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Ask HN: What is the best backend framework for working with js-heavy frontends?

10 points by hucker ↗ HN
So, I'm currently making my first app using backbone.js, and I love the experience! So far, I've only used mock data and done everything client side. Soon I'll have to choose a backend framework, and I know and love Django, but it doesn't seem like a great fit for a single-web-page backbone app. Does a specialized framework for such js-heavy apps even exist? If not, are there any that are better at it than others? Basically all I want to do is shuffle json data to and from the frontend, and store it.

6 comments

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adyus
Since you seem to have the hang of JS already, you could try Node.js for the backend. You can reuse the same Models you've created in backbone, and choose your favorite DB from among Node's offerings (MongoDB, CouchDB, Redis or just plain ol' MySQL).
hucker
Thanks for your input! I've been dabbling a bit with node.js already on small projects, and I like what I see so far. I was hoping to use GAE though, but I guess that is not really a requirement. I do however worry that my relative inexperience with node.js would make it harder (for me) to really integrate everything I need like authentication etc. Of course, I might be wrong!

In pure development speed I think doing it in Django would be the fastest for me, but I hate using the "wrong" tool for the job.

jonaldomo
ext-js v4 on top of groovy on grails. grails utilizes hibernate so it can sit on top of most databases.
ryanfitz
I'm working on a gem backbone-rails to help people quickly get going with backbone.js and rails 3.1. https://github.com/codebrew/backbone-rails

Rails 3.1 asset pipeline greatly helps/simplifies building modular client side apps. I highly recommend trying it out.

hucker
I would, if I knew any ruby! For now (at least for the prototyping) I've settled on Flask as it is fairly minimal, works great on GAE, has great documentation and I wanted to try it out anyways :)

If I ever get to learning Ruby / Rails I sure will try it out though!