Backbone.js and JQueryUI Dialog - events not bindi

Question

I'm trying to use Backbone.js to in a JQuery Dialog. I've managed to get the dialog to render and open, but it doesn't seem to be firing my events. I've added a test event to check this, and clicking it doesn't have the expected result.

I've tried following the instructions on this blogpost, regarding delegateEvents, but nothing it made no difference. No errors are thrown, the events just don't fire. Why is this?

Slx.Dialogs.NewBroadcastDialog.View = Backbone.View.extend({
    events: {
        "click .dialog-content": "clickTest"
    },
    clickTest : function () {
        alert("click");
    },
    render: function () {
        var compiledTemplate = Handlebars.compile(this.template);
        var renderedContent = compiledTemplate();

        var options = {
            title: Slx.User.Language.dialog_title_new_message,
            width: 500
        };
        $(renderedContent).dialog(options);
        this.el = $("#newBroadCastContainer");
        this.delegateEvents(this.events);
        return this;
    },
    initialize: function () {
        _.bindAll(this, 'render');
        this.template = $("#newBroadcastDialogTemplate").html();
        this.render();
    }
});

Answer 1

The problem turned out to be due to me assigning this.el when I should have been assigning this.$el

This worked perfectly:

Slx.Dialogs.NewBroadcastDialog.View = Backbone.View.extend({
    el: "#newBroadcastContainer",
    events: {
        "click .clicktest": "clickTest"
    },
    clickTest : function () {
        console.log("click");
    },
    render: function () {
        var compiledTemplate = Handlebars.compile(this.template);
        var renderedContent = compiledTemplate();

        var options = {
            title: Slx.User.Language.dialog_title_new_message,
            width: 500
        };

        this.$el = $(renderedContent).dialog(options);
        return this;
    },
    initialize: function () {
        _.bindAll(this, 'render');
        this.template = $("#newBroadcastDialogTemplate").html();
        this.render(); 
    }
});

Answer 2

I had two codebases on one of the code base I was able to bind events by assigning the dialog to this.$el however in the other codebase this somehow did not work. I add the following line this.el = this.$el; to the code and it is working now. however I am still not able to figure out why it was working in one codebase and not the other and why assigning $el to el got it to work.

Answer 3

You might want to try this. I had to refactor your code a bit hope you will get the idea

Slx.Dialogs.NewBroadcastDialog.View = Backbone.View.extend({
    el:"#newBroadCastContainer",
    template:$("#newBroadcastDialogTemplate").html(),
    events: {
        "click .dialog-content": "clickTest"
    },
    clickTest : function () {
        alert("click");
    },
    render: function () {
        var compiledTemplate = Handlebars.compile(this.template);
        var renderedContent = compiledTemplate();
        $(this.el).html(renderedContent).hide().dialog(this.options.dialogConfig);       
        return this;
    },
    initialize: function () {
    }
});

Instantiate and render outside the View definition

var myDialog = new Slx.Dialogs.NewBroadcastDialog.View({dialogConfig:{title: Slx.User.Language.dialog_title_new_message,width: 500}});
myDialog.render();