Backbone.js Foundations
Most people meet Backbone.js through a single huge tutorial, get the gist, and then hit a wall the first time a view won't stop firing or a model update doesn't reach the screen. This section fixes that. Foundations splits the Backbone core into small, code-first guides you can read one idea at a time.
Each guide sticks to one concept, shows code you can paste into a console, and links back to the original reference tutorials that this site is known for. Work through them in order and you will have the mental model you need before moving on to the Backbone.js guide and the broader architecture and rendering topics.
Start with the four core objects
Backbone is built from four objects that map cleanly to jobs in an interface. If you only read four pages on this site, read these, they also hold most of this domain's history, so they are the best maintained.
- Model: holds a piece of data and announces when it changes.
- View: renders a model to the DOM and handles user input.
- Collection: an ordered set of models with its own events.
- Router: maps URLs to application states.
Foundational guides in this cluster
These guides go a level deeper than the overview pages. Available now is the events guide, the glue between every object above. The rest are publishing on a rolling basis.
- Backbone.js Events: on, off, trigger, and listenTo, plus how to avoid memory leaks. Available now
- Backbone View Lifecycle: render, re-render, and clean teardown. Available now
- Backbone Templates with Underscore: _.template, escaping, and partials. Available now
- Backbone Sync & the Server: fetch, save, and how Backbone talks to a REST API. Available now
- Application Structure: wiring models, collections, and views without spaghetti. Available now
- Data Flow in Backbone: how a change travels from model to screen. Available now
- Routing Basics: routes, parameters, and the History API. Available now
How these connect to the bigger picture
Foundations is deliberately narrow. Once the core clicks, the same ideas scale up: the events you learn here become the pub/sub backbone of larger systems, and the model-to-view flow becomes the rendering pipeline. From here the natural next steps are the Backbone.js guide for the full picture, organizing Backbone using modules for structuring real projects, and why you would use Backbone for the trade-offs.
How to work through this cluster
A practical order: read the four core pages, then the events guide, then build one tiny thing, a list that adds and removes items, using only what you have read. You will learn more from 30 lines you typed yourself than from an hour of reading. When something behaves oddly, that is the moment to dig into the relevant guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I learn first in Backbone.js?
Start with the View and the Model, then the Collection and the Router. Once those four objects make sense, the events system ties them together and the rest of the foundations build on top.
Do I need jQuery to use Backbone.js?
Backbone needs Underscore (or Lodash) and a DOM library for Views. Historically that was jQuery; today you can supply any compatible DOM manipulation library, or do without jQuery for non-DOM work like Models and Collections.
Is Backbone.js still worth learning in 2026?
For new greenfield products most teams reach for React or Vue. Backbone is still worth learning to maintain existing apps and, more importantly, to understand the MVC, events, and sync patterns that modern frameworks refined rather than replaced.
How is this different from the Backbone.js guide?
The Backbone.js guide is the single pillar overview. Foundations breaks the core into focused, code-first tutorials you can read one concept at a time.
Read next: Backbone.js Events, the glue between every object on this page.
Related clusters
Foundations connects to the rest of the site. Keep building from here:
Ready for the full picture?
Once the foundations click, the complete guide ties Models, Views, Routers, and Collections into one application.
Explore the Backbone Guide →