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Comment by Kiro | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand how one is supposed to work with only a JSON back-end and rendering all the view with JavaScript. It's ok if it's only going into a list but what if you want to render the data in a complicated div structure? If you render it server-side it's very easy but with JS it becomes a mess, especially if there are lot of css classes that need to be added as well.

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I've been doing this for over a year now, and honestly, it's almost exactly the same on the front-end as it is in the back-end. You have templates (with variables, loop structures, etc)and you pass data into them and render. Same as back-end. With a decent front-end framework (backbone, spine, etc) the process can be simplified even more (like using a back-end framework).

I love this method because you can provide really snappy front-end experiences. It's also nice to focus on having a good solid API along with a consistent front-end, whereas splitting up your front-end between the server and the client can be more complicated than just doing it all in the client. Browsers are now capable to run the entire front-end, so why not let them?

Thanks. What template engine are you using?

A modified version of John Resig's templating engine: http://blog.killtheradio.net/technology/a-small-modification...

Implementing PHP syntax in JS is just ass-backwards, IMHO. Why not use something simple like Mustache? I think it's a nice middle ground because it lacks logic and runs in nearly any language. It's also used by the easiest JS templating library ever, ICanHaz.js.

Objection noted! Aside from the PHP opening/closing tags, the templating system is the same as John Reigs and is fast, simple, and works extremely well...so we haven't had a need to change. We've evaluated other options and realized that switching won't really get us anything we don't already have.

Maybe once our team grows we'll re-evaluate again, since it's just two devs at the moment.

The basic idea is that you have html templates and that you use javascript to "fill in the blanks".

Here's a short primer: http://www.gethifi.com/blog/javascript-templates-and-how-we-...

There are various libraries you can use to make this easier for yourself. Underscore and handlebars are too good options.

eco is also nice if you're using CoffeeScript, although it has a few annoying bugs and hasn't been updated in almost a year.

Edit: JS -> CoffeeScript.

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