Hi, I am working on a mobile device dev using javascript and I use a remote Rails app for the backend. I query the backend using Ajax, and I would like to know if from my controller I can return a partial in response to the ajax request?
Greg
yep u can
index.js.erb
and in it, render your response
buts its worse idea, return json, and build dom
Ivan Nastyukhin dieinzige@me.com
Ivan Nastyukhin wrote:
yep u can
index.js.erb
and in it, render your response
buts its worse idea, return json, and build dom
Ivan Nastyukhin dieinzige@me.com
I'm not sure to understand. You think it's better to return json and than build the dom from the javascript?
yep u can
index.js.erb
and in it, render your response
buts its worse idea, return json, and build dom
I’m not sure to understand.
You think it’s better to return json and than build the dom from the
javascript?
It’s faster/lighter to do it that way.
However, you often break DRY* as you have two sets of logic used to create markup from a dataset (one in Rails and one is JS). So I’m not sure I agree with Ivan.
Cheers,
Andy
yes its better choise
Ivan Nastyukhin dieinzige@me.com
Hi Greg,
Hi, I am working on a mobile device dev using javascript and I use a remote Rails app for the backend. I query the backend using Ajax, and I would like to know if from my controller I can return a partial in response to the ajax request?
If you're asking if you can return it specifically from the controller rather than through an rjs template / view, the answer is yes.
render :update do |page| page.which_ever_method_you_need end
But I tend to agree with Ivan. If you're trying to get html to your javascript app, it'll probably be easier in the long run to send json and build the html on the client.
HTH, Bill
Andy Jeffries wrote:
It's faster/lighter to do it that way.
However, you often break DRY* as you have two sets of logic used to create markup from a dataset (one in Rails and one is JS). So I'm not sure I agree with Ivan. Cheers, Andy
If you don't agree how would you do it?
people not use rjs, its ugly
Ivan Nastyukhin dieinzige@me.com
It’s faster/lighter to do it that way.
However, you often break DRY* as you have two sets of logic used to
create
markup from a dataset (one in Rails and one is JS). So I’m not sure I
agree
with Ivan.
If you don’t agree how would you do it?
I’d do it as the OP requested, have a partial used in both places and return that.
It depends on the amount of data/size of partial to be displayed - but as it’s a mobile device I can’t imagine it will be huge…
Cheers,
Andy
I’d do it as the OP requested, have a partial used in both places and return that.
Sorry, just realised you were the OP 
In particular I’d use jQuery’s load method to load the URL in to an element (the original page’s container for this section):
And from within the controller just render the partial:
render :partial => “my_data”
(having a view called _my_data.html.erb).
Cheers,
Andy
mm, u can do it but
-
u should write yet anothe action at controller, its not like REST
-
its will be more slower, than render at mobile device, from json
Ivan Nastyukhin
Andy Jeffries wrote:
Sorry, just realised you were the OP
In particular I'd use jQuery's load method to load the URL in to an element (the original page's container for this section):
.load() | jQuery API Documentation
And from within the controller just render the partial:
render :partial => "my_data"
(having a view called _my_data.html.erb).
Cheers,
Andy
This is exactly what I planned to do until you said it would be better to return json
This is exactly what I planned to do until you said it would be better
to return json
Ivan said it would be better, not me
I said that it is faster/lighter weight - but not better and said I disagreed with him.
Cheers,
Andy
mm, u can do it but
- u should write yet anothe action at controller, its not like REST
No reason why you should…
def show
…blah…blah…blah
if request.xhr?
render :partial => “whatever”
end
end
- its will be more slower, than render at mobile device, from json
How much slower is a big thing though. If you can cache the response then it should remove the load from Rails, if the content is small/gzipped over the air time should be negligibly larger than JSON and if it takes a few milliseconds longer than JSON parsing/DOM creation on a client device it’s not the end of the world.
Optimal performance isn’t necessarily the only criteria in success…
Cheers,
Andy
if request.xhr?
render :partial => “whatever”
end
if developers, from my team, write this, i curse too much for such)
How much slower is a big thing though. If you can cache the response then it should remove the load from Rails, if the content is small/gzipped over the air time should be negligibly larger than JSON and if it takes a few milliseconds longer than JSON parsing/DOM creation on a client device it’s not the end of the world.
yep, if u will be cache the render time, will be good. but data with u send, will be huge.
