title: Backbone.js, mongodb and fetching related objects - client side or server side?
body: <p>I'm using mongodb, node.js and backbone.js to build an app that will serve as a learning experience for me.  I'm interested to know what is best practice for fetching related objects from a REST API for this sort of thing.</p>
  
  <p>Let's say we have "post" objects and "user" objects, with posts having a "userId" property that links them to users.</p>
  
  <p>Should you:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Fetch a post object on the client side.  Inspect the "userId" property of the post and then separately fetch that user.  This seems to be nice and simple in terms of server-side code, but could end up making lots of requests if things get complicated further down the line.</li>
  <li>Fetch a post object, and have the server "make the join" and give you the related user object, in the same request.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Does anyone have some experience that they could share?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>