How to fetch a Backbone.js model by something other than the ID?

Question

Backbone.js\'s default, RESTful approach to fetching a model by the ID is easy and straight-forward. However, I can\'t seem to find any examples of fetching a model by a differe

Answer 1

I really like the approach suggested by 'user645715'. I have adjusted the code to be more versatile. If you add this to a Backbone Model it will allow you to search the server by one or more attributes, and should work as a direct drop-in replacement for fetch.

fetchByAttributes: function(attributes, callbacks) {

    var queryString = [];
    for(var a in attributes){
        queryString.push( encodeURIComponent(a)+'='+encodeURIComponent(attributes[a]) );
    }
    queryString = '?'+queryString.join('&');

    var self = this;

    $.ajax({
        url: this.urlRoot+queryString,
        type: 'GET',
        dataType: "json",
        success: function(data) {
            self.set(data);
            callbacks.success();
        },
        error: function(data){
            callbacks.error();
        }
    });
}

It can be used like this:

var page = new Page();
page.fetchByAttributes({slug:slug}, {
    success: function(){
        console.log('fetched something');
    },
    error: function(){
        console.log('nothing found');
    }
});