You need to call navigate
on the instance of the Router
class and not on its definition (as you're currently doing). Try updating the code in your document ready handler like this:
$(document).ready(function () {
IEG.start();
IEG.router = new IEG.Router(); // Store an instance of the router on the Application
Backbone.history.start();
});
And your searchGroups
handler like this:
IEG.vent.on("searchGroups", function (searchStr) {
IEG.router.navigate("search" + searchStr); // call navigate on the instance
// Fetch code .....
});