To me it also looked like a lot of work to do what was being done. I've been pretty into Rails 5's API-only mode lately as it works great with Ember front-ends. Here's a pretty quick guide to jump in if you're curious: http://emberigniter.com/modern-bridge-ember-and-rails-5-with...

Rails scaffolds are ridiculous these days. A working object model + controller + routing resulting in a JSON API with CRUD ops on your new class is a one-liner now.