Backbone.js app not rendering view

Question

I found backbone.js a couple of days ago, and i found out its a pretty code tool for javascript development though my javascript skill aren't great. However after reading the documentation, i decided to code a simple contact app. I save the contact data on browser localstorage. This is code // Source Code for my contacts app

$(function() {


    //Contact Model
    Contact = Backbone.Model.extend({
        //Contact Defaults
        defaults : {
            first_name : 'First Name',
            last_name : 'Last Name',
            phone : 'Phone Number'
        },
        //Constructor(intialize)
        //Ensuring each contact has a first_name,last_name,phone
        intialize: function(){
            if(!this.get("first_name")) {
                this.set({"first_name":this.defaults.first_name});
            }
            if(!this.get("last_name")) {
                this.set({"last_name":this.defaults.last_name});
            }
            if(!this.get("phone")) {
                this.set({"phone":this.defaults.phone});
            }
        }
    });

    //Contact Collection

    //The collection is backed by localstorage
    ContactList = Backbone.Collection.extend({
        //Model
        model : Contact,
        //Save all contacts in localstorage under the namespace of "contacts"
        localStorage: new Store("contacts")
    });

    //Create global collection of Contacts
    Contacts = new ContactList;

    //Contact View
    ContactView = Backbone.View.extend({
        tagName : "li",

        template: _.template($("#item_template").html()),

        events : {
            "click span.contact-delete": "delete_contact"
        },
        intialize: function(){
            this.bind('change',this.render,this);
            this.bind('destroy',this.remove,this);
        },
        render: function() {
          $(this.el).html(this.template(this.model.toJSON()));
          this.setContent();
          return this;
        },
        setContent: function() {
            var first_name = this.model.get("first_name");
            var last_name = this.model.get("last_name");
            var phone = this.model.get("phone");
            var name = first_name+" "+last_name;
            this.$('.contact-name').html(name);
            this.$('.contact-phone').html(phone);
        },
        remove: function() {
              $(this.el).remove();
        },
        delete_contact: function() {
            this.model.destroy();
        }
    });

    //The Application
    AppView = Backbone.View.extend({

        el: $("#contact-app"),

        events : {
            "click #new-contact #save-button": "createContact"
        },
        intialize: function() {

            Contacts.bind("add", this.addOne, this);
            Contacts.bind("reset", this.addAll, this);          
            Contacts.fetch();
        },

        // Add a single contact item to the list by creating a view for it, and
        // appending its element to the `<ul>`.
        addOne: function(contact) {
          var view = new ContactView({model: contact});
          this.$("#contact-list").append(view.render().el);
        },
        // Add all items in the **Contacts** collection at once.
        addAll: function() {
          Contacts.each(this.addOne);
        },
        // Generate the attributes for a new Contact item.
        newAttributes: function() {
          return {
            first_name : this.$('#first_name').val(),
            last_name : this.$('#last_name').val(),
            phone : this.$('#phone').val()
          };
        },
        createContact: function() {
            Contacts.create(this.newAttributes());
            //Reset Form
            this.$('#first_name').val('');
            this.$('#last_name').val('');
            this.$('#phone').val('');
        }
    });

    // Finally,kick things off by creating the **App**.
     var App = new AppView;
});

And this is my html source

   <div id="contact-app">

        <div class="title">
            <h1>Contacts App</h1>
        </div>

        <div class="content">

            <div id="new-contact">
                <input name="first_name" placeholder="First Name" type="text" id="first_name"/>
                <input name="last_name" placeholder="Last Name" type="text" id="last_name" />
                <input name="phone" placeholder="Phone Number" type="text" id="phone" />
                <button id="save-button">Create Contact</button>
            </div>

            <div id="contacts">
                <ul id="contact-list">
                </ul>
            </div>

            <div id="contact-stats"></div>

        </div>

    </div>
    <script type="text/template" id="item_template">
    <div class="contact">
        <div class="contact-name"></div>
        <div class="contact-phone"><div>
        <span class="contact-delete"></span>
    </div>
  </script>

The contact data gets saved in the local storage, which i can see via firebug but the view is not updated. Am new to backbone.js. What is the problem, there are no javascript errors.

Answer 1

Try using "add" instead of 'create' for adding models to the collection (I don't think the 'add' event is being fired by the 'create' method).

Instead of

    Contacts.create(this.newAttributes());

Use

   Contacts.add(this.newAttributes());

To save the model to local storage you can call the save method

addOne: function(contact) {

      var view = new ContactView({model: contact});
      contact.save();
      this.$("#contact-list").append(view.render().el);
    }, 

EDIT:

Another thing check the spelling of your "intialize" method i think it should be "initialize".

Here's a jsFiddle, I'm not saving it to localStorage in the jsfiddle, but that should work by you.

Answer 2

On the model, the defaults should take care of the default values, the initialize functions are probably not needed; someone correct me on this if i'm wrong.

On your ContactView, you may have to change your render line to this in your initialize method:

this.model.bind('change', _.bind(this.render, this));