The Two Rules of Software Fight Club

borrowed from http://hdle12.tumblr.com/

Lets Face It...We're Lazy

But that's why we became programmers. Why do something over and over again when you can just write a small shell script to do it for you?

Hate That New Github Redesign?

function pr (){
    ARGS=("$@")

    # are we in a git repo?
    GIT_BRANCH=$(git branch 2>/dev/null | sed -n '/^\*/s/^\* //p')
    if ! git rev-parse --git-dir > /dev/null 2>&1; then
        echo "You're not in a git repo..."
        return 0
    fi

    GIT_REPO_NAME=$(basename `git rev-parse --show-toplevel`)

    # make the pull request and get the ID
    PULL_URL=$(git pull-request "${ARGS[0]}" -b CondeNast:development -h CondeNast:$GIT_BRANCH)
    echo "Pull request made: $PULL_URL"
    PULL_ID=$(echo $PULL_URL | cut -d/ -f 7)
}
						

So what's this Backbone Thing?

But I still have to maintain models twice...

class Post(SQLObject):
    body = UnicodeCol()
    author = ForeignKey('users')
    posted_on = DateTimeCol(default=datetime.datetime.now)
    created_on = DateTimeCol(default=datetime.datetime.now)
    tags = RelatedJoin('tag')
	   						

var Post = Backbone.Model.extend({
    defaults: {
        body: "",
        author: 0,
        posted_on: (new Date).toString(),
        created_on: (new Date).toString(),
        tags: []
    }
});
							

Luckily Backbone.Sync is Designed for this

Backbone.Sync has a very easy signature to replace:

Backbone.Sync = function(method, model, options);
							

So we need to take that signature and just write it so it reads/writes from the datastore. For a DB interface, we'll use MongoJS

And since it returns a jQuery $.Deferred on the front end, we'll make this "less surprises" and give you back a `then`-able promise from Q.

Stub Out Module...

function mongo_sync(server, collection){
	return function (method, model, options){
		var mongojs = require('mongojs');
		var q = require('q');
		var deferred = q.defer();
		var db = mongojs(server)
					.collection(collection);

		switch(method){
		}
		return d.promise;
	};
};
							

Switch since, well, I'm Lazy

switch(method){
    case 'create':
        break;
    case 'update':
    case 'patch':
        break;
    case 'delete':
        break;
    case 'read':
       break;
    default:
       break;
}
							

Add in a Generic callback...

var callback = function(err, results){
	if(err){
		d.reject(err);
	} else {
		if(results === 1){
			d.resolve(model.toJSON());
		} else {
			d.resolve(results[0]);
		}
	}
}
							

Create, Update, Patch and Delete

case 'create':
	collection.insert(model.toJSON(), {safe: true}, callback);
	break;
case 'update':
case 'patch':
	collection.save(model.toJSON(), callback);
	break;
case 'delete':
	collection.remove(model.toJSON(), callback);
	break;
							

Read is a Little More Complex

case 'read':
	var _id = model.get('_id');
	var query_params = {};
	if (_id) {
	  query_params._id = mongojs.ObjectId(_id);
	} else {
	  d.reject(new Error('You must provide an _id to lookup'));
	}
	collection.find(query_params, db_callback);
	break;
default:
	d.reject(new Error('Unimplemented'));
	break;
						

A Word of Caution

You might have noticed this specifically doesn't think about collections.

That is an exercise left up to the reader.

We're Almost Home

Now onto number two: determining environment. There are a couple of things we need to consider for this:

• Is process available?
• Is exports available?
• If we expect Browserify to work, we need to check process.browser as well

Attach the Sync on the Server

if(typeof process !== 'undefined' &&
   !process.browser &&
   typeof exports !== 'undefined'){
    Backbone.sync = mongosync(server, collection)
}
							

Don't forget: we need to make sure the sync method gets the datastore configuration!

And Use that to Return a Custom Model

module.exports = function(server, collection){
	if(typeof process !== 'undefined' &&
   	   !process.browser &&
   	   typeof exports !== 'undefined'){
    	Backbone.sync = mongosync(server, collection);
	}

	return Backbone.Model.extend({idAttribute: '_id'});
}