What is a router?

Backbone routers are used for routing your applications URL's when using hash tags(#). In the traditional MVC sense they don't necessarily fit the semantics and if you have read "What is a view?" it will elaborate on this point. Though a Backbone "router" is still very useful for any application/feature that needs URL routing/history capabilities.

Defined routers should always contain at least one route and a function to map the particular route to. In the example below we are going to define a route that is always called.

Also note that routes interpret anything after "#" tag in the URL. All links in your application should target "#/action" or "#action". (Appending a forward slash after the hashtag looks a bit nicer e.g. http://example.com/#/user/help)


<script>
    var AppRouter = Backbone.Router.extend({
        routes: {
            "*actions": "defaultRoute" // matches http://example.com/#anything-here
        }
    });
    // Initiate the router
    var app_router = new AppRouter;

    app_router.on('route:defaultRoute', function(actions) {
        alert(actions);
    })

    // Start Backbone history a necessary step for bookmarkable URL's
    Backbone.history.start();

</script>

Activate route

Activate another route

Notice the change in the url

Dynamic Routing

Most conventional frameworks allow you to define routes that contain a mix of static and dynamic route parameters. For example you might want to retrieve a post with a variable id with a friendly URL string. Such that your URL would look like "http://example.com/#/posts/12". Once this route was activated you would want to access the id given in the URL string. This example is implemented below.


<script>
    var AppRouter = Backbone.Router.extend({
        routes: {
            "posts/:id": "getPost",
            "*actions": "defaultRoute" // Backbone will try to match the route above first
        }
    });
    // Instantiate the router
    var app_router = new AppRouter;
    app_router.on('route:getPost', function (id) {
        // Note the variable in the route definition being passed in here
        alert( "Get post number " + id );   
    });
    app_router.on('route:defaultRoute', function (actions) {
        alert( actions ); 
    });
    // Start Backbone history a necessary step for bookmarkable URL's
    Backbone.history.start();

</script>

Post 120

Post 130

Notice the change in the url

Dynamic Routing Cont. ":params" and "*splats"

Backbone uses two styles of variables when implementing routes. First there are ":params" which match any URL components between slashes. Then there are "*splats" which match any number of URL components. Note that due to the nature of a "*splat" it will always be the last variable in your URL as it will match any and all components.

Any "*splats" or ":params" in route definitions are passed as arguments (in respective order) to the associated function. A route defined as "/:route/:action" will pass 2 variables (“route” and “action”) to the callback function. (If this is confusing please post a comment and I will try articulate it better)

Here are some examples of using ":params" and "*splats"


        routes: {

            "posts/:id": "getPost",
            // <a href="http://example.com/#/posts/121">Example</a>

            "download/*path": "downloadFile",
            // <a href="http://example.com/#/download/user/images/hey.gif">Download</a>

            ":route/:action": "loadView",
            // <a href="http://example.com/#/dashboard/graph">Load Route/Action View</a>

        },

        app_router.on('route:getPost', function( id ){ 
            alert(id); // 121 
        });
        app_router.on('route:downloadFile', function( path ){ 
            alert(path); // user/images/hey.gif 
        });
        app_router.on('route:loadView', function( route, action ){ 
            alert(route + "_" + action); // dashboard_graph 
        });

Routes are quite powerful and in an ideal world your application should never contain too many. If you need to implement hash tags with SEO in mind, do a google search for "google seo hashbangs". Also check out Seo Server

Remember to do a pull request for any errors you come across.

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