Basic Backbone View Jasmine Test

gistfile1.js

describe("NotesView", function() {
  beforeEach(function() {
    var notes = new NotesCollection();
    spyOn(notes, "fetch");

    var view = new NotesView({collection: notes});
  });

  describe("#initialize", function() {
    it("should fetch the notes", function() {
      expect(notes.fetch).toHaveBeenCalled();
    });

    describe("on notes fetch success", function() {
      beforeEach(function() {
        var request = mostRecentAjaxRequest();
        request.response({
          status: 200,
          responseText: JSON.stringify([
            {body: "Blog post #1", id: "1"}
          ])
        });
      });

      it("should render the view", function() {
        expect($(view.el).find(".post")).toHaveText("Blog post #1");
      });
    });
  });
});

i'm pretty sure that you aren't scoping your Backbone objects properly; do these specs actually pass?

you'll probably want

var notes, view;

above & outside the beforeEach() block.

then within the beforeEach(), you'd have the same assignment minus the "var" in front.

make sense? or am I off base/using an outdated Jasmine version?