Question

I working through the peepcode backbone.js basics tutorial and as far as I can tell my code is identical to the screencast but my console behaviour is very different.

My Chrome console(used in the screecast) produces this result.

albums = new Albums()
child
albums.fetch()
Object
albums.models()
TypeError: Property 'models' of object [object Object] is not a function

the screencast console looks like this

albums = new Albums()
inherits.child
albums.fetch()
inherits.child
albums.models()
[ inherits.child, inherits.child ]

I’m totally lost as to where this is falling apart. Is it my code(see Below),my browser or something else?

(function($) {

window.Album = Backbone.Model.extend({

    isFirstTrack: function(index) {
        return index == 0;
    },

    isLastTrack: function(index) {
        return index >= this.get('tracks').length - 1;
    },

    trackUrlAtIndex: function(index) {
        if (this.get('tracks').length >= index) {
            return this.get('tracks')[index].url;
        }
        return null;
    }

});

window.Albums = Backbone.Collection.extend({
    model: Album,
    url: "/albums"
});


window.AlbumView = Backbone.View.extend({
    tagName: 'li',
    className: 'album',

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

        this.template = _.template($('#album-template').html());
    },

    render: function() {
        var renderedContent = this.template(this.model.toJSON());
        $(this.el).html(renderedContent);
        return this;
    }

});

})(jQuery)

Answer 1

Your code is fine, the example/screencast have errors or is using older backbonejs implementation and is using older chrome thus the child vs inherits.child output.

• fetch should return object – it’s a jquery deferred object and you can use it to resolve success and error callbacks (check out more on jquery deferred in jquery API docs – great stuff!)
• there is no Backbone.Collection models method – it’s a property on a model instance and should be accessed by albums.models rather then albums.models()