Best way to pass titles and other stuff to layouts

**dreaz** · Aug 21, 2006 00:52

I was just wondering, what's everyone favourite way to pass stuff like titles and stuff like that to layouts?

Do you set it on the view or on the controller method? Do you use content_for or a simple variable? How would you go about passing some kind of info that will be used on all methods of the controller (for example, controller PeopleController should tell the layout to also use the CSS people.css)?

Leave your thoughts...

**Luke Redpath** · Aug 21, 2006 02:08

For CSS, I use this little helper:

Code:

  def stylesheet_include_tag(*sources)
    if sources.include?(:controller)
      sources.delete(:controller)
      sources.push(controller_stylesheet_source) if stylesheet_exists(controller_stylesheet_source)
    end
    if sources.include?(:action)
      sources.delete(:action)
      sources.push(action_stylesheet_source) if stylesheet_exists(action_stylesheet_source)
    end
    if sources.include?(:defaults)
      sources.delete(:defaults)
      sources.unshift('application')
      sources.push(controller_stylesheet_source) if stylesheet_exists(controller_stylesheet_source)
      sources.push(action_stylesheet_source) if stylesheet_exists(action_stylesheet_source)
    end
    sources.collect { |source|
      path = "/stylesheets/#{source}.css"
      tag('link', { 'type' => 'text/css', 'rel' => 'stylesheet', 'href' => path})
    }.join("\n")
  end

protected
      def controller_stylesheet_source
      params[:controller]
    end
    
    def action_stylesheet_source
      [params[:controller], params[:action]].join("_")
    end
    
    def stylesheet_path(source)
      "#{RAILS_ROOT}/public/stylesheets/#{source}.css"
    end
    
    def stylesheet_exists(source)
      File.exists?(stylesheet_path(source))
    end

You can put the above in your ApplicationHelper or a separate file and include it in your ApplicationHelper.

You can now use stylesheet_include_tag in your layout - it takes three options; :controller, :action and :defaults.

If you add :controller, it will look for /public/stylesheets/controllername.css and if it finds one it will automatically include it.

If you add :action, it will look for /public/stylesheets/controllername_actionname.css and if it finds one it will automatically include it.

Finally, there is :defaults will look for both controller and action stylesheets, as well as a stylesheet called application.css.

By using the above helper you don't need to worry about specifying stylesheets - just create one using the above naming schemes and it will be included.

**dreaz** · Aug 21, 2006 02:19

Originally Posted by Luke Redpath

You can put the above in your ApplicationHelper or a separate file and include it in your ApplicationHelper.

You can now use stylesheet_include_tag in your layout - it takes three options; :controller, :action and :defaults.

If you add :controller, it will look for /public/stylesheets/controllername.css and if it finds one it will automatically include it.

If you add :action, it will look for /public/stylesheets/controllername_actionname.css and if it finds one it will automatically include it.

Finally, there is :defaults will look for both controller and action stylesheets, as well as a stylesheet called application.css.

By using the above helper you don't need to worry about specifying stylesheets - just create one using the above naming schemes and it will be included.

Thanks Luke, that's really handy

What about titles, to be used on the <title> tags for example? I'm thinking the best way to go is set it on the top of the view file, like this:

Code:

<% @page_title = 'List People' %>

normal view stuff...

Or would it best to set it on the controller and why?

**Fenrir2** · Aug 21, 2006 06:02

I'd set it in the view. Text is UI too, so it belongs in the view.

**IAIHMB** · Aug 21, 2006 07:31

For CSS, I add an ID to the body based on the action and controller name, ala:

Code:

<body id=<%= controller.controller_name %>_<%= controller.action_name %>">

If the action was named new and the controller was named article, to reference something on that particular page I would use:

Code:

#article_new{ ... }

For page titles, I believe the best approach is:

Code:

<title><%= @page_title or "Generic Title" %></title>

As long as that is in your layout you can set the page title from any action or controller by giving @page_title a value.

User Tag List

Thread: Best way to pass titles and other stuff to layouts

Thread Tools

Display

Best way to pass titles and other stuff to layouts

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions