issues with backbone.js DELETE request and codeigniter restserver (phils) - codeigniter

Question

I'm sure this is something I'm doing wrong, but I can't seem to figure it out. I'm using backbone.js to talk to my rest server (Philip Sturgeon's codeigniter restserver). I am running a normal model.destroy() on one of my backbone collections model.
//a basic example
tagCollection.at(5).destroy();
This creates a proper call to a url like:
DELETE http://mydomain.com/index.php/tags/tag/id/12
When I get inside my "tag_delete" php function, and do:
$this->delete('id');
This always returns nothing. I assume this has something to do with the way backbone.js sends it's requests, but nothing is jumping out at me. Details below.
Backbone is issuing a "DELETE" request.
Relevant code from my REST_Controller method:
function tag_delete () {
//delete the tag
$id = $this->delete('id'); //always empty
$result = $this->tag_model->delete($id);
if (! $result) {
$this->response(array('status' => 'failed'), 400);
}
$this->response(array('status' => 'success'), 200);
}
Any ideas? Any backbone.js experts run into this when using codeigniter and Philip Sturgeon's restserver?

Answer 1

This should be a cheap quick way to fix your delete request...
function tag_delete () {
$id = $this->uri->segment(4);
$result = $this->tag_model->delete($id);
if (! $result) {
$this->response(array('status' => 'failed'), 400);
}
$this->response(array('status' => 'success'), 200);
}
However, this is how I am structuring my requests using a combo of backbone and REST_Controller...
DELETE http://example.com/index.php/tags/12
(get rid of the /tag/id/ segment of the url... it's implied that you are deleting a 'tag' row from the 'tags' collection by id, appending /tag/id is unnecessary)
function tag_delete ($id) {
$result = $this->tag_model->delete($id);
if (! $result) {
$this->response(array('status' => 'failed'), 400);
}
$this->response(array('status' => 'success'), 200);
}
for the collection:
Backbone.Collection.extend({
url : '/tags'
});
tagCollection.at(5).destroy();
Then add something like this to your routes:
$route['tags/(:num)'] = 'tags/tag/$1';
which will set up the structure necessary for the restserver controller... it is just much more manageable that way if you are doing a lot of Backbone work.

Answer 2

As per tgriesser's suggestion, the best way to do this is to use the url property on the collection. I have used the following before and it works like charm (the following controller implemented using silex framework + paris library for data access):
// DELETE /{resource}/{id} Destroy
$app->delete('/api/todos/{id}', function ($id) use ($app) {
$todo = $app['paris']->getModel('Todo')->find_one($id);
$todo->delete();
return new Response('Todo deleted', 200);
});
In your backbone collection, add the following:
window.TodoList = Backbone.Collection.extend({
model: Todo,
url: "api/todos",
...
});
Recently, I have written a tutorial on how to do GET/POST/PUT/DELETE with Backbone.js and PHP http://cambridgesoftware.co.uk/blog/item/59-backbonejs-%20-php-with-silex-microframework-%20-mysql, might be helpful.