I did something similar to what I think you are trying to do. In my case, I added Backbone functionality over existing forms. Here is an example:
Existing HTML:
<div id="my-app">
<form name="input" action="html_form_action.asp" method="get">
Username: <input type="text" name="user" id="username" />
<input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>
</div>
Backbone:
var MyFormView = Backbone.View.extend({
events: {
"submit form": "formHandler"
},
formHandler: function(evt) {
evt.preventDefault();
var nameVal = $('#username').val();
this.$el.append('<p>hello: ' + nameVal + '</p>');
}
});
$().ready(function(){
var myForm = new MyFormView({el: "#my-app"});
});
The key passes the existing html as the "el" property when creating your view.
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