Counting Related Records in Javascript

Question

Hi all. 
 I'm new to SugarCRM dev/javascript. Can anyone push me in the right direction for learning more about the model. I cannot find any pure docs on the model/controllers themselves, just examples of it being used (Which don't delve into more detail) and almost all of the articles I can find don't link into the new sugarclub. 
 What I want to do, is on Field Validation on a record, check the related records of Contacts from Opportunities and count them. And see if the number is greater than 0. 
 I have a brief understanding and can do something similar to this: 
 cont_id = this.model.get('contacts_cases_1contacts_ida'); var ContactBean = SUGAR.App.data.createBean('Contacts', {id:cont_id}); ContactBean.fetch({'success':function () { designation = ContactBean.get('title'); comp_type = ContactBean.get('type_of_account_c'); acc_id = ContactBean.get('account_id'); acc_name = ContactBean.get('account_name'); model.set('sup_desgn_c',designation); model.set('company_type_c',comp_type); model.set('account_id',acc_id); model.set('account_name',acc_name); }}); 
 But if anyone can push me into more information on the model and how the information gets displayed that'd be fantastic. I have a good understanding of Bean and believe it's fairly similar. 
 Thank you, 
 Daniel

Daniel Hill · Accepted Answer

I found it difficult initially to find some good documentation on the model itself - but it's part of Sidecar, so you can see the Sidecar Documentation or the code itself (sidecar/src/data/bean.js). 
 The model is actually called "Data Bean" in Sidecar. Here is the full class documentation - https://apidocs.sugarcrm.com/Sidecar/10.1.0/Data_Bean.html 
 
 The method that you're looking for is called "getRelatedCollection". You can pass the link name and this will return you a backbone collection. The data might not be fetched by default, and you can fetch the related collection like: 
 
 var contacts = opportunity.getRelatedCollection('contacts'); if(!contacts.dataFetched) {
 contacts.fetch({ relate: true, success: function(data) {}, error: function(e) {}); } 
 
 You can then operate on this collection just like your regular backbone collection, by using .each or use the .length property. 
 
 I found the sidecar documentation to be pretty useful, atleast to skim through initially: 
 https://apidocs.sugarcrm.com/Sidecar/10.1.0/index.html 
 It has documentation on the BeanCollection (sugar extension of backbone collection) and the App.

Also, I just noticed that you're using Sugar.App - You can just directly use the "app" variable which is available by default in your component. I started writing some documentation about App object, just sharing it here in case it helps - https://seventunes.com/sugarcrm-javascript-snippets-1/

Daniel Hill · Answer

Sorry for the delay, thanks very much. I'm struggling still but this has helped a lot! Thank you :)