How to compare Formtastic and simple_form?

Question

How to compare Formtastic and simple_form? What are the benefits of each?

Answer 1

Formtastic and simple_form are very similar, usage is also very similar.

The main difference is that the formtastic markup formtastic fixed. Keep in mind: if you don't mind, it's fantastic. It's really great to get started. It also comes with default css, so your forms will look good out of the box.

The advantage of simple_form over formtastic is that you can change the markup to your needs. This can be convenient if your designer likes your fields, which will be grouped inside a div instead of li. The disadvantage of simple_form is that it does not have a standard layout (css). This simplifies formatting. Since the API is almost identical, you can easily switch to simple_form if necessary.

[UPDATE 2015-06-22] Actually, currently a simple form supports loading out of the box, so for me personally, I always prefer simplicity.

Answer 2

Simple_form with Twitter Bootstrap 3 is currently a pain. But it works very well with BS2. Formtastic and BS3 work very well with the formtastic-bootstrap stone:

gem 'bootstrap-sass', '~> 3.0.3.0'

gem 'formtastic-bootstrap', git: 'https://github.com/mjbellantoni/formtastic-bootstrap.git', branch: :bootstrap3_and_rails4

Unfortunately, Formtastic does not handle rails g scaffold ; simple_form does.