# To ajax or not to ajax **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 25, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/to-ajax-or-not-to-ajax/94207 "2006-04-25T16:26:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/orotone)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/to-ajax-or-not-to-ajax/94207/1 "2006-04-25T16:26:20Z")
before I started building my latest rails app, I made the decision to make good use of ajax. My reasonsing was that users would benefit from the quicker page updates - the application provides various different types of insurance quotes, and has several multi-page forms and reports that can be drilled down 5 or 6 levels deep in some cases - so it seemed like a good candidate for ajax Now that I’ve started writing the thing, I’m wondering if I’ve made a mistake. I find ajax to be difficult to test and debug, and my views consist pretty much entirely of partials - it’s getting hard to keep track of them all. I’m just wondering how other developers decide if it’s worth going down the ajax route. ---
**Author:** ![orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/orotone)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 4:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/to-ajax-or-not-to-ajax/94207/2 "2006-04-25T16:38:44Z")
Hi Alan, sure, I’m having problem too with my first applications using AJAX but I think it’s a matter of time and experience. In the meanwhile, have a look at the snippet of code Richard W. (of AJAX scaffold generator fame) suggests for debugging: [http://www.height1percent.com/articles/2006/04/21/improving-debugging-for-ajax-and-rjs](http://www.height1percent.com/articles/2006/04/21/improving-debugging-for-ajax-and-rjs) Cheers, Marco ---
**Author:** ![orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/orotone)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 4:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/to-ajax-or-not-to-ajax/94207/3 "2006-04-25T16:54:10Z")
On 25 Apr 2006, at 16:22, Alan B. wrote: > Now that I’ve started writing the thing, I’m wondering if I’ve made a > mistake. I find ajax to be difficult to test and debug, and my > views consist > pretty much entirely of partials - it’s getting hard to keep track > of them > all. > > I’m just wondering how other developers decide if it’s worth going > down the > ajax route. There are two things to help you: there’s a function somewhere to turn AJAX debugging on and you should use firefox with the Firebug extension, it will allow you to debug javascript. Best regards Peter De Berdt ---
**Author:** ![orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/orotone)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/to-ajax-or-not-to-ajax/94207/4 "2006-04-25T17:22:06Z")
Some paper to sketch my form and naming of DIV’s helps. But with RJS its pretty simple. Love it. And now in the controllers. That saves a lot of rjs templates ---
**Author:** ![orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/orotone)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 6:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/to-ajax-or-not-to-ajax/94207/5 "2006-04-25T18:30:46Z")
Peter De Berdt wrote: > On 25 Apr 2006, at 16:22, Alan B. wrote: > > > Now that I’ve started writing the thing, I’m wondering if I’ve made a > > mistake. I find ajax to be difficult to test and debug, and my > > views consist > > pretty much entirely of partials - it’s getting hard to keep track > > of them > > all. > > > > I’m just wondering how other developers decide if it’s worth going > > down the > > ajax route. > > There are two things to help you: there’s a function somewhere to > turn AJAX debugging on and you should use firefox with the Firebug > extension, it will allow you to debug javascript. > > Best regards > > Peter De Berdt Definately Firebug. It absolutely rocks. You can see every ajax request, and its response, as well as inspect the DOM and has great javascript error ctaching and debugging. Also set this in your config/environments/development.rb # RJS Error reporting config.action\_view.debug\_rjs = true And any ajax request that generates an error will do an “alert(…info about error…);” so you get immedaite feedback about what went wrong. And check out the presenatation slides here: [http://mir.aculo.us/articles/2006/04/15/slides-from-my-rails-ajax-presentation-at-canada-on-rails](http://mir.aculo.us/articles/2006/04/15/slides-from-my-rails-ajax-presentation-at-canada-on-rails) They taught me everything I just told you. ---
**Author:** ![orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/orotone)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/to-ajax-or-not-to-ajax/94207/6 "2006-04-25T18:48:33Z")
On 25 Apr 2006, at 18:30, Alex W. wrote: > > > all. > > And any ajax request that generates an error will do an “alert(…info > about error…);” so you get immedaite feedback about what went wrong. > > And check out the presenatation slides here: > [mir.aculo.us JavaScript with Thomas Fuchs » Blog Archive » Slides from my Rails Ajax presentation at Canada on Rails](http://mir.aculo.us/articles/2006/04/15/slides-from-my-rails-ajax-) > presentation-at-canada-on-rails > They taught me everything I just told you. That’s what I was trying to say, but being to lazy to type and look it up, thanks for filling that in 😉 Best regards Peter De Berdt