From 570156914d540177e35967f36e3e934e0fbec944 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Irene Ros <irene@bocoup.com>
Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:00:02 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] #819 documenting idAttribute. Also requested on pull req
 #210.

---
 index.html | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 23 insertions(+)

diff --git a/index.html b/index.html
index c9d5f29a4..d25868b8f 100644
--- a/index.html
+++ b/index.html
@@ -684,7 +684,30 @@ <h2 id="Model">Backbone.Model</h2>
       Models can be retrieved by id from collections, and the id is used to generate
       model URLs by default.
     </p>
+    
+    <p id="Model-idAttribute">
+      <b class="header">idAttribute</b><code>model.idAttribute</code>
+      <br />
+      By default a model assumes its unique identifier is stored
+      under the <b>id</b> attribute. 
+      In certain situations, for example when using CouchDB where the
+      identifying attribute is called <b>_id</b>, overwriting the property
+      name is necessary.
+      Setting the <b>idAttribute</b> during a model definition will
+      set the model's <b>id</b> to the value of the idAttribute property 
+      instead. When referencing the model's <b>id</b>, continue 
+      using <b>model.id</b>.
+      
+<pre class="runnable">
+var Meal = Backbone.Model.extend({
+  idAttribute: "_id"
+});
 
+var cake = new Meal({ _id: 1, name: "Cake" });
+alert("Cake id: " + cake.id);
+</pre>
+    </p>
+    
     <p id="Model-cid">
       <b class="header">cid</b><code>model.cid</code>
       <br />