Dynamic content outside of <%= yeild %> in layout

Rails
1

Basicly, I have a standard layout with a main content section (the <%=
yeild %>), but I also have a sidebar. Previously I was just using <%
render :partial => ‘path/to/partial’ %>. Now I want the content in the
sidebar to be dynamic, should I be using helpers, or can I call another
controller and method from inside the rhtml?

thanks

2

The way that I do this is with content_for. You can use
content_for_layout in your main layouts to display individual view
content (this is an alternate to yield - I think yield is
deprecated?). In the same way you can put content_for_XXX in your
layout and have that replaced as well. An example might be the
easiest:

In your layout:

< if !@content_for_sidebar.blank? %>
<%= @content_for_sidebar %>
<% end %>

In your individual views:

<% content_for ‘sidebar’ do -%>

Put some content here!

<% end %>

Note that you don’t need the if statement in the layout if you always
fill out the content_for_sidebar but in my views I often leave some
content sections empty.

Jon

On 10/13/06, Jonathon M. [email protected] wrote:

Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

–
Jon W.
[email protected]

3

On 10/13/06, Jon W. [email protected] wrote:

<%= @content_for_sidebar %>
<% end %>

It is better to use <%= yield ‘sidebar’ %> instead.of <%=
@content_for_sidebar %>.

In your individual views:

<% content_for ‘sidebar’ do -%>

Put some content here!

<% end %>

Note that you don’t need the if statement in the layout if you always
fill out the content_for_sidebar but in my views I often leave some
content sections empty.

If you just need to prepare data for your sidebar, you can use
combination
of common partial + before_filter in e.g. ApplicationController to
prepare
data for partial.

But if your sidebar is dependant on particular section, I would suggest
using nested_layouts plugin (http://nested-layouts.rubyforge.org) and
“content_for” helper (described above). So for every “section” (a group
of
pages with the same sidebar) you could use the same inner layout that
would
prepare sidebar content and wrap page content in outer (your main)
layout.
Take a look at nested_layouts plugin documentation - it has example of
just
what (I guess) you need.

4

Jon, I thought content_for was depricated.

Maxim, I think the before_filter and common partial is what Im looking
for. I can use the before_filter to load up relavent data and use some
basic logic in the rhtml to flip different sidebar ‘modules’ on and off.

I had tried render_component, but heard that was a wasteful option, not
to mention it crashed WEBrick on more than one occasion.

5

I thought content_for was depricated.

Not exactly. Accessing @content_for_(…) is deprecated (see Jon W.'s
post), but the content_for() method itself is not deprecated. Or at
least that’s how I read the docs.

6

Jonathon,
You are right. From the rails docs:

NOTE: Beware that content_for is ignored in caches. So you shouldn’t
use it for elements that are going to be fragment cached.

The deprecated way of accessing a content_for block was to use a
instance variable named @@content_for_#{name_of_the_content_block}@.
So <%= content_for(‘footer’) %> would be avaiable as <%=
@content_for_footer %>. The preferred notation now is <%= yield
:footer %>.

It is always good when I learn something by answering a question!

Jon