Question

I was having issues idAttribute causing .save() to report a bad isNew() value when I wanted to add a new model to the server with the ID pre-populated.. which led me to keep it off and set the model.id manually.

Here’s my View:

    RecordListItemView = Backbone.View.extend({
        initialize:function () {
            var record = this.model.attributes;
            if (record.user_id) {
                this.model.id = parseInt( record.user_id );
                record.id = parseInt( record.user_id );
                    // Added this so ID would show up in model and .attributes
            }
            this.model.bind("change", this.render, this);
            this.model.bind("destroy", this.close, this);
        },

        render:function (eventName) {
            $(this.el).html(this.template(this.model));
            console.log(this);
            return this;
        }
    });

At this point I am unable to retrieve any records using collection.get(id), though I am able to do so via collection.getByCid(cid) just fine.

Here’s my console.log output:

    d
      $el: e.fn.e.init[1]
      cid: "view36"
      el: HTMLLIElement
      model: d
        _callbacks: Object
        _escapedAttributes: Object
        _pending: Object
        _previousAttributes: Object
        _silent: Object
        attributes: Object
        id: 15
        user_id: "15"
        user_name: "Test"
        __proto__: Object
      changed: Object
      cid: "c8"
      collection: d
      id: 15
      __proto__: x
    options: Object
    __proto__: x

Is there a way to fix collection.get(id) without having to alter my database to include an id field? (Currently using user_id as the pk)

As posted below by Benjamin Cox: (with parseInt() removed as unnecessary)

Replace

    this.model.id = record.user_id;

with

    this.model.set({ id: record.user_id });

.. to avoid bypassing the Model’s change event which in turn updates the Collection’s internal_byId[] array.

After testing both, I wound up using mu is too short’s parse suggestion..

    parse: function(response) {
        return {
            id: response.user_id,
            user_id: response.user_id,
            user_name: response.user_name
        };
    }

Answer 1

The reason that calling collection.get(id) doesn’t find your model is that you’re bypassing Backbone’s event mechanism when you do:

this.model.id = parseInt( record.user_id );

If you do this instead:

this.model.set({ id: parseInt(record.user_id)});

then the Backbone event code in the model’s set() method will fire a “change:id” event. The collection, in turn, listens for this event and updates it’s internal _byId[] array variable. Later, when you call collection.get(id), this array is used to search for the matching model.