Setting relation between a parent model and child collection

[dswitzer]

One thing that keeps tripping me up, is I'm expecting when I set up a reverseRelation that there's also a property on the collection created that references the parent model.

So, if you take this code:

Team = Backbone.RelationalModel.extend({});
TeamList = Backbone.Collection.extend({
    model: Team
});

Person = Backbone.RelationalModel.extend({
    relations: [
        {
            type: Backbone.HasMany // Use the type, or the string 'HasOne' or 'HasMany'.
            , key: 'teams'
            , relatedModel: 'Team'
            , collectionType: 'TeamList'
            , reverseRelation: {
                key: 'person'
            }
        }
    ]
});

What I'd like is for the TeamList collection to contain a reference to the Person model via a "person" property. So if I can something like:

var dan = new Person({name: "Dan"});

I could do:

console.log(dan.get("teams").person.get("name"));

Even if we added an addtional "collectionKey" so that you had to explicitly define a property on the collection level, it would be handy.

The problem I'm running into is I end up binding events at the collection level that need to be aware of the parent Model. So, what I end up doing is creating the relation manually.

The problem with binding it only to the models is that if I need to trigger off an event in the parent model if there are no models in the collection, there's no easy way to do that.

[ulmus]

What I did was add a collectionOptionsCallback option to the HasMany Relation. That Callback takes the instance being initiated as its only parameter and returns the options-hash used in the initiation of the collection in the other end of the relation. In that the initialization code of the collection, I use the option to, e g reset the rootUrl. I could share the code, but it's a bit tangled into my other modifications. Take a look at my backbone-relational fork and you'll spot it. That might solve it on a more generic level for you.

[singingwolfboy]

I've forked the project, made my own solution to this issue, and sent a pull request: #55