Backbone.js route optional parameter

Question

Is it possible to have optional parameters in a Backbone.js route?

e.g this:

routes:
  "search/[:query]": "searchIndex"

instead of:

routes:
  "search/": "searchIndex"
  "search/:query": "searchIndex"

Answer 1

As of Backbone 0.9.9, you can add optional paramaters with parentheses.

For example in your routes object you can define an optional route part like this:

routes: {
    "organize(/:action)": "displayOrganize"
}

Now the url path will match /#organize and routes like /#organize/create.

Keep in mind that if you need routes like /#organize/ (with a trailing slash) to be recognized, you can do:

routes: {
    "organize(/)(:action)": "displayOrganize"
}

Answer 2

Probably the most easiest way is just declare more than one route, one with the extra arg,one without:

routes:{
        "authProxy/:hash": "authProxy",                                                                                                                                                                 
        "authProxy/:hash/:url": "authProxy"
}

then just check for them in your method:

authProxy: function(hash, url){
    if (url){
      // Hash and URL.
    }else{
      // Just hash.
    }
}

Note that I like this much better than the other two answers because it's very easy for another developer to understand what's going on.