backbone-session

Flexible and simple session management for Backbone apps

Usage

// Using CommonJS 
var Session = require('backbone-session');
 
// or AMD 
define(['backbone-session'], function (Session) {
  // ... 
})
 
// Extend from Session to implement your API's behaviour 
var Account = Session.extend({
  signIn: function () {},
  signOut: function () {},
  getAuthStatus: function () {}
});
 
// Using the custom Account implementation 
var session = new Account();
session.fetch()
  .then(session.getAuthStatus)
  .then(function () {
    console.log('Logged in as %s', session.get('name'));
  })
  .fail(function () {
    console.log('Not yet logged in!');
  });

Why?

Using a simple facade that feels more Backboney helps avoid third party SDKs and APIs leaking into your app code. Your app will be less locked-in to your authentication provider.

Backbone Session uses the localStorage API to cache tokens and user profile information.

How do I use Backbone Session?

Backbone Session is merely a facade, or interface. It's up to you to implement its methods to do what your API requires.

Many Backbone apps will have a singleton app object that tracks state. That's a good place to keep your Backbone Session instance.

Backbone Session implementations can be synchronous or asynchronous. For the sake of consistency, it is recommended to use Promises even with a syncronous implementation.

API

Backbone Session inherits all of Backbone Models's methods and properties.

It overrides and extends the following interfaces:

url

Default: Backbone.Session

Either a Function or a String that represents the key used to access localStorage. If a Function, its return value will be the key.

signIn([options])

Returns: jQuery Promise

Example:

session.signIn({
  username: 'alice@example.com',
  password: 'hunter2'
}).then(function () {
  // Do stuff after logging in ... 
}).fail(function () {
  // Handle the failed log in attempt ... 
});

signOut([options])

Returns: jQuery Promise

Example:

session.signOut().then(function () {
  // Now the user is logged out ... 
});

getAuthStatus([options])

Returns: jQuery Promise

Example:

session.getAuthStatus()
.then(function () {
  // The user is already logged in ... 
})
.fail(function () {
  // The user is not yet logged in ... 
});

Model & Collection

A basic Backbone Model and Collection to extend and inherit from. Session implementations can replace them with a patched Model or Collection to seamlessly handle network authentication, error handling, logging, etc. Session consumers should extend their models from this base.

Example:

// Session implementation 
var MyAPI = Backbone.Session.extend({
  Model: Backbone.Model.extend({
    sync: function () {
      console.log('Syncing...');
      return Backbone.Model.sync.apply(this, arguments);
    }
  })
});
 
// Session consumer 
var session = new MyAPI();
var MyModel = session.prototype.Model.extend({
  url: '/foo/bar'
});
 
var item = new MyModel();
item.fetch(); // prints: Syncing... 

Installation

Bower

bower install backbone-session

NPM

npm install backbone-session

or

package.json

"dependencies": {
  "backbone-session": ""
}

HTML

<script src="backbone-session.js"></script>

License

MIT License