Question

Delving into techniques to “bootstrap” my Backbone application, however I’m struggling to see how the suggested methods, like this one: http://ricostacruz.com/backbone-patterns/#bootstrapping_data, don’t just take the application a step back and tightly couple your API to your frontend.

I have a REST API and a backbone JS app, is the best solution to make a DB/API call in a serverside language and then output the JSON object directly into index.php (or whatever),

Is there a better solution for bootstrapping a Backbone application other than mixing in server side code into my JS app?

Answer 1

I assume by bootstrapping you mean the following scenario:

• You have a single page application that fetches data from the server using AJAX requests
• When the page initially loads, the first thing you application does is fetch all the data
• You want to improve the startup speed / user experience by including all the necessary data in the initial request

If this is the case, you have no other option but to render the initial data into your index.php, or whatever you call the html document that loads the application. How else would it get there?

If this is an unacceptable solution, you should try to optimize the loading by other means.