Question

I have the set up below; backbone routing does not kick in on clicking on the products or sales link
DO I have to call navigate from the view explicitly?

<script type="text/javascript">

        $(function () {
            var Router = Backbone.Router.extend({
                routes: {
                    "Products": "products",
                    "Sales": "sales"
                },
                products: function () {
                    console.log('products');
                },
                sales: function () {
                    console.log('sales');
                }
            });
        new Router();
            Backbone.history.start();
        });
        </script> 

And I have 2 links for products in the aspx page

<div id= "Store">
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#Products">Products</a> </li>
        <li><a href="#Sales"> Sales</a> </li>
</ul>
</div>

Answer 1

The only problem I can see with your code is that app.init is undefined, so the script crashes before hitting the router. If I simply add a stub for that method (or remove app.init()), then the routes get triggered as you expect.

var app = {
    init: function() {}
};

See here: http://jsfiddle.net/ZnrPd/2/