Collections cannot be declared in CoffeeScript about backbone-relational HOT 8 CLOSED

class App.collections.people extends backbone.collections.

Colelections != Collection. Seems like a simple typo to me.

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Grr, sorry. Unfortunately, that's not the problem - the typo was introduced when I typed up the issue; my actual CoffeeScript file had it correct. To clarify code that (for me) fails is:

class App.Collections.People extends Backbone.Collection
  model: App.Models.Person
  url: '/api/people'

class App.Collections.Companies extends Backbone.Collection
  model: App.Models.Company
  url: '/api/companies'

#`App.Collections.People = Backbone.Collection.extend({
#  model: App.Models.Person,
#  url: '/api/people/'
#});
#
#App.Collections.Companies = Backbone.Collection.extend({
#  model: App.Models.Company,
#  url: '/api/companies/'
#});`

But this works (using backticks to pass raw JS through the CS compiler):

#class App.Collections.People extends Backbone.Collection
#  model: App.Models.Person
#  url: '/api/people'
#
#class App.Collections.Companies extends Backbone.Collection
#  model: App.Models.Company
#  url: '/api/companies'

`App.Collections.People = Backbone.Collection.extend({
  model: App.Models.Person,
  url: '/api/people/'
});

App.Collections.Companies = Backbone.Collection.extend({
  model: App.Models.Company,
  url: '/api/companies/'
});`

And I've triple checked that that is the precise code I actually used to create the error, this time. :) Thoughts?

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Hmm, this type of crazy stuff is why I tend to stay away from intermediate languages being compiled into another language, that gets compiled into.. etc ;).

How does collection.create behave? Do that actually make proper new persons/companies, instead of plain Backbone.Model instances (which is the default)?

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Does the problem exists in coffeescript 1.1.2? I've written some production code in the past and coffeescript class extension worked flawlessly.

If not, then it's a backbone-relational bug that was introduced in master, because I've used 0.4.0.

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Paul Uithol: Yeah, I decided to try Backbone.js for the first time, and in an excess of enthusiasm, node.js and CoffeeScript, all on the same project. Maybe I should have tried a more incremental approach. sigh

Regardly, while creating a simple test case, I figured out the problem: As I believed was best practice, I was splitting up my Backbone project into different files for models, collections, and views, and then running coffee -j on the source tree to generate a single app.js file. This worked great, right up until it didn't. It turns out the CoffeeScript compiler was sticking my collections above my models in the compiled JS file. (Of course, every time I wrote some test code, I put it all in the same file - so my simple test cases always worked, but my "real" code never did. This also explains why my "hack" to define collections in pure JS worked - I was putting it in a different file, which was getting compiled into the "right" place. FML.)

Anyhow, if I put collections and models in the SAME CS file like this:

class App.Models.Person extends Backbone.RelationalModel
  urlRoot: '/api/people'

class App.Collections.People extends Backbone.Collection
  model: App.Models.Person
  url: '/api/people'

then I can do:

>people = new App.Collections.People()
People
>people.model
function Person() {
      Person.__super__.constructor.apply(this, arguments);
    }
>people.create({name: 'me'})
Person

Presto, everything works. But if I do this:

class App.Collections.People extends Backbone.Collection
  model: App.Models.Person
  url: '/api/people'

class App.Models.Person extends Backbone.RelationalModel
  urlRoot: '/api/people'

Then I get:

> people = new App.Collections.People()
People
> people.model
undefined
> people.create({name: 'me'})
TypeError: undefined is not a function

sigh Damn but that wasted about uh...three days of my time. I love the CoffeeScript syntax, but I guess I'm seeing your point about intermediate languages.

Thanks a ton for your help; that question about collection.create was the clue I needed. >< I'm marking this as closed since it doesn't seem to be a bug at all, much less a bug with your excellent code.

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@codyhatch have you tried @brunch? It was designed to support backbone & coffeescript out-of-box, with a nice modularity (require.js support etc). I've used backbone-relational with it, every model / collection had a separate file for it.

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@paulmillr Thanks for the pointer. Looks interesting, although the documentation is a little contradictory re: what node version it supports, etc. Also, does it currently support any templates other than Eco?

from backbone-relational.

yup, the docs need some updates.

brunch 0.8 supports node 0.4 & eco, brunch 0.9-beta (I'll release in a couple days) supports jade, eco, mustache & node 0.4/0.6. 0.9 also has nice api for custom languages e.g. haml etc.

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