Backbone.js Tutorial

Last Updated : 20 Sep, 2023

Backbone.js is a lightweight JavaScript library for structuring JavaScript code and the structure of Backbone is similar to MVC/MV* framework. It makes programmers to plan out single-page applications. It is built on the MVC approach, which abstracts data into models and DOM into views before connecting the two using events.

Backbone.js

It provides structure to the application by providing the model with key-value binding and custom events, collections with a rich API of enumerate functions, views with declarative event handling, and connecting it all to your existing API over a RESTful JSON interface. It is designed for developing a single-page web application and for keeping various parts of web applications synchronized. Backbone was created by Jeremy Ashkenas.

Features of Backbone.js

Allow building applications and their front easily through JavaScript functions.
provide a variety of construction blocks, including model, view, and controller.
Update the HTML code of your application automatically.
Provides free and open-source library.
Allow for the structured and well-organized development of client-side web or mobile applications.
Its library provides good organization and structure for designing the application.
It’s clear, readable, and well commented.
The Backbone.js models could be tied easily to a backend.
Allows to develop small web applications using the jQuery framework.
It’s simple and more powerful.
Community and ecosystem is huge.
It separates the business and user interface logic.
Code is simple, systematic, and organized.

Reasons to learn Backbone.js

Backbone.js is a popular JavaScript library that provides a lightweight and flexible structure for building client-side applications. Here are some of the reasons why you might choose to use Backbone.js:

Modular and Scalable: Backbone.js provides a modular architecture that allows you to structure your code in a way that is both scalable and maintainable. This makes it easy to add new features and functionality to your application as it grows.
Lightweight: Backbone.js is a lightweight library that provides just the necessary tools for building single-page applications. It doesn’t come with all the bells and whistles of a larger framework, which makes it faster and easier to learn.
Flexible: Backbone.js is designed to work well with other libraries and frameworks. It provides a set of loosely coupled components, which means you can easily swap out one component for another without affecting the rest of your application.
Compatible with RESTful APIs: Backbone.js is designed to work well with RESTful APIs. It provides a simple and consistent way to interact with server-side data, which makes it easy to build web applications that communicate with a backend.
Active Community: Backbone.js has a large and active community of developers who are constantly contributing new features and plugins to the library. This means you can benefit from the collective knowledge of other developers and find solutions to common problems quickly.

Installation Process

You can use Backbone.js with the following methods:

Download from the official website
Using the CDNs.

Downloading from the Official Website

Step 1: Open the Backbone.js offical website and Download compressed Backbone-min.js. It’s the production version of the Backbone.js library.
Step 2: Download the compressed, production jQuery 3.7.0, from https://jquery.com/download/
Step 3: Download the ESM (Production) 8.59 KB, Minified and Gzipped (Source Map), form https://underscorejs.org/

Using the CDN Link

Here are the CDNs for Backbone.js

<script src=
"https://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.1.3.min.js” type=”text/javascript"></script>  
<script src=
"http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/underscore.js/1.3.3/underscore-min.js” type=”text/javascript"></script>  
<script src=
"http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/backbone.js/0.9.2/backbone-min.js” type=”text/javascript"></script>

Learn more about Backbone.js

Drawbacks of Backbone.js

Backbone.js drawbacks include minimal structure leading to inconsistent code organization, manual DOM manipulation increasing complexity, lack of two-way data binding affecting data synchronization, heavier reliance on external libraries, and potential scalability challenges for complex applications.