Backbone dynamically switch templates

Question

I need to initially set a Backbone view's template based on whether the date a user has selected is in the past or future as well as switch it later when it's collection changes pulling data from a different date. How do I do this? I thought I would be able to set the template to a function that returns the correct selector string based on whether I'm in the past or not, but this doesn't work.

pR.views.ScheduleJobView = Backbone.Marionette.ItemView.extend({
    tagName: "tr",
    // NEED A WAY TO SWITCH THIS TOO
    template: "#schedule-job-template"
});


pR.views.ScheduleJobsView = Backbone.Marionette.CompositeView.extend({
    // DOESN'T WORK
    template: function () {
        if (this.isPast)
            return "#schedule-jobs-past-template";
        else
            return "#schedule-jobs-template";
    },      itemView: pR.views.ScheduleJobView,

    itemView: pR.views.ScheduleJobView,
    itemViewContainer: "tbody",

    // Defaults for the model's url
    baseUrl: "/schedules/day/",
    baseApiUrl: "/api/schedule/day/",
    // Empty object to store url parameters
    urlParameters: {},

    initialize: function () {
        pR.vent.bindTo("change:parameters", this.changeUrl, this);
        this.model.url = this.baseApiUrl;
    },

    onRender: function () {
        console.log("Rendering Jobs View");
    },

    // Change the main model's url
    changeUrl: function (parameters) {
        // merge new parameters with old ones
        this.urlParameters = _.extend(this.urlParameters, parameters);

        var url = "";
        var apiUrl = this.baseApiUrl;

        _.each(this.urlParameters, function (value, parameter) {
            // Add each parameter segment to the url
            url = url + parameter + '/' + value + '/';
            apiUrl = apiUrl + parameter + '/' + value + '/';
        });

        this.model.url = apiUrl;
        console.log("Updated CurrentDay model url to " + apiUrl);
        this.model.fetch();

        console.log("Navigating to " + url);
        pR.routers.appRouter.navigate(url);
    },

    // Check if we are in the past
    isPast: function () {
        var year = this.urlParameters.year;
        var month = this.urlParameters.month;
        var day = this.urlParameters.day;
        var selectedDate = Date(year, month, day);

        if (selectedDate < Date()){
            return true;
        } else {
            return false;
        }
    }
});

Note that I'm using Marionette's composite views here, too, so I need a way to change the itemView's template based on the timeframe as well. I'm definitely open to approaching this differently if my basic strategy is poorly thought out.

Answer 1

You are setting this.template to a method, and Marionette is looking for a string value.

You can probably get away with using the same logic but putting it into your initialize method.

pR.views.ScheduleJobsView = Backbone.Marionette.CompositeView.extend({
    template: null,
    [ ... ]
    initialize: function () {
         if (this.isPast) {
             this.template = "#schedule-jobs-past-template";
         } else {
             this.template = "#schedule-jobs-template";
         }

Answer 2

There is a function called getTemplate built in for this, I know I saw it in the documentation (That's what I was googling for)

Marionette template switching documentation