Question

I’ve got an app build using Backbone Relation that is leaking memory like crazy. From what I understand this is because I am never calling Backbone.Relational.store.unregister() on my models, causing them to be kept in the store forever and ever.

The data model is fairly deep with many inter-related classes, and I’m more or less continuously fetching model trees matching a changing filter. Ownership of individual models is however unclear as they might also be in use by other parts of the app other than then the one that initially fetched them.

When should I be unregistering the models? After reading the source for Backbone Relational I can see that unregister() is called on ‘destroy’, but since I’m never deleting models that’s a no go.

Answer 1

You should probably describe your setup a bit more. How do you manage and access your models in general? Do you have application scoped singleton collections?

We solved this issue by binding the unregistration to the collection’s remove event. If effect, then, the models were only relational when they were a part of the collection. After a model was removed from the collection, it was discarded. This may or may not work for you, depending on your application’s architecture.

Side note: I’ve since given up Backbone.Relational, because in my experience it is extremely dangerous. When you start using it, it works like a charm, but it’s easy to shoot yourself in the face down the line. Much as you appear to have. And because its design encourages you to couple it tightly with every facet of your application code, getting rid of it can be very difficult.