Question

I’ve just started using spine and I’m having trouble understanding a few things…

class Spk.Register extends Spine.Controller
  render: ->
    @html("<h1>Registration!</h1>")

…

Zepto(function($) {
  new Spk.Register({
    el: $("#data")
  });
});

…I was expecting this to replace any html in the #data element with the html passed to @html when the controller is instantiated, but it doesn’t, nothing happens at all.

I’ve also tried putting the render method in the constructor function but again nothing happens.

How would I replace the html in body with given html when the controller is instantiated?

Answer 1

The problem is the render() method isn’t called.

You have to call it explicitly after controller instantiated.

Anyway, I think you shouldn’t do any rendering in the constructor.
Better option is:

• to have a model (MVC architecture) which triggers particular event
  after the data loaded from the server,
• the controller should define event handler for that event and it will render the view.

EDIT
Just very simple code snippet how it could be (CoffeeScript, using jQuery):

The Task model class:

class Task extends Spine.Model

  @configure 'Task', 'name', 'deadline'

  @fetch () ->
    Task.deleteAll()
    # ... load data from the server ...
    Task.create name: 'foo', deadline: '2012-11-22' # create local instance(s)
    Task.trigger 'data-loaded'
    return

The controller:

class Tasks extends Spine.Controller

  constructor: ->
    super

  init: () ->
    @routes
        'list': (params) ->
            Task.fetch()
            return
    Task.bind 'data-loaded', () => 
        @render()
        return
    return

render: () ->
    @el.render Task.all()
    return

The initialization code (another possibility could be Spine.js controller stack):

tasksCtrl = new Tasks el: $('.task-list')
tasksCtrl.navigate 'list'

Note that it requires also route.js (included in Spine.js) and I’ve used Transparency template engine (it’s @el.render() meth). Then the template looks like:

<div class="task-list">
    <div class="task">
        <span data-bind="name"></span>
        <span data-bind="deadline"></span>
    </div>
 </div>