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In https://github.com/marmelab/wishcard/blob/master/js/views/ShapesView.js#L60, it's better to do this.shapes.isEmpty(). _.isEmpty is built in Backbone's Collections, as well as ,any other useful functions. See http://documentcloud.github.io/backbone/#Collection-Underscore-Methods.

It allows chaining of methods and is a convention in the Backbone world.

In https://github.com/marmelab/wishcard/blob/master/js/views/ShapesView.js#L50 you use the promise returned by fetch to attach a "success" callback with the done method. But in https://github.com/marmelab/wishcard/blob/master/js/views/ShapesView.js#L201 you pass a callback to the Shapes#addRaphaelElement method. And this callback use the "node-ism" callback(err, result), rarely seen in the front-end world (apart with async.js).

You'd better return the promise of the save call from https://github.com/marmelab/wishcard/blob/master/js/collections/Shapes.js#L36, but replace this call by :

return this.save(data);

This way you would use the promise way in https://github.com/marmelab/wishcard/blob/master/js/views/ShapesView.js#L201 the same way you did at L50, with the done and fail promise callbacks.

using the mouse

Separate view, models and collections into separate js files, and use RequireJS to bundle it all together.

cf. http://addyosmani.github.io/backbone-fundamentals/#modular-development

cf proof of concept http://jsfiddle.net/NtKKZ/

In https://github.com/marmelab/wishcard/blob/master/js/views/ShapesView.js#L12, no need to use jQuery to target '#editor', the string '#editor' is enough. Backbone will use jQuery to find it when creating the view.

In Backbone, routers are useful to listen to change in urls. Their instanciation is almost always followed by Backbone.history.start() to start the listening process.

Here, there's no use of the urls, and the Router is used only as an application initializer to create the view. So no need to use a Backbone construct for an initializer, a plain old javascript object will do.

Further reading from the creator of Marionnette, a Backbone based application framework : http://lostechies.com/derickbailey/2012/02/06/3-stages-of-a-backbone-applications-startup/

In https://github.com/marmelab/wishcard/blob/master/js/collections/Shapes.js#L11 you use _.bindAll(this);. It's pretty dangerous to use this, unless the collection's methods are going to be used as response callbacks to events triggered somewhere else, where the meaning of this is lost. Try to test without the call to see if it works (I think it should), then remove it. It can cause very malicious bug very hard to track (I know, it happened to me yesterday, really).

No need to set a custom url property for Shape models in https://github.com/marmelab/wishcard/blob/master/js/models/Shape.js#L15, as long as you fetch a model from shapes/[id]. A model uses its collection's url property and append its id to it automatically for you. Furthermore, it's more restful to use shapes/[id] than shape/[id] if the collection's url is shapes. See http://documentcloud.github.io/backbone/#Model-url.

If you really want to stick to a custom Model's url, you can just redefine the url property as function instead of using the initialize function, like :

var Shape =  Backbone.Model.extend({
  defaults: {} // your defaults here,

  url: function() {
    return 'shape/' + this.get('id'); 
    // Better to use the getter than directly tap into the model's properties.
    // Getters/setters trigger events that maybe be listened somewhere else in your app.
  }
});