My first time on an Ember.js app

My first time with Ember.js on a production app.

I have worked with Ember.js several years ago on a demo project just to check out the framework. I have frequently chosen other frameworks over Ember but not because I thought Ember was lacking. Years ago I started working with Angular over Ember because Angular integrated two-way data binding faster that Ember did. When I was selecting a framework, two-way data binding was a deal breaker so I chose Angular. Ember soon improved their data-binding, but I had already learned Angular and Ember still had a steep learning curve. Once mastered, Ember seems to be an excellent framework, but I'm not there yet. I'm still learning how Ember works and the patterns it favors. I am hoping to be on this project long enough to gain a very solid knowledge of Ember.

I have enjoyed working on the project so far. It's a really neat product. It is a spatial location app designed to aid municipalities in governance. It has some pretty cool applications beyond its intended audience as well. The product is called MapGeo.


What I like about Ember

• Its file structure is straight forward and easy to learn.
• It uses the Handlebars templating library which provides powerful and easy to use templating.
• The framework is very opinionated, therefore is easy to read once you've learned the preferred patterns.

What I don't like about Ember

It has a very steep learning curve! This is the only negative thing I have to say about Ember at this point, but it's a big one. I wouldn't have, and haven't thus far, attempted to learn the framework without a paying project backing the effort. I don't tend to shy away from hard things (I am a software developer after all), but learning Ember for fun wasn't on my todo list. Now that I am digging into the framework, I am liking what I find.