CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ember.js
woutr_be
woutr_be

Reputation: 9722

Ember.js backend setup

I'm currently wrapping my head around Ember.js and converting a previously written PHP application, that application made use of of mysql database and some basic PHP code to display results. There was a whole bunch of javascript to create interactions, but all that code quickly became unusable.

I have most of my frontend stuff done in Ember.js and started thinking about how I should get started with the backend. There's not that much data involved, uses can request data, create new data, change data or delete data.

There would be a small part where I would like to get data in real time.

I've looked around on the web, but since it's all relatively new, there's not that much information out there.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 4281

Answers (3)

Steve Tarver
Steve Tarver

Reputation: 3228

I have been living with an EmberLoopSql stack (pronounced ember-loop-cicle - just cause I like the sound) for 4 months now and am digging it muchly.

StrongLoop allows you to reverse engineer your datastore, creating models that correspond to tables, and automatically creating a CRUD ReST API for them. This means there is no code in your API, just configuration.

Add the loopback-component-jsonapi to StrongLoop to provide json:api compliant responses.

Next, add relationships to your StrongLoop models - like bubbling up the foreign key relationships from the datastore to the api. Now you have json:api responses that Ember really loves.

I am a big fan of Percona Server (MySQL replacement) and if you de-normalize your tables to align with your application, you have one of the main advantages of a NoSQL style datastore. But if you really like something like Mongo (I do), StrongLoop has a data juggler for that.. as well as for most modern datastores.

Ember's new JSONAPIAdapter recognizes relationships exposed in the json:api responses from StrongLoop. After setting up relationships in your models - again bubbling up datastore foreign keys - Ember will fetch dependencies automatically for you. E.g. If you have model a,b and a hasMany b, you can use a.b in your templates and Ember will understand the relationship and fetch the data for you.

What I really love about this stack is how much boilerplate code just evaporates. Compared with java, php, express, go, etc. the code in this stack is small and well organized. I can implement new features in a couple of hours instead of a couple of days.

Hope these opinions help...

Upvotes: 0

borisrorsvort
borisrorsvort

Reputation: 906

The question is quite vague as you could do it in a thousands different ways. It doesn't matter which language you use for the backend as the ember app won't care.

The only thing you need for the Ember app to work is a decent REST api.

For resource about best practices, check this

Some examples:

Upvotes: 2

berrberr
berrberr

Reputation: 1960

I would recommend implementing a RESTful API in PHP and hooking your frontend up with that API. You can use your ember code to handle all user interaction, and then when some actual data needs to be changed send a request to your backend.

I have made apps in the past using this strategy with a Laravel backend which makes it very simple to set up RESTful interactions.

You can read about Ember + REST here: http://emberjs.com/guides/models/the-rest-adapter/

Upvotes: 5

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