[jenniferDewalt]

Thanks! For the backend I use Rails as an api. Rails responds to the initial request with the assets and a barebones html doc with header, section and footer tags. From there, Rails responds to subsequent requests with JSON.

The restaurant search feature uses the Google Places api to get restaurant data (including things like hours and price) for places that aren't already in the database. YumHacker uses Postgres with PostGIS for the database and devise for authentication.

The frontend magic happens with Backbone.js. Backbone latches onto the skeleton html sent over by Rails to render the views. Whenever you request new data, it sends a request to Rails which sends back JSON. The learning curve for Backbone was kind of high but now that I've got the hang of it, it's pretty awesome.

I plan to write something more in depth about the technology in the near future.

[trifu]

Thanks for giving me a more in depth answer and not just telling me to go read your blog (which I should have done in more detail in the first place). Looking forward to seeing more good stuff from you and YumHacker.