view with the given attributes. The keys of the attributes should correspond to the names of the inputs. populate is automatically called with the response from view.context(view.model.attributes) when setModel is called.

view.populate({
  "last-name": "Beastridge"
  address: {
    street: "123 Chestnut"
  }
});

populate triggers a populate event. If your view uses inputs with non standard names (or no names, multiple inputs with the same name, etc), use this event:

this.bind('populate', _.bind(function(attributes) {
  this.$('.my-input').val(attributes.custom);
}, this));

validateInput view.validateInput(attributes)

Validate the attributes created by serialize, must return an array or nothing (if valid). It's recommended that the array contain hashes with name and message attributes, but arbitrary data or objects may be passed. If the array has a zero length the attributes are considered to be valid. Returning an array with any errors will trigger the error event.

validateInput: function(attributes) {
  var errors = [];
  if (attributes.password && !attributes.password.match(/.{6,11}/)) {
    errors.push({name: 'password', message: 'Invalid Password'});
  }
  return errors;
}

Mixins

registerMixin Application.View.registerMixin(name, callback, methods)

Create a named mixin. Callback will be called with the context of the view instance calling mixin. methods will be added to the view instance.

Application.View.registerMixin('mixin-name', function() {
  
}, {
  methodName: function(){}
});

Application.View.extend({
  name: 'view-name',
  initialize: function() {
    this.mixin('mixin-name');
  }
});

mixin view.mixin(name)

Apply a given mixin by name. The mixin will only be applied once, thus duplicate calls mixin with the same name will not cause the mixin callback to be run multiple times.

Command Line Interface

It is possible to use the main thorax.js library completely standalone, but all of the documentation will assume you will be using a project structure created by the command line interface. To install the command line tools run:

npm install -g lumbar thorax

create thorax create $project-name

Create a new thorax project. All other thorax commands are run from inside the project directory.

thorax create todos
cd todos

router thorax router $module-name

Generate a router class and a module of the same name. A module is defined in lumbar.json and is composed of models, collections, views, templates, styles and a single router. Lumbar combines these files into a single js and single css file which are lazily loaded when one of the module's route's is visited. Running:

thorax router todos

• creates: app/routers/todos.js
• adds a JSON fragment for the todos module in lumbar.json

You'll need to fill in the routes hash inside lumbar.json with path: method name pairs to match your router class. This is how Lumbar / Thorax work together to lazily load your modules.

view thorax view $module-name $view-name

Generate a view class and template of the same name. Running:

thorax view todos header

• creates: app/views/header.js
• creates: app/templates/header.handlebars
• adds the appropriate JSON fragments in the main module in lumbar.json

collection-view thorax collection-view $module-name $view-name

Generate a view class which will render a collection and the appropriate templates of the same name. Running:

thorax collection-view todos todo-list

• creates: todo-list.js
• creates: app/templates/todo-list.handlebars
• creates: app/templates/todo-list-item.handlebars
• creates: app/templates/todo-list-empty.handlebars
• adds the appropriate JSON fragments in the main module in lumbar.json

model thorax model $module-name $model-name

Generate a model class. Running:

thorax model todos todo

• creates: app/models/todo.js
• adds the appropriate JSON fragments in the main module in lumbar.json

collection thorax collection $module-name $collection-name

Generate a collection class. Running:

thorax collection todos todo-list

• creates: app/collections/todo-list.js
• adds the appropriate JSON fragments in the main module in lumbar.json

start npm start

Starts your thorax application on port 8000, auto generating new JavaScript and CSS modules in public as source files in your application change.

Change Log

1.2

• load:start and load:end handling have been moved into a plugin
• nested event keyword now works with views, the callback will always be called with the context of the declaring view and will always recieve the triggering view as the first argument
• empty() the collection element before renderCollection()

1.1

• added {{collection}} helper
• _collectionSelector is now deprecated and internally defaults to [data-collection-cid], for backwards compatibility set it to ".collection" in your view classes
• added templatePathPrefix option to configure()
• unit tests!
• added nested event keyword
• added _addEvent method for subclasses to customize event registration
• registerEvents is now an instance method in addition to a class method
• added emptyContext method, called from renderEmpty
• checks for view.name property are now lazy
• exceptions are now thrown instead of using console.error