CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascripturlbackbone.js
egidra
egidra

Reputation: 9087

Backbone routers and compatibility with web server controller

How do I get compatibility between my web server's controllers and Backbone router? I have it set it so when a user clicks on a link, a view is rendered, and the URL looks like this: /test/1, which is what I want. The problem comes in when the user tries to access test/1 by entering it into the address bar. My backend has controllers that is in charge of routing URLS.

How would I get it so it uses the Backbone routes rather than the backend routes?

One way that works is when I access the url #test/1. It is bookmarkable and can be entered into the address bar. The problem is that backbone stripes the # on load.

So, I see two solutions to my problem:

  1. Get the backend controllers to interact with Backbone routes
  2. Make it so the #'s aren't removed when they are entered inside of the address bar.

Which of the above solutions is recommended. And, how would I implement them. The second solution seems easier, but how would I make it so backbone doesn't strip the URLs of the hashes?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 395

Answers (2)

Old Pro
Old Pro

Reputation: 25557

Well, really, there are many reasons why you want the URL to include the # all the time. It makes lots of things work better. For example, the correct controller is automatically selected by the web server and the correct route is automatically provided to Backbone whether you manually type in the URL, use a bookmark, use a link from another site, or use the back and forward buttons on the web browser. So choice 2 is definitely the one you want. This is also the standard behavior of Backbone.

So my question is "How did you get backbone to stop using the # in the first place?"

Edit: Thanks to Chris Herring for pointing us to a great article explaining why # is bad. With that, I will leave it as an exercise to the reader about which kind of pain they want to endure. I think # is still the way to go so long as all the Backbone route is changing is how the information on the page is displayed and not what information is on the page. If a web crawler that does not support JavaScript can scrape all the same information regardless of what comes after the #, then I still don't see a problem with it.

Upvotes: 0

Chris Herring
Chris Herring

Reputation: 3665

From what I understand when the user navigates to the root page and then test/1 via a link the logic is handled by backbone and a view is rendered. But when the user navigates directly to test/1 this is not handled correctly.

To handle this you need to setup a route on your server that points any URLs handled by backbone to the root page. The logic for this depends on your server which you have not specified. To do something like this in ASP you might setup a route like this:

RouteTable.Routes.MapWebPageRoute("test/{id}", "~/Default.cshtml", new {}, new { id = "\\d+" });

This would cause a URL such as test/1 to be handled by the default page which be the same handler as if the user navigated to /. Once the page has loaded on the client the Backbone router would fire for the test/1 route.

Upvotes: 1

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