a very basic nested model structure

foo.js

var data = {

  name: "foo",

  subFoos: [
  
    {name: "bar"},
    {name: "baz"},

  ]
};


FooModel = Backbone.Model.extend({

  initialize: function(){
    this.setupSubFoos();
  },

  setupSubFoos: function(){
    var subFoos = this.get("subFoos");
    this.unset("subFoos", {silent: true});
    this.subFoos = new FooCollection(subFoos);
  }

});

FooCollection: Backbone.Model.extend({
  model: FooModel
});



// i extracted the "setupSubFoos" in to a function called `getChildren` so that i could do something like:

this.subFoos = this.getChildren("subFoos");

// and then i could put that one liner in the initializer of the model, directly

Not entirely sure I understand... are you trying to lazy-load the subFoos when you need them?

FooModel = Backbone.Model.extend({

  getSubFoos: function(){
    if (!this.subFoos){
      this.subFoos = new FooCollection({parentId: this.id});
      subFoos.fetch();
    }
    return this.subFoos;
  };

});

FooCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({

  initialize: function(data, options){
    this.parentId = options.parentId;
  }

  url: function(){
    var url;
    if (this.parentId){
      url = "/foo/" + this.parentId + "/SubFoos";
    } else {
      url = "/SomethingElse/WithNo/ParentId";
    }
    return url;
  }

});

Something like that should work, I think.

yes on lazy-loading the sub foos.

I'm thinking more something like

class SubFoos extends Backbone.Collection
  url: "http://website.com/whatever"
  initialize: ->
    @url = "http://website.com/foos/#{@parent_id}/subfoos"

class BigPapaFoo extends Backbone.Model
  @getSubFoos: ->
    @subFoos = new SubFoos(parent_id: 12345)
    @subFoos.fetch()

and then in the view, when you drill down from viewing a collection of foos to a detail view where you see just one foo and its associated subfoos:

@model.getSubFoos()

yeah, that looks a bit nicer in implementation

sweet! much thanks.