Rails: Layouts & Search/Sort

[gregor002]

Three questions for you all...
1.

  def index
    list
    render :action => 'list'
  end

Why the need for 'list' above the render?

2. I have an admin section to a site I'm building. Here's the pertinent
bit of the layout that all controllers are using:

<div id="main-content">
  <%= @content_for_layout %>
</div>
<div id="sidebar">
</div>

I'm using @content_for_layout to display various controller actions such
as new, edit, list etc. My problem is that for each controller I want a
specific chunk of content to show up in the sidebar. How can I
accomplish this without altering the layout to look something like this:

<div id="main-content">
  <%= @content_for_layout %>
</div>
<div id="sidebar">
  <% if @controller.controller_name == 'news' %><%= render(:partial => 
"news_sidebar") %><% end %>
  <% if @controller.controller_name == 'users' %><%= render(:partial => 
"users_sidebar") %><% end %>
  <% if @controller.controller_name == 'links' %><%= render(:partial => 
"links_sidebar") %><% end %>
</div>

...There has to be a much more DRY way of doing that. Perhaps a helper
that takes the controller name as an argument? Other suggestions?

3. I'm used to building searches and sorting mechanisms with PHP that
analyze a $_GET request and display data based on those parametrs. URLs
end up looking like:

http://example.com/search.php&order=desc&category=foo&author=fred

I have no idea how to build something simple like this with Rails -- can
someone provide some code for me to look at that does just this? I'm
very much a learn by seeing kind of guy and would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

[vgarcia]

For #2, you can do something like this:

<% current_sidebar = controller.controller_name + "_sidebar" %>
<%= render :partial => current_sidebar %>

Less code at least.

For #3, the params[] hash is the equivalent of $_GET. Or are you talking about how you'd construct that query?

[gregor002]

For #3, the params[] hash is the equivalent of $_GET. Or are you talking about how you'd construct that query?

...I suppose I'd like to know what the form XHTML should look like, how the query will be constructed in the controller and how it will be handled by the model. Thanks!

[33degrees]

#1, index is an alias for the list action; the solitary "list" is a call to the list method, followed by a call to render the view for the list action.

[gregor002]

the solitary "list" is a call to the list method

...perfect. Thanks.

[Luke Redpath]

For your sidebar content, you could use content_for:

# layout file
<div id="sidebar">
  <%= yield :sidebar %>
</div>

# in any of your views
<% content_for(:sidebar) do %>
  everything in here will get inserted into
  your sidebar div
<% end %>

Also note that you should now be using <%= yield %> instead of <%= @content_for_layout %> as the latter is deprecated.

[gregor002]

For your sidebar content, you could use content_for:

# layout file
<div id="sidebar">
  <%= yield :sidebar %>
</div>

# in any of your views
<% content_for(:sidebar) do %>
  everything in here will get inserted into
  your sidebar div
<% end %>

Also note that you should now be using <%= yield %> instead of <%= @content_for_layout %> as the latter is deprecated.

Thanks Luke.