Hello!
I want to understand more about how flash[:notice] works, because in one
case it stays on longer than I would want or expect…
I set it in on of the actions, and in the view for that action there is
a link to somewhere else… When the user clicks on that link, the flash
message is displayed in the new action/view… how come? If I do
flash.now[:notice] = ‘’… then it works as expected… my questions: is
it normal that in first case the message stays… and why? what is the
exact difference between flash and flash.now… is this subject easy to
understand and consistent or is it a little bit “hackish” and blurry?
The details:
def forgotten_password
# if post, generate password reset link and store it in the user
table, otherwise just show the form
if request.post?
user = User.find_by_email(params[:email])
if !user
flash[:notice] = “There is no user with such email”
else
Notifier::deliver_password_reset_key(user)
# show the message about the sent email
render :action => ‘password_reset_sent’
end
end
end
This is the view for this action:
<%= start_form_tag :action => ‘forgotten_password’ %>
Plase enter your email:
<%= text_field_tag(:email, ‘’ ) %>
<%= submit_tag ‘OK’ %>
<%= end_form_tag %>
<%= link_to “Home”, :action => ‘login’ %>
So when I enter the non-existing email, the above flash message is set
and this view(form) displayed again… BUT when I click on HOME (link on
the bottom), the message is still there in the ‘login’ action…
as I said - the message goes away if I use flash.now() … but I would
really like to understand the philosophy of this… I don’t want to go
testing the code for that kind of stuff and not learning it the right
way…
THANK YOU A LOT for the clarification!
David
A flash is essensial a session variable that is around in the request
after it was set. On the request after that again, it’s gone. Not sure
about your problem, though.
On Jan 21, 2:24 am, David K. [email protected]
You could use flash.now[:notice], that way it will only show once.
Kind regards,
Nick
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thank you, but this doesn’t tell me anything 
I know that… and it does work… but I wanted to know why the normal
flash doesn’t… I also wanted to know the difference between the two
(how it works)…
thank you anyway … but can anyone provide the real explanation?
Thank you!
enjoy!
david
Nick S. wrote:
You could use flash.now[:notice], that way it will only show once.
Kind regards,
Nick
http://www.railshostinginfo.com
Compare Rails hosting companies
OK, I got it now…
The thing that was confusing me was that somehow I thought that regular
flash is cleared after rendering a view (of course it’s not), when in
fact it’s the next action that is the final stop…
great! Thank you all!
David
Rob S. wrote:
You have pretty much answered it yourself.
From
Ruby on Rails — A web-app framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.
The flash provides a way to pass temporary objects between actions.
Anything you place in the flash will be exposed to the very next action
and then cleared out. This is a great way of doing notices and alerts,
such as a create action that sets flash[:notice] = “Successfully
created” before redirecting to a display action that can then expose the
flash to its template. Actually, that exposure is automatically done.
and for Flash.now
Ruby on Rails — A web-app framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.
now()
Sets a flash that will not be available to the next action, only to the
current.
You have pretty much answered it yourself.
From
The flash provides a way to pass temporary objects between actions.
Anything you place in the flash will be exposed to the very next action
and then cleared out. This is a great way of doing notices and alerts,
such as a create action that sets flash[:notice] = “Successfully
created” before redirecting to a display action that can then expose the
flash to its template. Actually, that exposure is automatically done.
and for Flash.now
now()
Sets a flash that will not be available to the next action, only to the
current.