Backbone Model helpers

Backbone.CollectionModel.js

(function (Backbone, _) {

  Backbone.CollectionModel = Backbone.Model.extend({

		constructor: function (attributes, options) {

			Backbone.Model.prototype.constructor.apply(this, arguments);

			if (this.collections) {
				for (var key in this.collections) {
					var array = this.get(key) || [];

					this.set(key, new this.collections[key](array));
				}
			}

			if (this.postCollectionInitialize) {
				this.postCollectionInitialize.apply(this, arguments);
			}
		},

		set: function (attributes, options) {

			if (this.collections) {
				for (var key in this.collections) {
					if (_.has(attributes, key) && this.get(key)) {
						this.get(key).reset(attributes[key]);
						delete attributes[key];
					}
				}
			}

			return Backbone.Model.prototype.set.call(this, attributes, options);
		}
	});

})(Backbone, _);

Backbone.Helpers.js

(function (Backbone, _) {

  Backbone.Helpers = {

		parseDates: function (response, dateProperties) {

			var ext = {};

			_.each(dateProperties, function (propertyName) {
				var date = Date.parse(response[propertyName]);

				if (date) {
					ext[propertyName] = new Date(date);
				}
			});

			return _({}).extend(response, ext);

		},

		parseDatesOnModel: function (model, dateProperties) {

			var ext = {};

			_.each(dateProperties, function (propertyName) {
				var date = Date.parse(model.get(propertyName));

				if (date) {
					ext[propertyName] = new Date(date);
				}
			});

			model.set(ext, { silent: true });

		}

	}

})(Backbone, _);