Rails: Not Ember, Not Js Responses, But Something In-between

I am developing a standard rails application, and so far I haven't used any AJAX, just good ol' HTML. My plan is to iteratively add 'remote' links and all that kind of stuff and su

Solution 1:

One of the advantages of using a JavaScript framework is that the whole application can be concatenated and compressed into one JavaScript file. Provided that modern browsers aggressively cache JavaScript, the browser would no longer need to request those assets after initial page load.

Another advantage of using a JavaScript framework is that it requires you to be a consumer of your own API. Fleshing out the application's API for your own consumption might lend to less work in the future if there is a possibility of mobile applications or 3rd parties having access to it.

If you do not need your application to respond to every request with an equivalent HTML response, I think a compelling case could be made for using a JavaScript framework.

Many of those benefits might be lost if your application needs to respond to every request with an equivalent HTML template. The Ember core has been relatively vocal and in opposition to supporting this style of progressive enhancement. Considering the tools for using a JavaScript framework in this way are relatively unstable and immature, I might be prone to using option 2 to accomplish this.