Author Archives:

Backbone.Syphon: Serialize Form Inputs To JavaScript Objects

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Derick Bailey

Working with form elements in a Backbone view can become very tedious very quickly. You will either end up writing a lot of repetitive code to read values from the form, or end up using a key-value-observer or data-binding solution … Continue reading →

Posted in Backbone, Backbone.Syphon, Javascript, JQuery, JSON | 10 Comments

Workflow In Backbone Apps: Triggering View Events From DOM Events

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Derick Bailey

In my previous blog post, I talked about modeling an explicit workflow in JavaScript and Backbone application. The last code sample I showed had the implementation of the workflow object itself, but omitted all of the details of the views … Continue reading →

Posted in Backbone, Javascript, Workflow | 1 Comment

Modeling Explicit Workflow With Code, In JavaScript And Backbone Apps

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Derick Bailey

A long time ago, in what seems to be a previous life at this point, I wrote a small blog post about modeling and creating an explicit return value from a dialog form in a Windows application. Fast forward a … Continue reading →

Posted in AntiPatterns, Backbone, Javascript, Principles and Patterns, Workflow | 11 Comments

Help Me Improve The Marionette Wiki

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Derick Bailey

Documentation is difficult to write, and even more difficult to write well so that it covers all of the nuances and details that the people building the actual project tend to assume and forget. My Marionette project is no different. … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Marionette | 1 Comment

Wrapping $.ajax In A Thin “Command” Framework For Backbone Apps

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Derick Bailey

A large number of my recent client applications, built on Backbone, have been using straight jQuery AJAX calls. Sometimes its in combination with Backbone’s persistence method, but other times I end up using AJAX calls in place of Backbone calls. … Continue reading →

Posted in AJAX, Backbone, JQuery, Semantics, Underscore | 4 Comments

View Helpers For Underscore Templates

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Derick Bailey

Underscore’s template engine lets you run any arbitrary JavaScript code that you want, within a template. You could write an entire JavaScript application within an underscore template if you want. But this is a really bad idea. Templates should be … Continue reading →

Posted in Backbone, Javascript, Marionette, Underscore | 8 Comments

Executing A Project-Specific Node/NPM Package A-la “bundle exec”

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Derick Bailey

It’s no secret that I love NodeJS, though I really haven’t blogged about it much (if at all). Frankly, I think Node and NPM are going to be eating Ruby, RubyGems and Bundler’s $25,000 lunch – at least on OSX. … Continue reading →

Posted in Command Line, Javascript, NodeJS, NPM | 3 Comments

WatchMeCode: Using LiveReload In Web Development

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Derick Bailey

From all of the screencasts that I’ve produced at WatchMeCode so far, the number one question that I get is: What tool do you use to refresh your browser when you change a file in your editor? It’s LiveReload, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Screencast, WatchMeCode, Web Sockets | 2 Comments

Decoupling Backbone Apps From WebSockets

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Derick Bailey

I’ve been doing a lot of work with web sockets lately, in my Backbone applications. And I’ve fallen in to a pattern that I really like, where my Backbone application doesn’t actually know anything about web sockets. All it knows … Continue reading →

Posted in Backbone, Javascript, Marionette, Pusher, SignalR, Socket.IO, Web Sockets | 8 Comments

Managing A Modal Dialog With Backbone And Marionette

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Derick Bailey

My current client project is using Twitter Bootstrap, and I have to say I’m loving it. It provides a simple way to get started with common layout and design elements, and includes a handful of UI widgets and features that … Continue reading →

Posted in Backbone, DOM, Javascript, JQuery, Marionette, Twitter Bootstrap | 9 Comments