 <p>usually ajax request ha js type,if you can change type to js these changes will works </p> <p>controller </p> <pre><code>def show @article = Article.find(params[:id]) respond_to do |format| format.html format.js format.xml { render :xml =&gt; @article } end </code></pre> <p>end</p> <p>then in app/views/articles/show.js.erb write javascript code to update page content like</p> <pre><code>$("#yourDiv1").html("blah blah"); $("#yourDiv2").html("whatever"); </code></pre> <p>and following approach will work for both html and JS</p> <pre><code>$.ajax({ success : null, type : 'GET', url : '/admin/articles/show', dataType : 'html', data: { id: article_id }, }).done(function( html ) { $("#yourDIv").html(html); }); </code></pre>