Insert big html into dom, is slower then build its in js.
Optimal performance isn’t necessarily the only criteria in success…
yep agree with u
code readability, and understandable to developers, probably two main factors
Ivan Nastyukhin
if request.xhr?
render :partial => “whatever”
end
if developers, from my team, write this, i curse too much for such)
If a developer from my team makes a judgement/technical direction based on incomplete facts I’d curse too much too
Out of interest, what’s your problem with the above code?
yep, if u will be cache the render time, will be good. but data with u send, will be huge.
Insert big html into dom, is slower then build its in js.
That’s the important fact - we don’t know how much data/html will be returned. I’m assuming it will be relatively small (the OP said mobile device), you’re assuming it will be huge.
Neither of us know, so I’d prefer to go with the simpler solution (that keeps display logic/markup generation in one place) and optimise to a JSON/DOM insertion later IF it’s found to be required. Premature optimisation is the root of all evil…
Cheers,
Andy
Out of interest, what’s your problem with the above code?
its crutch, for incomprehensible thing
Premature optimisation is the root of all evil…
yep, but i’m thinking, that write 1-10 LOC in js, witch will be build partial for each json element, its not optimisation, its “by default” use case,
this is my opinion
of course, i will not be try to convince u)
Ivan Nastyukhin
Out of interest, what’s your problem with the above code?
its crutch, for incomprehensible thing
Sorry, I don’t understand - could you rephrase…
Premature optimisation is the root of all evil…
yep, but i’m thinking, that write 1-10 LOC in js, witch will be build partial for each json element, its not optimisation, its “by default” use case,
The problem is we don’t know how complex his logic is that converts the data structure to HTML. I think you have a fairly simple display if it’s only 10 LOC in JS to build it.
This shows how we’re obviously working on different projects
In my world the logic to display data is large/complicated but the data displayed (per page) is relatively small.
this is my opinion
of course, i will not be try to convince u)
I’m happy for you to convince me, I’m also happy to debate it (debates help everyone clarify their own thoughts/opinions). And I don’t necessarily disagree with you that your solution is faster (for the client) and may be better (if a large data set and simple display logic), but it’s just that it’s not the first step I’d take, I’d go with a partial first and optimise to JSON/JS rendering if required later.
Cheers,
Andy
Out of interest, what’s your problem with the above code?
its crutch, for incomprehensible thing
Sorry, I don’t understand - could you rephrase…
U should not insert if request.xhr?
u can create view, with build js ( show.js.erb)
and in its view call render, but with js escape
The problem is we don’t know how complex his logic is that converts the data structure to HTML. I think you have a fairly simple display if it’s only 10 LOC in JS to build it.
10LOC, yep its for simple results, such twitter post, github notify, or something else
in my project, we use haml, we can simplify use jshaml tools, for simplify create dom elements in js
This shows how we’re obviously working on different projects
I would say, as far as we are working on projects with a completely different level of thoughtfulness interface 
I’d take, I’d go with a partial first and optimise to JSON/JS rendering if required later.
in phase of prototyping, i thing we can completely remove all ajax, calls if we can.
Ivan Nastyukhin
Out of interest, what’s your problem with the above code?
its crutch, for incomprehensible thing
Sorry, I don’t understand - could you rephrase…
U should not insert if request.xhr?
u can create view, with build js ( show.js.erb)
and in its view call render, but with js escape
Fair point. I don’t often do this…
The problem is we don’t know how complex his logic is that converts the data structure to HTML. I think you have a fairly simple display if it’s only 10 LOC in JS to build it.
10LOC, yep its for simple results, such twitter post, github notify, or something else
in my project, we use haml, we can simplify use jshaml tools, for simplify create dom elements in js
In my project we have very complex display logic (major sports betting site), so I certainly wouldn’t want to rewrite the 15-20 classes that determine display logic in to JS
This shows how we’re obviously working on different projects
I would say, as far as we are working on projects with a completely different level of thoughtfulness interface
Not sure how to take that, but as there’s a smiley I assume you meant no offence…
Cheers,
Andy