# DRY relative to edit and show **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 23, 2005, 6:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dry-relative-to-edit-and-show/50997 "2005-12-23T18:14:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![afg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@afg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/afg)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 6:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dry-relative-to-edit-and-show/50997/1 "2005-12-23T18:14:21Z")
I’m a newbie, but it seems like edit and show should somehow share a partial form. In particular I’ve customized the layout of my edit form by using a table and multiple rows/columns and I want my show form to look the same. Currently I’ve modified my show view to use \_form, but now all the fields are read/write and obviously they need to be read only on the show form. Any ideas, or just do form layout work twice? ## Thanks Greg Greg F. The Norcross Group Forensics for the 21st Century ---
**Author:** ![afg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@afg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/afg)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dry-relative-to-edit-and-show/50997/2 "2005-12-23T18:20:23Z")
If none of your fields in your ‘show’ action are editable, why do you want to use a form? Assuming you want a form (in a table) for editing and a table for showing, it isn’t redundant (or in violation of the DRY rule) to have separate partials or views. The two are inherently different. ---
**Author:** ![afg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@afg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/afg)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 7:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dry-relative-to-edit-and-show/50997/3 "2005-12-23T19:39:02Z")
On 12/23/05, Toby B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > If none of your fields in your ‘show’ action are editable, why do you > want to use a form? > > Assuming you want a form (in a table) for editing and a table for > showing, it isn’t redundant (or in violation of the DRY rule) to have > separate partials or views. The two are inherently different. your right, I don’t need a form. Just trying to eliminate the redundant table layouts. ## Greg Greg F. The Norcross Group Forensics for the 21st Century ---
**Author:** ![afg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@afg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/afg)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dry-relative-to-edit-and-show/50997/4 "2005-12-25T16:15:30Z")
> It would be nice if rails had a native way to set all the readonly attributes (or enabled, etc… as appropriate for the control) to true or false based on the view being a show or edit. This would eliminate the duplication we see between the actions. \< If you’re using the RoR helpers to create the forms (/app/views/…/\_form) \<%= text\_field ‘table’, ‘field’ %\> , what about creating an application-wide helper that will set read-only attribute based on a flag or global? \<%= my\_text\_field ‘table’, ‘field’, read\_only %\> Rich C. removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![afg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@afg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/afg)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 8:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dry-relative-to-edit-and-show/50997/5 "2005-12-23T20:09:32Z")
I have ran into the same concern and fundamentally feel like it is a duplication of effort - even though the two actions perform different purposes I want them to share 100% of the look-and-feel. I find myself copying and pasting the appropriate show and edit files every time and then going through and changing them as necessary for the designated action. When I want to change the look-and-feel of one, I have to change the other as well. I understand Toby’s argument, but it doesn’t change the fact that it is duplicating the effort. It would be nice if rails had a native way to set all the readonly attributes (or enabled, etc… as appropriate for the control) to true or false based on the view being a show or edit. This would eliminate the duplication we see between the actions. Just my opinion! Michael Toby B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: If none of your fields in your ‘show’ action are editable, why do you want to use a form? Assuming you want a form (in a table) for editing and a table for showing, it isn’t redundant (or in violation of the DRY rule) to have separate partials or views. The two are inherently different.