Can you use AngularJS with Rails Models

Question

If the title question is unclear, let me clarify. Though the question is conceptual, rather than physical.

I have a rails application with a few models (order, buyer). I recently discovered angularjs and noticed that it is a very powerful tool, however, I, obviously, would not like to convert my project.

I'm particularly interested in the data-binding of angular, aka how the info of views can be instantly updated (without page reload). So, is there a way to use angular but take the data from the rails model, instead of the angular model?

If this isn't possible, feel free to comment with a different way to go about this.

Answer 1

Here's what a move to Angular with Rails would mean to me.

• Rails does not do any server side HTML templating.
• Your web server serves static files - HTML (angular views), CSS, and JavaScript.
• Rails serves an API (your Rails models being serialized to JSON).
• There isn't really a model to recreate on the Angular side. You get JavaScript objects back from the web API calls. Controllers, Services, and Directives do a lot of the work in Angular.
• You choose when to send requests to the server in Angular. Update whenever your app needs to.

I think it's helpful to think of your Angular app like any other client of your Rails API.