New feature: Model.get fallback callback/value.

[frankdejonge]

When retrieving a value from a model this would be a nice structure to have a fallback, allowing:

var User = new UserModel;

var name = User.get('name', function(){
    // Not set? Use email
    return this.get('email');
});

Or just pass the default value on the fly

var name = User.get('name', 'Unkown');

Hope you like it.

[jashkenas]

That's what defaults already do. Take a look at those:

http://backbonejs.org/#Model-defaults

[frankdejonge]

Actually, it's not what defaults do. Defaults are just plain values, no callbacks in context of the model, and not on the fly.

[braddunbar]

@FrenkyNet You're right about on the fly, but you can definitely implement them with a callback in context of the model.

var Model = Backbone.Model.extend({
  defaults: function() {
    return {
      ...
    };
  }
});

Also, model.get('key', 'default') is functionally equivalent to model.get('key') || 'default', and with no extra characters.

[frankdejonge]

@braddunbar That || way should do the trick as well, but I'll still probably implement this in a model of my own. Thanks for the help!

[gsdevme]

Using Pipe in templates isn't ideal.. Nor is using defaults when you might want different values based on the use case.

Surely justifying not using this by saying use pipe would argue the case to remove the has() method? After all you can just pipe? That is unless it's use case is uncommon