Rails Backbone App Showing Nothing -- Including Errors

Question

I've been working through thoughtbot's Learn Backbone.js on Rails, and I can't even get the beginning test application to work, but I'm also getting no Javascript Errors in the console.

Here's my tasks index.haml file

- content_for :javascript do
  - javascript_tag do
    ExampleApp.initialize({ tasks: <%== @tasks.to_json %> });

My initializer file:

var ExampleApp = {
  Models: {},
  Collections: {},
  Views: {},
  Routers: {},
  initialize: function() {
    var tasks = new ExampleApp.Collections.Tasks(data.tasks);
    new ExampleApp.Routers.Tasks({ tasks: tasks });
    Backbone.history.start();
  }
};

models / task.js

var Task = Backbone.Model.extend({});

collections / tasks.js

var Tasks = Backbone.Collection.extend({
    model: Task,
    url: '/tasks'
});

routers / tasks.js

ExampleApp.Routers.Tasks = Backbone.Router.extend({
    routes: {
        "": "index"
    },

    index: function() {
        alert('test');
        // var view = new ExampleApp.Views.TaskIndex({ collection: ExampleApp.tasks });
        // $('body').html(view.render().$el);
    }
});

And here's proof that I'm calling all of the files (I think):

<script src="/assets/jquery.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/jquery_ujs.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/jquery-ui.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/underscore.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/backbone.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/backbone-support/support.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/backbone-support/composite_view.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/backbone-support/swapping_router.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/backbone-support.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/example_app.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/easing.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/modernizr.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/models/task.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/collections/tasks.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/views/task_view.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/views/tasks.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/views/tasks_index.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/routers/tasks.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/tasks/index.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/tasks/task.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/assets/application.js?body=1" type="text/javascript"></script>

Any thoughts? I'm pretty new to both Rails and Backbone, so I'm not really sure where the error is, and the console isn't helping me. Thanks!

Answer 1

Do you see the ExampleApp.initialize code when you View Source?

You need to have a <%= yield :javascript %> somewhere in your layout for this example to work.