Question

I have the following chunk of code. It works perfectly.

<div id="restaurant_locations"></div>

<script type="text/javascript">
  $(function() {
    window.router = new Lunchhub.Routers.RestaurantLocationsRouter({restaurantLocations: <%= @restaurant_locations.to_json.html_safe -%>});
    var Foo = Backbone.Router.extend({routes: {"foo":"bar"}});
    r = new Foo();
    Backbone.history.start();
  });
</script>

However, THIS does NOT work:

<div id="restaurant_locations"></div>

<script type="text/javascript">
  $(function() {
    window.router = new Lunchhub.Routers.RestaurantLocationsRouter({restaurantLocations: <%= @restaurant_locations.to_json.html_safe -%>});
    // All I did was delete the two lines that used to be here
    Backbone.history.start();
  });
</script>

The latter snippet gives me this error:

Uncaught TypeError: Cannot call method 'start' of undefined

So my Foo router instance triggers a proper initialization of Backbone.history, just like you would expect a router instance to do, but my Lunchhub.Routers.RestaurantLocationsRouter instance does not.

Here’s my router definition in CoffeeScript (generated automatically by the backbone-rails gem):

class Lunchhub.Routers.RestaurantLocationsRouter extends Backbone.Router
  initialize: (options) ->
    @restaurantLocations = new Lunchhub.Collections.RestaurantLocationsCollection()
    @restaurantLocations.reset options.restaurantLocations

  routes:
    "new"      : "newRestaurantLocation"
    "index"    : "index"
    ":id/edit" : "edit"
    ":id"      : "show"
    ".*"        : "index"

  newRestaurantLocation: ->
    @view = new Lunchhub.Views.RestaurantLocations.NewView(collection: @restaurant_locations)
    $("#restaurant_locations").html(@view.render().el)

  index: ->
    @view = new Lunchhub.Views.RestaurantLocations.IndexView(restaurant_locations: @restaurant_locations)
    $("#restaurant_locations").html(@view.render().el)

  show: (id) ->
    restaurant_location = @restaurant_locations.get(id)

    @view = new Lunchhub.Views.RestaurantLocations.ShowView(model: restaurant_location)
    $("#restaurant_locations").html(@view.render().el)

  edit: (id) ->
    restaurant_location = @restaurant_locations.get(id)

    @view = new Lunchhub.Views.RestaurantLocations.EditView(model: restaurant_location)
    $("#restaurant_locations").html(@view.render().el)

And here’s the compiled JavaScript:

(function() {
  var __hasProp = Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty,
    __extends = function(child, parent) { for (var key in parent) { if (__hasProp.call(parent, key)) child[key] = parent[key]; } function ctor() { this.constructor = child; } ctor.prototype = parent.prototype; child.prototype = new ctor; child.__super__ = parent.prototype; return child; };

  Lunchhub.Routers.RestaurantLocationsRouter = (function(_super) {

    __extends(RestaurantLocationsRouter, _super);

    function RestaurantLocationsRouter() {
      RestaurantLocationsRouter.__super__.constructor.apply(this, arguments);
    }

    RestaurantLocationsRouter.prototype.initialize = function(options) {
      this.restaurantLocations = new Lunchhub.Collections.RestaurantLocationsCollection();
      return this.restaurantLocations.reset(options.restaurantLocations);
    };

    RestaurantLocationsRouter.prototype.routes = {
      "new": "newRestaurantLocation",
      "index": "index",
      ":id/edit": "edit",
      ":id": "show",
      ".*": "index"
    };

    RestaurantLocationsRouter.prototype.newRestaurantLocation = function() {
      this.view = new Lunchhub.Views.RestaurantLocations.NewView({
        collection: this.restaurant_locations
      });
      return $("#restaurant_locations").html(this.view.render().el);
    };

    RestaurantLocationsRouter.prototype.index = function() {
      this.view = new Lunchhub.Views.RestaurantLocations.IndexView({
        restaurant_locations: this.restaurant_locations
      });
      return $("#restaurant_locations").html(this.view.render().el);
    };

    RestaurantLocationsRouter.prototype.show = function(id) {
      var restaurant_location;
      restaurant_location = this.restaurant_locations.get(id);
      this.view = new Lunchhub.Views.RestaurantLocations.ShowView({
        model: restaurant_location
      });
      return $("#restaurant_locations").html(this.view.render().el);
    };

    RestaurantLocationsRouter.prototype.edit = function(id) {
      var restaurant_location;
      restaurant_location = this.restaurant_locations.get(id);
      this.view = new Lunchhub.Views.RestaurantLocations.EditView({
        model: restaurant_location
      });
      return $("#restaurant_locations").html(this.view.render().el);
    };

    return RestaurantLocationsRouter;

  })(Backbone.Router);

}).call(this);

What could be going wrong here?

