Prepare Backbone 1.4

[megawac]

Some significant changes have occurred on master since 1.3. I'd like to get 1.4 out sooner than later. Below are a list of some of the more important activity highlights over the past couple months:

• Added support for ES6 classes with a preinitialize hook for model creation (Add a preinitialize method to allow for true instance properties and ES6 classes #3827). This one should require a good example of how to create an ES6 class extending from BB

• iterator support a2fc65b

• Fixed a bug with the hash generation from Router.navigate (Router.navigate generated location.hash regression in 1.2 #4025)

• Use the public on method when listening #4131

/cc @akre54 @jridgewell

[jridgewell]

Any others PRs we should merge?

[megawac]

Probably should get in:

• fixed Safari related issue with wrong data put to location.hash #3909

Perhaps

• Collection & Model Mixin #4024
• #3941 return decoded hash in getHash() #3955
• make _validate respect silent option #3884
• Update Collection such that models created by a Collection have model urlRoot == collection.url #3946
• Make model parameter optional for Backbone.sync #4002 (meh)

[vladyslav2]

Any release date of backbone v1.4.0 ?

Thanks for such a nice framework !

[denar90]

@megawac what about separating on several files, thus View, Model, Collection etc will be in their own files?

[megawac]

That was previously discussed in #1598 and #2257. Feel free to leave a comment on those topics @denar90

[typhonrt]

Greets @denar90 et al. regarding separating on several files this is what I've done presently with backbone-es6. Besides converting everything to ES6 + inline documentation I'm angling to fully modularize in separate repos all the main components of Backbone. I've already done this with Events which has no dependencies between modules or Underscore. The inline documentation is great for ES6 codebases using ESDoc (actually TJSDoc; releasing soon) for documentation generation; current API docs. I've held off on this as I thought 1.4 would have been out a bit sooner. I'm using JSPM / SystemJS for bundling distributed releases and it works great; edit: though I'm keen on getting things out on NPM when finished.

To accomplish full modularization I'll be adding an internal Events instance to Backbone to communicate between modules versus direct method calls; there are just a few points where this is pertinent more or less. The eventbus NPM module is backbone-esnext-eventbus and this allows access to several standard eventbus instances for app dev, but also internal backbone-esnext usage. I also added a few extra trigger methods for Events that are quite handy such as being able to have return results synchronously and to trigger asynchronously and receive a Promise with any results. This is rather handy for message passing for modularization and I have a nice plugin system which allows an app to autowire on an eventbus; typhonjs-plugin-manager. A nice feature too is that event registration is transparently handled for plugins by the manager and events are removed automatically when plugins are unloaded / IE plugin lifecycle.

Right now though I'm considering keeping backbone-es6 100% in sync to Backbone and likely in one repo except for Events just to make it easier to update against the mainline Backbone releases. After creating a comprehensive testing infrastructure I am however considering fully modularizing backbone-es6 then creating backbone-esnext for ES6+ usage in implementation. A primary goal there will be to remove Underscore usage internally where standard library functions exist. This already has been done with backbone-esnext-events which has no dependencies. Other goals include replacing jQuery AJAX support w/ fetch accessible via the internal event bus and making sure View / jQuery can be completely separated with the possible drop in addition of a virtual dom solution (maybe Inferno / undecided there). Having things fully modularized also gives the opportunity to play around with Ramda powered Model / Collection components to see if there is enough of an improvement over Underscore. At this point it will be easy to create custom builds of backbone-es6/esnext via JSPM / SystemJS or other bundler / build tools as requested in #1598; though I'll likely publish on NPM once things are solidified.

With these efforts I'm attempting to stay 100% compatible with Backbone for backbone-es6 and may diverge a little for backbone-esnext. I'd be glad to interface with any Backbone collaborators to see if any of this may be appropriate for the mainline Backbone effort.

[bboydflo]

What about including some basic documentation/example of how to use Backbone with Browserify or Webpack? It seems there are more and more people moving especially to webpack, but documentation on how to use backbone is lacking.

[jaapz]

@bboydflo using backbone with browserify should be exactly like using any other package in browserify, so I wouldn't know why to document this specifically for backbone.

[bboydflo]

@jaapz I am in process of switching an app from using browserify to using webpack. I also use lodash as utility library throughout my project, so I wanted to replace underscore dependency with lodash's core.min.js. I think more and more people are using webpack these days. I thought having few paragraphs about it would help them.

[akre54]

We don't officially support Lo-dash or Zepto but there should be plenty of google results out there describing how to make them work with Backbone.

See this and this for example.

[halfnibble]

@bboydflo Why use webpack? If we're going all ES6, then why not use ES6 modules with something like Rollup.js? http://rollupjs.org/

[bboydflo]

@halfnibble because I am just switching from browserify, and a lot of people are talking about webpack. It would be easier to figure it out. I heard about rollup too.

[halfnibble]

@bboydflo That makes sense. But I wonder if someday everyone will stop using custom module bundlers altogether? One thing is certain, Backbone.js will remain. :)

[ahumphreys87]

hey @megawac how far away is 1.4 from landing?

[Borming]

I would like to know that too, how far is 1.4?

[Borming]

Hello, is anyone here? Can someone get some clarification on where is Backbone heading and are there any developers left that are actually working and maintaining Backbone?

Thanks in advance

[tamalsaha]

We are also interested in understanding the future of Backbone. If the core developers are not interested in maintaining or too busy to spend time in evolving backbone, I think we should see if there is community interest in maintaining Backbone.

[megawac]

If anyone is interested in drafting a changelog and submitting a PR I think its time we publish 1.4

[jbboehr]

Does #3615 have any chance of making it in?

[tamalsaha]

@megawac , will #4133 work?

