# Help remove duplication in my app **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 27, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help-remove-duplication-in-my-app/51200 "2005-12-27T23:07:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sorenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@sorenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sorenson)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help-remove-duplication-in-my-app/51200/1 "2005-12-27T23:07:16Z")
I’m porting an old site of mine into Rails and I’m running into some duplication that could / needs to be weeded out. For each of my actions, I have to wrap the view content in the following HTML: ![](https://www.ruby-forum.com/images/content-top2.png) ``` # content inserted here ``` ![](https://www.ruby-forum.com/images/content-bottom2.png) Unfortunately, I can’t add this snippet into the controller’s layout, as each posts (think blog), needs to be wrapped in this html. The existing, non-Rails implementation can be found at http:// [www.hsgamedev.org](http://www.hsgamedev.org) and should be a good visual aide. Any suggestions? ~ ryan ~ ---
**Author:** ![sorenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@sorenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sorenson)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 11:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help-remove-duplication-in-my-app/51200/2 "2005-12-27T23:13:18Z")
On Tue, 2005-12-27 at 17:04 -0500, J. Ryan S. wrote: > ~ ryan ~ Ryan, You want partials. create a file called /app/views/controller/action/\_box.rhtml It will look like this: ![](https://www.ruby-forum.com/images/content-top2.png) \<%= content %\> ![](https://www.ruby-forum.com/images/content-bottom2.png) You can now render it like this in your other views: \<%= render :partial =\> ‘box’, :locals =\> { :content =\> @foo } %\> If you’re wanting to reuse this partial for many things, I believe you can nest it, so replace @foo with another render :partial call, with partials named \_blog.rhtml, \_comment.rhtml, or whatever. - Jamie ---
**Author:** ![sorenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@sorenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sorenson)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 11:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help-remove-duplication-in-my-app/51200/3 "2005-12-27T23:16:32Z")
Why wouldn’t adding the code below to the controller layout work? For example, assuming a controller named “blog”, you could have the following in app\>views\>layouts\>blog.rhtml: ![](https://www.ruby-forum.com/images/content-top2.png) ``` <%= @content_for_layout %> ``` ![](https://www.ruby-forum.com/images/content-bottom2.png) The “\<%= @content\_for\_layout %\>” would include whatever content each view produced. Sorry if I misunderstood you. Thanks. Steven ---
**Author:** ![sorenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@sorenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sorenson)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help-remove-duplication-in-my-app/51200/4 "2005-12-27T23:19:34Z")
Jamie, I wasn’t aware of the ability to nest render(:partial =\> …) calls. I’ll re-read the docs on the render method. ~ ryan ~ ---
**Author:** ![sorenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@sorenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sorenson)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help-remove-duplication-in-my-app/51200/5 "2005-12-27T23:37:39Z")
Jamie, \<%= render(:partial =\> ‘box’, :locals =\> { :content =\> render (:partial =\> ‘post’) }) %\> # works \<%= render(:partial =\> ‘box’, :locals =\> { :content =\> “\<%= link\_to ‘Back’, :action =\> ‘list’ %\>” } ) %\> # doesn’t work I’d like to try to avoid creating a partial template file for small, one-liners like the string in the second example. Any thoughts? ~ ryan ~ ---
**Author:** ![sorenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@sorenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sorenson)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 11:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help-remove-duplication-in-my-app/51200/6 "2005-12-27T23:25:36Z")
Steven, Don’t be sorry. 🙂 I’m fairly certain this wouldn’t work because I need to, potentially, wrap multiple blog-like posts per action. Take a look at the source code for the site I posted in my first message to _see_ what I mean. ~ ryan ~ ---
**Author:** ![sorenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@sorenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sorenson)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 11:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help-remove-duplication-in-my-app/51200/7 "2005-12-27T23:40:41Z")
Nevermind, I’m an idiot. \<%= render(:partial =\> ‘box’, :locals =\> { :content =\> link\_to (‘Back’, :action =\> ‘list’) } ) %\> ~ ryan ~ ---
**Author:** ![sorenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@sorenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sorenson)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2005, 5:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help-remove-duplication-in-my-app/51200/8 "2005-12-28T05:59:35Z")
On 12/27/05, J. Ryan S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > as each posts (think blog), needs to be wrapped in this html. > > > > You want partials. create a file > > > > * * * > > > > Rails mailing list > > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) > > * * * > > Rails mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) Not sure if the overall idea is the most elegant way to go, but \<%= render(:partial =\> ‘box’, :locals =\> { :content =\> “\<%= link\_to ‘Back’, :action =\> ‘list’ %\>” } ) %\> # doesn’t work \<%= render(:partial =\> ‘box’, :locals =\> { :content =\> “#{link\_to ‘Back’, :action =\> ‘list’}” } ) %\> # should work – Kyle M. Chief Technologist E Factor Media // FN Interactive removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid 1-866-263-3261