EDIT: I’ve figured out part of the problem. In the CoffeeScript, it was using restaurant_locations in some places where it should have been using restaurantLocations. I’m having a strange problem now, but potentially an easier one: when I copy and paste the compiled JavaScript directly into <script> area, right before the window.router = assignment, everything works perfectly. However, when I try to use the compiled JS as an external file (and I know it’s being included – I checked), I get that same Cannot call method 'start' of undefined error.

Here’s my updated CoffeeScript:

class Lunchhub.Routers.RestaurantLocationsRouter extends Backbone.Router
  initialize: (options) ->
    @restaurantLocations = new Lunchhub.Collections.RestaurantLocationsCollection()
    @restaurantLocations.reset options.restaurantLocations

  routes:
    "new"      : "newRestaurantLocation"
    "index"    : "index"
    ":id/edit" : "edit"
    ":id"      : "show"
    ".*"        : "index"

  newRestaurantLocation: ->
    @view = new Lunchhub.Views.RestaurantLocations.NewView(collection: @restaurantLocations)
    $("#restaurant_locations").html(@view.render().el)

  index: ->
    @view = new Lunchhub.Views.RestaurantLocations.IndexView(restaurantLocations: @restaurantLocations)
    $("#restaurant_locations").html(@view.render().el)

  show: (id) ->
    restaurant_location = @restaurantLocations.get(id)

    @view = new Lunchhub.Views.RestaurantLocations.ShowView(model: restaurant_location)
    $("#restaurant_locations").html(@view.render().el)

  edit: (id) ->
    restaurant_location = @restaurantLocations.get(id)

    @view = new Lunchhub.Views.RestaurantLocations.EditView(model: restaurant_location)
    $("#restaurant_locations").html(@view.render().el)

And here’s my updated compiled JavaScript:

(function() {
  var __hasProp = Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty,
    __extends = function(child, parent) { for (var key in parent) { if (__hasProp.call(parent, key)) child[key] = parent[key]; } function ctor() { this.constructor = child; } ctor.prototype = parent.prototype; child.prototype = new ctor; child.__super__ = parent.prototype; return child; };

  Lunchhub.Routers.RestaurantLocationsRouter = (function(_super) {

    __extends(RestaurantLocationsRouter, _super);

    function RestaurantLocationsRouter() {
      RestaurantLocationsRouter.__super__.constructor.apply(this, arguments);
    }

    RestaurantLocationsRouter.prototype.initialize = function(options) {
      this.restaurantLocations = new Lunchhub.Collections.RestaurantLocationsCollection();
      return this.restaurantLocations.reset(options.restaurantLocations);
    };

    RestaurantLocationsRouter.prototype.routes = {
      "new": "newRestaurantLocation",
      "index": "index",
      ":id/edit": "edit",
      ":id": "show",
      ".*": "index"
    };

    RestaurantLocationsRouter.prototype.newRestaurantLocation = function() {
      this.view = new Lunchhub.Views.RestaurantLocations.NewView({
        collection: this.restaurantLocations
      });
      return $("#restaurant_locations").html(this.view.render().el);
    };

    RestaurantLocationsRouter.prototype.index = function() {
      this.view = new Lunchhub.Views.RestaurantLocations.IndexView({
        restaurantLocations: this.restaurantLocations
      });
      return $("#restaurant_locations").html(this.view.render().el);
    };

    RestaurantLocationsRouter.prototype.show = function(id) {
      var restaurant_location;
      restaurant_location = this.restaurantLocations.get(id);
      this.view = new Lunchhub.Views.RestaurantLocations.ShowView({
        model: restaurant_location
      });
      return $("#restaurant_locations").html(this.view.render().el);
    };

    RestaurantLocationsRouter.prototype.edit = function(id) {
      var restaurant_location;
      restaurant_location = this.restaurantLocations.get(id);
      this.view = new Lunchhub.Views.RestaurantLocations.EditView({
        model: restaurant_location
      });
      return $("#restaurant_locations").html(this.view.render().el);
    };

    return RestaurantLocationsRouter;

  })(Backbone.Router);

}).call(this);

Answer 1

Okay, this turned out to be a pretty esoteric problem. I had had a leftover backbone-min.js sitting in my app/assets/javascripts directory, even though I had switched to using a different Backbone file. This “old” backbone-min.js was getting loaded after my route definition and that’s what was messing things up. After I deleted backbone-min.js, things started working.