Question

I have a few different problems going on, I hope though this example is easy to follow. The code uses an HTML template with elements hidden by default (using CSS). The Backbone View uses data in a Model to display appropriate values OR hide the UI element if no value is present in the Mode.

Given a template where everything is hidden by default (using CSS), for example:

<script type="text/template" id="Person-Template">
    <span class="fname" title="FirstName"></span>
    <span class="lname" title="LastName"></span>
    <span class="age" title="Age"></span>
</script>

To hide each UI element the CSS is:

span.fname,
span.lname,
span.age {
    display:none; 
}

My Backbone.js Model would therefore be:

PersonModel = Backbone.Model.extend({
        defaults: {
            fname: undefined,
            lname: undefined,
            age: undefined
        }
    });

The View (simplified) would be:

PersonView = Backbone.View.extend({
    tagName: 'div',

    initialize: function() {
        this.model.on("fname", this.updateFName, this);
        this.model.on("lname", this.updateLName, this);
        this.model.on("age", this.updateAge, this);
    },

    updateFName: function() {
        // Pseudo code 
        Get 'new' value from Model
        Obtain reference to DOM element span.fname
        Update span.fname

        if (model value is empty) {
           Hide UI element.
        }
    },

    updateLName: function() {
        // Same as above
    },

    updateAge: function() {
        // Same as above
    },

    render: function() {
        // Get model values to display
        var values = {
            FirstName : this.model.get('fname'),
            LastName : this.model.get('lname'),
            Age: this.model.get('age'),
        };

        // Load HTML template
        var template = $('#Person-Template').html();

        // Populate template with values
        var t = _.template(template, values);

       // Show / hide UI elements
       this.updateFname();
       this.updateLName();
       this.updateAge();
    }

}

Finally, the question: It seems hacky calling each updateXYZ() method from render() just to determine whether the UI element should be set to hidden or visible. I have a lot of attributes in my model and the code just seems a little absurd really.

I have been told on SO that the View should not be responsible for determining what should or should be displays. My questions is, well then what is responsible? The user may perform some (valid) aciton which clears the First Name, in which case I don’t want my View displaying ‘First name:’ followed by no value.

Answer 1

First of all, you don’t need to build your values by hand, just use toJSON:

var values = this.model.toJSON();

Then, you have to add your filled in template to your view’s el:

this.$el.html(_.template(template, values));

and your template should probably include something to display in your template:

<script type="text/template" id="Person-Template">
    <span class="fname" title="FirstName">F: <%= fname %></span>
    <span class="lname" title="LastName">L: <%= lname %></span>
    <span class="age" title="Age">A: <%= age %></span>
</script>

You don’t separate functions for each of the three parts, you could just loop through them in your render:

_(values).each(function(v, k) {
    var m = _(v).isUndefined() ? 'hide' : 'show';
    this.$('.' + k)[m]();
}, this);

Now back to your events. There is no such thing as an "fname" event unless you’ve added a custom one. But there’s no need for that, the model will trigger "change" and "change:fname" events when the fname is changed; you only need to care about "change" though:

initialize: function() {
    _.bindAll(this, 'render');
    this.model.on("change", this.render);
},

I’ve also bound render to your view instance using _.bindAll so that you don’t have to worry about the third argument to this.model.on.

Now you have something that works: http://jsfiddle.net/ambiguous/46puP/

---

You can also push the “should this be displayed” logic into the template:

<script type="text/template" id="Person-Template">
    <% if(fname) { %><span class="fname" title="FirstName">F: <%= fname %></span><% } %>
    <% if(lname) { %><span class="lname" title="LastName">L: <%= lname %></span><%  } %>
    <% if(age)   { %><span class="age" title="Age">A: <%= age %></span><%           } %>
</script>

and simplify your render:

render: function() {
    var values   = this.model.toJSON();
    var template = $('#Person-Template').html();
    this.$el.html(_.template(template, values));
    return this;
}

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/ambiguous/W9cnJ/

This approach would probably be the most common and there’s nothing wrong with it. I think you’re misunderstanding what the previous answer was trying to tell you. The template chooses what pieces of information to display through <%= ... %> already so there’s no good reason that it shouldn’t see if fname, for example, is set before trying to display it. Depending on the nature of your data, you might want to use if(!_(fname).isUndefined()) and such in your template but a simple truthiness check is probably fine; the age might be an issue in some cases though so you might want to be a bit stricter with that.