Backbone.js get and set nested object attribute

While this.model.get("obj1").myAttribute1 is fine, it's a bit problematic because then you might be tempted to do the same type of thing for set, i.e.

this.model.get("obj1").myAttribute1 = true;

But if you do this, you won't get the benefits of Backbone models for myAttribute1, like change events or validation.

A better solution would be to never nest POJSOs ("plain old JavaScript objects") in your models, and instead nest custom model classes. So it would look something like this:

var Obj = Backbone.Model.extend({    defaults: {        myAttribute1: false,        myAttribute2: true    }});var MyModel = Backbone.Model.extend({    initialize: function () {        this.set("obj1", new Obj());    }});

Then the accessing code would be

var x = this.model.get("obj1").get("myAttribute1");

but more importantly the setting code would be

this.model.get("obj1").set({ myAttribute1: true });

which will fire appropriate change events and the like. Working example here: http://jsfiddle.net/g3U7j/

I created backbone-deep-model for this - just extend Backbone.DeepModel instead of Backbone.Model and you can then use paths to get/set nested model attributes. It maintains change events too.

model.bind('change:user.name.first', function(){...});model.set({'user.name.first': 'Eric'});model.get('user.name.first'); //Eric

Domenic's solution will work however each new MyModel will point to the same instance of Obj. To avoid this, MyModel should look like:

var MyModel = Backbone.Model.extend({  initialize: function() {     myDefaults = {       obj1: new Obj()     }      this.set(myDefaults);  }});

See c3rin's answer @ https://stackoverflow.com/a/6364480/1072653 for a full explanation.