Hey everyone! I’m working on a new project and thinking about using Java for the backend services and Ruby on Rails for the frontend web application. The Java side would handle database caching and core business logic, while Rails would manage the user interface and admin dashboard features.
Has anyone here worked with this type of mixed architecture before? I’m curious about real world experiences with this setup. What challenges did you face when it comes to keeping development moving fast, handling deployments, scaling the system, and making sure both parts work well together?
I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have actually built something like this rather than theoretical advice. Also not really looking for suggestions about other frameworks unless they’re directly related to solving problems with this specific combo.
Thanks for any insights you can share!
I’ve been running this setup in production for two years. The biggest pain point? Keeping data models synced between both systems. You’ll waste way more time than you expect syncing Java DTOs with Rails models every time requirements change. Auth needs serious upfront planning too - decide early if you’re handling sessions centrally or splitting them up. Performance takes a hit from the extra network calls between Rails and Java, so your caching better be solid. Upside: the forced separation made us design cleaner APIs and write better tests. Definitely budget extra time for monitoring and logging. Debugging problems across multiple services is a nightmare.
i tried this last year too - java microservices w/ a rails frontend. coordinating deploys was a pain! gotta watch out for api changes or it’ll mess everything up. plus, the json formats can cause issues - we ran into that a few times.
Interesting combo! I’m curious about how you’re handling communication between them - REST APIs or GraphQL? And what’s your plan for user sessions across both systems? That’s always tricky with mixed stacks in my experience.