Question

Is it considered correct/ are there any pitfalls in returning partial templates to ajax POST requests?

For example:

if request.is_ajax:
    # response is just the form 
    return render(request, 'contact/fields.html', {'form':form})

Answer 1

The most typical approach is returning JSON and then contructing whatever HTML you need client-side from the JSON data. However, it could be argued that this is mixing presentation with behavior and it would be better to clearly separate out the HTML.

On the flip-side, returning a block of HTML is about as polar-south of “RESTful” as you can get. In pure REST philosophy, the views should return data in a standard and reusable container (such as JSON or XML). Later if you needed to pull the form into an iOS/Android/WP7/etc. app environment rather than a webpage, the JSON/XML will serve you just as well, whereas the HTML is virtually useless.

I can easily see both arguments, and I don’t think one is necessarily more right than the other. Ultimately, I think you just have to do what works best for your app and what “feels right” to you. Think in terms of what is more maintainable and extensible for your particular circumstances.