backbone.js and el attribute

Question

(function ($) {
window.AppView = Backbone.View.extend({
  el: $("body"),
  events: {
    "click #add-friend":  "showPrompt",
  },
  showPrompt: function () {
    var friend_name = prompt("Who is your friend?");
  }
});
var appview = new AppView;
})(jQuery);

1. Can anyone explain me what is el here. Is it element?
2. Does the el argument accept object, if so can i pass my custom view object where my button or elements need to be added...

Answer 1

1. Yes it's a DOM element.
2. No you cannot pass a custom object. You either specify an existing element, or creating one from the tagName, className, id and attributes properties of the view. If you don't specify an element, it defaults to a div

It's all in the official documentation actually...

Answer 2

Alladnian answered it but I would add that when using el you can make use of $el which is a cached jQuery object of your view element.

So you can always simply pass only the tag you wish to use (for consistency, brevity and flexibility) and then reference it as $el to make use of it as a jQuery object.

this.$el.addClass("active");