Question

I got this “object”

Person = Backbone.Model.extend({
    defaults: {
        name: 'Fetus',
        age: 0,
        children: []
    },
    initialize: function() {
        this.bind("change:name", function() {
            var name = this.get("name");
            alert("Changed my name to " + name);
        });
    },
    adopt: function(newChildsName) {
        this.get("children").push(newChildsName);
    },
    setName: function(name) {
        this.set({
            name: name
        });
    }
});

Can’t the set method setName be done like this :
I tried but they don’t work

setName: function(name){
  this.get(name) = name;
}

or

setName: function(name){
  this[name].set(name);
}

Is there another way ? I can’t go around thinking the original way is too ugly to use.

Answer 1

For clarity I am changing the argument name to newName. While:

this.set({name: newName});

means: set a value of an attribute named name with new value of newName parameter (correct), this form:

setName: function(newName){
  this.get(newName) = newName;
}

does nothing. It gets an attribute whose name is provided in newName parameter and returns it. The assignment has no effect.

On the other hand this:

setName: function(newName){
  this[newName].set(newName);
}

will probably throw an error. this is a Backbone model object. It contains attributes property, so probably:

this.attributes[newName] = newName;

is more reasonable (change the attribute whose name is passed in newName parameter to newName value. However in this case the change event won’t be triggered. But let me guess, this is what you really wanted:

setAttr: function(name, value){
  var diff = {};
  diff[name] = value;
  this.set(diff);
}

In this case you can call:

model.setAttr('id', 7);

Which is equivalent to:

model.setAttr({id: 7});

and triggers change:id correctly.