This is more of a "Rivets 101" question than an issue, but I didn't know where else to ask...

I'm brand-new to the idea of javascript frameworks. Currently, I am currently using handlebars to create a view (of search results) from JSON data. That works fine, except I have to update the entire page by requesting a new URL as the user paginates thru the results. Ideally, I'd like to update only the results area rather than the entire page. Which lead me to rivets.

I like the idea of rivets.js as it's simple and light (kind of why I like handlebars), but I'm having trouble getting started. I've looked at all the samples and tutorials I can find. I feel like I know how to change a number or a color in another part of the DOM, but still have no idea how to approach common "developer" tasks (when you're new to the idea of frameworks)

I have the templating part all set - I'm loading the json and pagination into the DOM and binding it like this:

/* search term and search page are passed to server, JSON is response */
$.getJSON('/search?q=' + search_term + '&search_page=' + search_page)
.done(function(data) {

/* custom function generates pagination */
var p = getPagination(data.search_page,data.pages,data.size);

rivets.bind(
    document.querySelector('#es-results-container'),
    { 
        data: data, 
        pagination: p
    }
)

Then in the html:

<div id="es-results-container">
    <h1>{ data.hits } Search Results for { data.search_term }</h1>
    <div class="product" rv-each-product="data.results">
        <a rv-href="product.url"><img class="" rv-src="product.image" />
    </product>
    <div class="pagination__items" rv-each-pages="pagination.pages">
        <a class="pagination__item" href="#" rv-data-target="pages.page">{ pages.page }</a>
    </div>
</div>

That's rendering perfectly. I just can't figure out the next step - how to bind the pagination links to a function that will:

1. make a new ajax call that will pass search_term and search_page back to server
2. receive JSON response and update the #es-results-container

In my handlebars templates I'm doing this the "old fashioned" way with just:

search_term = data.search_term;
search_page = $(this).attr("data-target");
window.location = '/search?q=' + search_term + '&search_page=' + search_page;

Seems like it should be easy to accomplish with rivets.js, but nothing I throw into rivets.binders seems to even come close to working. Can someone point me in the right direction? Perhaps I'm looking at it all wrong?