format collection in backbone.js

Question

Hi i need to format my Collection in order to for my Rest to accept the request. ( I recreated my project so i already know specifically what format my REST accepts )

The format should be :

{"input":"{invoice:[{}]","InvoiceDetails:[{},{},{}]}}

So in my backbone project i have:

CartCollection //collection
InvoiceDetailsCollection //collection
Invoice //model
InvoiceDetail //model
Cart //model

This is my save function:

save: function(){
    invoice = new Invoice();
    invoice.set({POSWorkstationID: "POS7"});
    invoice.set({POSClerkID: "admin"});
    invoice.set({CustomerName: "Alice in Wonderland Tours"});
    invoice.set({IsFreightOverwrite: true});
    invoice.set({BillToCode: "CUST-000009"});
    InvoiceDetailCollection.add([{Invoices: invoice}]);

    _.each(this.collection.models, function(cart){
        InvoiceDetailCollection.add( [{InvoiceDetails: cart }]);
    });
    alert(JSON.stringify(InvoiceDetailCollection.toJSON()));
}

My Current Format is this

[{"Invoices":{"POSWorkstationID":"POS7","POSClerkID":"admin","CustomerName":"Alice in Wonderland Tours","IsFreightOverwrite":true,"BillToCode":"CUST-000009"}},{"InvoiceDetails":{"Qty":"1","ItemCode":"ITEM-000004","ItemDescription":"Old World Lamppost\r\n\r\n","RetailPrice":107.99,"SalesPrice":107.99}}]

Answer 1

Nothing in this setup looks standard .

The way you manage the InvoiceDetailCollection is not like a normal Collection , looks more like a Model with two Collections into. A Collection is fed with a Model or the Hash to build a Model not with this key/value pairs that doesn't match with the Collection.model .

Then the URL you want to build has a magic root key called input then one key invoice (lowcase) which contains an array of only one element which is a Hash, then InvoiceDetails (camelcase) which you are continuously reseting to the actual cart content.

I think what you need is:

• InvoiceDetailsCollection : keeping all the carts
• Invoice : the invoice
• Input : the model that keeps both Invoice and InvoiceDetails

Then:

1. Create the Invoice Model.
2. Feed the InvoiceDetailsCollection with your carts.
3. Add the Invoice to Input: Input.set( "invoice", invoice )
4. Add the InvoiceDetailsCollection to Input: Input.set( "invoice_details", InvoiceDetailsCollection )

Overwrite the Input.toJSON to returns input: this.toJSON() (code simplified) .

But still I think your live could be easier if you could change this URL for something more REST. I think that all this info belongs to the Invoice Model so you could accept a request like:

• POST: /invoices
• DATA: { "POSWorkstationID": "POS7", "POSClerkID": "admin", ... , "Details": [{}, {}] }

This way you can remove the Input Model that I suggested to wrapper all the weird behavior and keep the InvoiceDetailsCollection into the Invoice Model.