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**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [January 19, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hiding-and-showing-html-with-ajax/158138 "2009-01-19T17:56:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1
**Author:**  [@david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/david)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hiding-and-showing-html-with-ajax/158138/1 "2009-01-19T17:56:44Z")
I could use some advice on this situation. I know this looks like a
lot of code, but It is a straightforward implementation question, I am
not stuck or anything. I have what I need working but it involved two
ajax server requests and Im not sure it is the best way. I have a
list of appointments, each with dates and an edit link. This edit
link is a link\_to\_remote function that makes a call to the server and
renders a partial that replaces the div that contains the appointment
information with editable fields:
\<%= appointment.end\_time.strftime("%l:%M%p").sub(/^0/,'') %\> \<%= link\_to\_remote "Edit", :url =\> {:action =\> "edit\_appt", :id =\> appointment.id, :day =\> day} %\>
I want to make this a ajax request, b/c this is all in an ajaxed popup
and I would like to speed them up by not loading all the editable
field html for every appointment for each popup. Is this a safe
assumption and solution?
The edit\_appt action looks like this:
page.replace\_html “appt\_#{params[:day]}\_#{params[:id]}”, :partial =\>
‘edit\_appt’, :object =\> @appt\_to\_edit, :locals =\> {:day =\> params
[:day]}
Now if anyone is still with me(and I REALLY appreciate if you are!)
then my question is about placing a cancel link/button in this
edit\_appt partial that will load the original appointment. The way it
is set up now is that it makes another ajax request, passes the id
again, performs a search and then renders another partial:
def reload\_appt
@appointment = Appointment.find(params[:id])
respond\_to do |format|
format.js do
render :update do |page|
page.replace\_html “appt\_#{params[:day]}\_#{params
[:id]}”, :partial =\> ‘individual\_appt’, :object =\> @appointment,
:locals =\> {:day =\> params[:day]}
end
end
end
end
My question is if this is the best way of doing it? Im wondering if
there is some way to use hide/show html or something, b/c the second
database query seems redundant, seeing as how the appointment html
existed in the first place. Thanks for any advice.
---
**Author:**  [@david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/david)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 10:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hiding-and-showing-html-with-ajax/158138/2 "2009-01-19T22:14:00Z")
Hi David,
David wrote:
> My question is if this is the best way of doing it?
Depends on your definition of ‘best’. It works and it’s easy to follow
the
code. Good enough for me.
> Im wondering if there is some way to use hide/show html or something,
Sure, but you’d have to rework your view so you’d have a separate set of
s for the originals which you could hide/show, and a second set into which you'd render the edit partials.
> b/c the second database query seems redundant, seeing as how the
> appointment html existed in the first place. Thanks for any advice.
DRY is not an absolute. Neither is readability. Both are components of
maintainability. Go for balance. IMHO, if there’s a tie, readability
wins.
YMMV.
HTH,
Bill
---
**Author:**  [@david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/david)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hiding-and-showing-html-with-ajax/158138/3 "2009-01-20T04:48:16Z")
Okay, thanks for the input.