Rails: access controller instance variable in CoffeeScript or JavaScript asset file

a couple of ways I have done this in the past

put the data in hidden fields, access the data in js/coffee

# single value
<%= hidden_field_tag "foo_name", @foo.name, { :id => "foo-name" } %>
$('#foo-name').val();

# when the 'value' has multiple attributes
<%= hidden_field_tag "foo", @foo.id, { :id => "foo", "data-first-name" => @foo.first_name, "data-last-name" => @foo.last_name } %>
$foo = $('#foo')
console.log $foo.val()
console.log $foo.data("firstName")
console.log $foo.data("lastName")

another option: load data into js data structure in erb, access it from js/coffee

<% content_for(:head) do %>
    <script>
    window.App = window.App || {};
    window.App.Data = window.App.Data || {};
    window.App.Data.fooList = [
        <% @list.each do |foo| %>
            <%= foo.to_json %>,
        <% end %>
    ];
    </script>
<% end %>


# coffee
for foo in window.App.Data.fooList
    console.log "#{foo.id}, #{foo.first_name} #{foo.last_name}"

I am not a big fan of constructing javascript data from ruby in erb like this, something about it just feels wrong – it can be effective though

and another option: make an ajax call and get the data on-demand from the server

I am also interested in other ideas and approaches