Question

I’m writing an app with node.js and backbone.js. However when I try to save a model it is nesting the JSON of the model inside a model dictionary.

node = new NodeModel({prop1:"value1", prop2:"value2"});
node.save();

The results of console.log(req.body); inside my node controler show…

{model: {"prop1":"value1", "prop2":"value2"} }

If i use a standard html form to post to the same node controller the results of console.log(req.body); show…

{prop1:"value1", prop2:"value2"}

How can i get the node.save(); function to post the same JSON that the regular HTML does?

Answer 1

Looks like you have Backbone configured to emulate JSON:

emulateJSON Backbone.emulateJSON = true

If you’re working with a legacy web server that can’t handle requests encoded as application/json, setting Backbone.emulateJSON = true; will cause the JSON to be serialized under a model parameter, and the request to be made with a application/x-www-form-urlencoded mime type, as if from an HTML form.

and the corresponding chunk of Backbone.sync looks like this:

if (!options.data && model && (method == 'create' || method == 'update')) {
  params.contentType = 'application/json';
  params.data = JSON.stringify(model.toJSON());
}
//...
if (Backbone.emulateJSON) {
  params.contentType = 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded';
  params.data = params.data ? {model: params.data} : {};
}

You can see the model.toJSON() call in the first if, the model: prefix comes in in the second if. You should be able to say

Backbone.emulateJSON = false;

somewhere in your application setup (after Backbone is loaded, before you try to sync anything) and the model: business will go away.