Computed properties in Backbone

Question

I have a scenario where the data being manipulated on the client is presented and interacted with in a different way than it is represented on the server.

Consider t

Answer 1

We are very used to send model.toJSON() to feed the template. And this method is very tricky to overwrite because is used by other components.

But we can feed the template with a custom model.toJSONDecorated() method that can look like this:

# in your Backbone.Model
toJSONDecorated: function(){
  return 
    _.extend( 
      this.toJSON(), 
      {
        start_date : Utils.dateFromDate( this.get( "start_at" ) ),
        start_time : Utils.timeFromDate( this.get( "start_at" ) ),
        duration   : Utils.youGetTheIdea( :) )
      } 
    );
}

Of course this is breaking a few patterns, I can live with it, if you don't you can move this logic to a Decorator class as people have suggested in other answers.