BackbonExtention.coffee

# Extends Backbone.View on top of itself with some added features
# we use regularly
class Backbone.View extends Backbone.View

  ##
  # Manages child views and renders them whenever the parent view is rendered.
  # Specify views as key:value pairs of `className: view` where `className` is
  # a CSS className to find the element in which to to append a rendered
  # `view.el`
  #
  # Be sure to call `super` in the parent view's `render` method _after_ the
  # html has been set.
  views: false
    # example: new ExampleView

  ##
  # Define default options, options passed in to the view will overwrite these
  defaults:

    # can hand a view a template option to avoid subclasses that only add a
    # different template
    template: null

  initialize: (options) ->
    @options = _.extend {}, @defaults, @options, options
    @setTemplate()
    @$el.data 'view', this
    this

  setTemplate: ->
    @template = @options.template if @options.template

  ##
  # Extends render to add support for chid views and element filtering
  render: (opts = {}) =>
    @renderEl()
    @_afterRender()
    this

  renderEl: ->
    @$el.html @template(@toJSON()) if @template

  ##
  # Internal afterRender
  # @api private
  _afterRender: ->
    @cacheEls() if @els
    @$('[data-bind]').each @createBinding
    @afterRender()
    # its important for renderViews to come last so we don't filter
    # and cache all the child views elements
    @renderViews() if @options.views

  ##
  # Add behavior and bindings to elements.
  afterRender: ->

  ##
  # in charge of getting variables ready to pass to handlebars during render
  # override with your own logic to do something fancy.
  toJSON: ->
    json = ((@model ? @collection)?.toJSON arguments...) || {}
    json.cid = @cid
    json

  ##
  # Renders all child views
  #
  # @api private
  renderViews: ->
    _.each @options.views, @renderView

  ##
  # Renders a single child view and appends its designated element
  # Use ids in your view, not classes. This 
  #
  # @api private
  renderView: (view, selector) =>
    target = @$("##{selector}")
    target = @$(".#{selector}") unless target.length
    view.setElement target
    view.render()
    @[selector] ?= view


Backbone.View

Bundle.coffee

# SOME ROUTER/BUNDLE/OTHER JS FIlE

current_user = new User ENV.CURRENT_USER
todos = new ToDoCollection

todos.fetch()

indexView = new IndexView
    el: 'body'
    views: 
      "#header" : new HeaderView
        model: current_user
      "#todos" : new ToDoView
        collection: todos

indexView.render()
# note you could leave out the el: 'body' and just do
# something like $('body').html indexView.render().e

IndexView.coffee

class IndexView extends Backbone.View
  # No need to call render or initialize