[megawac]

@tamalsaha we need to update the index.html file (see https://github.com/jashkenas/backbone/blob/master/index.html)

[tamalsaha]

@megawac here is take 2 #4134

[Borming]

@megawac no problem, please send me what needs to be done and I will help. I just want to know if Backbone is still alive,....are lead devs still working on Backbone and is there any interest in developing Backbone? Maybe even some roadmap for future Backbone releases...

Its a shame to let such a great framework unmaintained just because lead devs lost interest in it...or?

[megawac]

@Borming if you're interested in updating some sections piecemeal that would be very useful. For example, documenting using ES6 classes with backbone (#3827).

Another good one to document is #4061

[halfnibble]

@typhonrt I recently read up on some of your ideas. I want to see a virtual dom solution too. We could probably drop underscore.js altogether, but it would be nice to find a virtual dom solution that can render existing underscore.js template syntax. I'd like to participate in this effort. Anything you'd like me to do? Should we setup a slack?

[typhonrt]

@halfnibble I updated my above comment with a few more details. Right now I have backbone-esnext-events published and it works alone of course, but typhonjs-plugin-manager adds nice modularization functionality for autowiring events to plugins and handling transparent event unregistration w/ the plugin lifecycle. I'm using this to great effect with TJSDoc and soon typhonjs-escomplex; both of which are Node CLI apps for documentation gen and complexity analysis of ES6+, so very handy beyond web apps. This thread probably isn't the best to continue a discussion. I do have a Gitter channel if that makes sense.

[iamajoe]

@halfnibble i actually don't think that virtual DOM is the way to go.

There are a lot of options for Virtual DOM on which I would rather go. One of the advantages, for me, on backbone is that it is pretty easy to also set it on legacy projects / server rendered projects. You'll lose that with virtual dom, or at least an easy way to do so.

[typhonrt]

@Sendoushi I think the idea is to modularize Backbone and have a configuration that has a virtual dom implementation of View if so desired. I too am skeptical about vdom per se as at least in all of my efforts BB is just fine. Though I'd like to abstract View as much as possible so that there can be jquery / zepto enabled version and other flavors. At that point its mix and match the modules one wants to use. Want vdom, great. Want BB with everything but View / Router / History that's possible too.

I have a whole BB event driven GUI library built with the original material design lite that I'm upgrading to material components web. The challenge will be to see if things can cleanly sit on top of the jquery View implementation and a vdom version with minimal fuss; not that one replaces the other.

[Wikiki]

Hi,

any news regarding release 1.4 availability date ?

Regards,

[steel]

Whats the hold up? It's been a year and a half now!

[paulfalgout]

@jashkenas now that underscore is all new and shiny, up for doing the same for Bb? Not sure what's left to be done at the moment, but there is a merged 1.4 changelog already.

[jashkenas]

That would be lovely.

@megawac and @jridgewell — how would you feel about pushing a 1.4?

[noobiek]

@megawac and @jridgewell ping?

[noobiek]

@megawac and @jridgewell and @jashkenas ping?

[roeycohen]

probably safe to say that version 1.4 will never be released. world has moved to other frameworks... :(

[ianwijma]

Well I have deployed a Cash register system fully build in Backbone with Marionette and a little bit of NodeJS. We DO use an older version, but personally I love the simplicity and the vanilla approach of Backbone. I know we have VueJS, which is close to vanillaJS, But still feel not as close as Backbone.

I'm interested in working on modernising Backbone, But I don't think I'm skilled enough yet to build/work on a framework where compatibility is quite important IMO.

[w3guy]

Is this ever going to be released?

@megawac and @jridgewell and @jashkenas ping.

[jlsync]

I'm still using the current backbone master branch just for models and collections. It would be nice to see a release.

[jashkenas]

Everyone — I'd love to push out a 1.4 release, for the folks that want it. But I'm a little hesitant to do so without being certain that it’s not going to break anyone.

What would be extremely helpful would be if everyone in this thread would try using the latest master Backbone in their apps, and posting a comment back here saying if it works for them, or not.

[w3guy]

I am sure a number of us including myself have used the master branch without any issue.

No breaking changes AFAIK.

[ianwijma]

I can try that at work. we have multiple complex products running BackBone. :) Would not be a problem.

[paulfalgout]

backbone.marionette passes all tests with 1.4
Additionally my day job which is a very sizable, well tested app also passes.

[david-zacharias]

We maintain a large app running with marionette on backbone@master without issues on backbone side.

[Borming]

We have multiple large backbone marionette apps written in ES6 (Babel) and they all work as expected.

[mbsquid]

Checked a couple Backbone apps - no issues identified using current master branch.

…

On Feb 15, 2019, at 3:00 PM, Jeremy Ashkenas ***@***.***> wrote: Everyone — I'd love to push out a 1.4 release, for the folks that want it. But I'm a little hesitant to do so without being certain that it’s not going to break anyone. What would be extremely helpful would be if everyone in this thread would try using the latest master Backbone in their apps, and posting a comment back here saying if it works for them, or not. — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#4028 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ALO75Wcg0NufUeAPhlR296rxCRo6XM-Aks5vNxHCgaJpZM4IZDmD>.

[jcbrand]

Converse.js is an open source XMPP webchat that's built on Backbone. I updated to the master branch, ran the more than 300 functional tests and also tested the app manually.

No issues so far.

[jashkenas]

Thanks, all — that was very helpful and reassuring!

Backbone 1.4.0 is now out:

• https://backbonejs.org/
• https://www.npmjs.com/package/backbone

🎆

[w3guy]

Thanks everyone for making this happen. Love live Backbone (and marionette)

[jaapz]

Thanks for the release everyone! 🎂

[Borming]

Woohoo, very nice, thanks all !!

[webislife]

backbone forever