Question

In running this on index.html, I get the following error: “Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token :”, referring to

events: {
            "click #add-friend": "showPrompt",
        },

It specifically refers to the “:” here “click #add-friend”: “showPrompt”
More context below. Any advice would be appreciated.

(function ($) {

    Friend = Backbone.Model.extend({
        // create a model to to hold friend attribute
        name: null
    });

    Friends = Backbone.Collection.extend({
        // this is our friends collection and holds out Friend models
        initialize: function(models, options) {
            this.bind("add", options.view.addFriendLi);
            // listens for "add" and calls a view function if so
        }
    });

    AppView = Backbone.View.extend({
        el: $("body"),
        initialize: function () {
            this.friends = new Friends(null, {view: this});
        // creates a new friends collection when the view is initialized
        // pass it a reference to the view to create a connection between the two
        events: {
            "click #add-friend": "showPrompt"
        },
        showPrompt: function () {
            var friend_name = prompt("Who is your friend?");
            var friend_model = new Friend({name:friend_name});
            // adds a new friend model to out Friend collection
            this.friends.add(friend_model);
        },
        addFriendLi: function (model) {
            // the parameter passed is a reference to the model that was added
            $("#friends_list").append("<li>" + model.get('name') + "</li>");
        }
    });
    var appview = new AppView;
})(jQuery);

Answer 1

You’ve got an extra comma at the end:

"click #add-friend": "showPrompt" // remove the comma

You are also missing a closing } at the end of the initialize method:

initialize: function () {
    this.friends = new Friends(null, {view: this});
}, // add a "}," here

events: {
   "click #add-friend": "showPrompt"
},