\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 5, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generating-html/188096 "2010-05-05T17:38:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1
**Author:**  [@adam\_wead](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adam_wead)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generating-html/188096/1 "2010-05-05T17:38:40Z")
Hi all,
I’m new to Ruby/Rails and need someone to help point me in the right
direction. I have a little inventory app that I built for work to
help me learn the language. I would like to modular-ize a bit of the
html code generation and I’m wondering where one places such a thing:
controller, model, view ?
I’m specifying a certain color for a table based on a couple of
database fields. Right now, I have the code as a long if/else
statement in one of the views. As the view loops through the database
rows, it checks the fields for all the different combination. The
problem is I’m using it another view as well and want to DRY it up a
bit. If I were in PHP-land, I’d write a function with a couple of
database fields as arguments, and it would return some html code or
just a color, ie. #FFFFFF. I’m not sure how I’d do the same thing in
Rails. I’m guessing the logic goes in the model and the controller
has a definition for the function and then the view calls it?
\<% for f in @fields %\>
\<% end %\>
Any guidance would be much appreciated!
many thanks,
…adam
---
**Author:**  [@adam\_wead](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adam_wead)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generating-html/188096/2 "2010-05-05T18:51:12Z")
adam wead wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I’m new to Ruby/Rails and need someone to help point me in the right
> direction. I have a little inventory app that I built for work to
> help me learn the language. I would like to modular-ize a bit of the
> html code generation and I’m wondering where one places such a thing:
> controller, model, view ?
The answer is “D.” None of the above.
> I’m specifying a certain color for a table based on a couple of
> database fields. Right now, I have the code as a long if/else
> statement in one of the views. As the view loops through the database
> rows, it checks the fields for all the different combination. The
> problem is I’m using it another view as well and want to DRY it up a
> bit. If I were in PHP-land, I’d write a function with a couple of
> database fields as arguments, and it would return some html code or
> just a color, ie. #FFFFFF. I’m not sure how I’d do the same thing in
> Rails. I’m guessing the logic goes in the model and the controller
> has a definition for the function and then the view calls it?
Anything like this that goes beyond simple conditional logic belongs in
view helpers. View helpers live inside app/helpers.