Backbone.js: What is paramRoot: attribute in backbone.model?
backbone-rails, backbone.js, ruby-on-rails
Solution
Backbone-rails doesn't document `paramRoot`. I suppose you're supposed to use the generators to build your models:
class <%= model_namespace %> extends Backbone.Model
paramRoot: '<%= singular_table_name %>'
#...
and blindly do as you're told.
If you want to know what it does then you have to read the source (as usual). The only thing in Backbone-rails that uses `paramRoot` is their replacement for the standard `Backbone.sync`; their replacement contains this:
if(model.paramRoot) {
data[model.paramRoot] = model.toJSON();
} else {
data = model.toJSON();
}
All that does is change a model's serialized attributes from the standard `{attr1: v1, attr2: v2, ...}` Backbone form to the `{ model_name: { attr1: v1, ... } }` form that Rails wants; then you can look at `params[:model_name]` in your Rails controllers rather than looking at just `params`.
Problem
I use rails-backbone gem and I generated a Backbone model. The model includes `paramRoot:` attribute. I assume it somehow tells Backbone how to connect to the corresponding Rails model, but I can't find any documentation about it. What does `paramRoot` actually do?