Create web application with ajax from the beginning or add ajax later?

Question

I'm working on my first Ruby on Rails aplication and it's quite big (at least for me ;) - database has about 25 tables). I'm still learning Ruby and Rails and I never wrote anything in Javascript nor Ajax.

Should I add Ajax to my application from the beginning? Or maybe it will be better to add it latter?

Or in the other words: is it (relatively) easy to add ajax to existing web application?

Answer 1

Jeremy Keith has written a great article on this topic, which he refers to as Hijax

In short:

• Plan for Ajax from the start.
• Implement Ajax at the end.

Answer 2

Depends on how important Ajax is for the application. Since you are probably going to use Ajax for progressive usability enhancements only, I would say it is best to start with a traditional non-Ajax software, and add Ajax features only when you have the first features working. You can do this feature by feature, or write the whole software first, and then start ajaxing it.

Adding Ajax may be easier if you familiarize yourself with unobtrusive JavaScript techniques. Use jQuery instead of Prototype.js, or LowPro in addition to Prototype.js. For the latter, see e.g. Jarkko Laine's PDF book Unobtrusive Prototype.js.