Backbone View

Backbone views are used to reflect what your applications' data models look like. They are also used to listen to events and react accordingly. This tutorial will not be addressing how to bind models and collections to views but will focus on view functionality and how to use views with a JavaScript templating library, specifically Underscore.js's _.template.

We will be using jQuery 1.8.2 as our DOM manipulator. It's possible to use other libraries such as MooTools or Sizzle, but official Backbone.js documentation endorses jQuery. Backbone.View events may not work with other libraries other than jQuery.

For the purposes of this demonstration, we will be implementing a search box.  

    SearchView = Backbone.View.extend({
        initialize: function(){
            alert("Alerts suck.");
        }
    });

    // The initialize function is always called when instantiating a Backbone View.
    // Consider it the constructor of the class.
    var search_view = new S


earchView();