The current method I'm using is to filter a collection, which returns an array, and use
collection.reset(array)
to re-populate it. However, this modifies the original collection, so I added an array called "originalCollectionArray" which keeps track of the initial array state of the collection. When no filtering is active I simply use
collection.reset(originalCollectionArray)
But then, I need to keep track of adding and removing models from the real collection, so I did this:
// inside collection
initialize: function(params){
this.originalCollectionArray = params;
this.on('add', this.addInOriginal, this);
this.on('remove', this.removeInOriginal, this);
},
addInOriginal: function(model){
this.originalCollectionArray.push(model.attributes);
},
removeInOriginal: function(model){
this.originalTasks = _(this.originalTasks).reject(function(val){
return val.id == model.get('id');
});
},
filterBy: function(params){
this.reset(this.originalCollectionArray, {silent: true});
var filteredColl = this.filter(function(item){
// filter code...
});
this.reset(filteredColl);
}
This is quickly becoming cumbersome as I try to implement other tricks related to the manipulation of the collection, such as sorting. And frankly, my code looks a bit hacky. Is there an elegant way of doing this?
Thanks
You could create a collection as a property of the main collection reflecting the state of the filters:
var C = Backbone.Collection.extend({
initialize: function (models) {
this.filtered = new Backbone.Collection(models);
this.on('add', this.refilter);
this.on('remove', this.refilter);
},
filterBy: function (params){
var filteredColl = this.filter(function(item){
// ...
});
this.filtered.params = params;
this.filtered.reset(filteredColl);
},
refilter: function() {
this.filterBy(this.filtered.params);
}
});
The parent collection keeps its models whatever filters you applied, and you bind to the filtered collection to know when a change has occurred. Binding internally on the add and remove events lets you reapply the filter. See
http://jsfiddle.net/dQr7X/ for a demo.
The major problem on your code is that you are using a raw array as original, instead of a Collection. My code is close to the yours but use only Collections, so methods like add, remove and filter works on the original:
var OriginalCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
});
var FilteredCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
initialize: function(originalCol){
this.originalCol = originalCol;
this.on('add', this.addInOriginal, this);
this.on('remove', this.removeInOriginal, this);
},
addInOriginal: function(model){
this.originalCol.add(model);
},
removeInOriginal: function(model){
this.originalCol.remove(model);
},
filterBy: function(params){
var filteredColl = this.originalCol.filter(function(item){
// filter code...
});
this.reset(filteredColl);
}
});