How can I render a template outside of a controller in Rails 3?

Rails
#1

Hi All,

I can’t seem to render a template outside of a controller in my Rails 3
application. The googling I’ve done has been helpful, and I eventually
found
some useful info at
http://www.swombat.com/rails-rendering-templates-outside-of-a-contro.
However, this seems to be broken in Rails 3. Does anyone have any ideas
how
I can fix this method or perhaps know of a better approach?

My method:

  def render_erb(template_path, params)
   view = ActionView::Base.new(ActionController::Base.view_paths,

{})

   class << view
    include ApplicationHelper
   end

   view.render(:file => "#{template_path}.html.erb", :locals =>

params)

  end

The error:

ActionView::Template::Error: ActionView::Template::Error
    from

/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-3.0.0/lib/active_support/whiny_nil.rb:48:in
method_missing' from /Users/mikegerstenblatt/Desktop/bluetrain/lib/test.html.erb:17:in_lib_test_html_erb__366962844_2173671680_68830’
from
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-3.0.0/lib/action_view/template.rb:135:in
send' from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-3.0.0/lib/action_view/template.rb:135:inrender’
from
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-3.0.0/lib/active_support/notifications.rb:54:in
instrument' from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-3.0.0/lib/action_view/template.rb:127:inrender’
from
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-3.0.0/lib/action_view/render/rendering.rb:59:in
_render_template' from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-3.0.0/lib/active_support/notifications.rb:52:ininstrument’
from
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-3.0.0/lib/active_support/notifications/instrumenter.rb:21:in
instrument' from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-3.0.0/lib/active_support/notifications.rb:52:ininstrument’
from
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-3.0.0/lib/action_view/render/rendering.rb:56:in
_render_template' from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-3.0.0/lib/action_view/render/rendering.rb:26:inrender’
from
/Users/mikegerstenblatt/Desktop/bluetrain/app/models/generated_website.rb:45:in
`render_erb’
from (irb):2

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

#2

[email protected] wrote in post #955787:

Hi All,

I can’t seem to render a template outside of a controller in my Rails 3
application.
[…]

Why would you ever want to? That’s a sure sign that you’re trying to
break MVC.

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]

#3

I’m aware of breaking the MVC paradigm, however I’m trying to generate a
json file used later by an application.

On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 11:13 AM, Marnen Laibow-Koser

#4

Please quote when replying.

[email protected] wrote in post #955803:

I’m aware of breaking the MVC paradigm,

Again: don’t do that. There is almost never an actual need to do so.

however I’m trying to generate a
json file used later by an application.

Why do you need a JSON file “used later”? What are you trying to
achieve?

If you need to, then I recommend doing this with a Rake task or
script/runner script that works with the Rails MVC architecture rather
than against it.

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]

#5

Why do you need a JSON file “used later”? What are you trying to
achieve?

I’m generting static html content to be used outside of a rails
application.

On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 11:30 AM, Marnen Laibow-Koser

#6

[email protected] wrote in post #955827:

Why do you need a JSON file “used later”? What are you trying to
achieve?

I’m generting static html content to be used outside of a rails
application.

OK, now I’m confused. Are you generating HTML or JSON? Is this sort of
a data export feature? What’s the workflow like? I’m trying to figure
out the best place to put this in a Rails context.

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]

#7

Great idea Phillip. Is there a way I can call curl from the rails app
and
save the output to a designated area within the app directory?

#8

On Oct 20, 2010, at 7:48 AM, [email protected] wrote:

Hi All,

I can’t seem to render a template outside of a controller in my Rails 3
application. The googling I’ve done has been helpful, and I eventually found some
useful info at
http://www.swombat.com/rails-rendering-templates-outside-of-a-contro. However,
this seems to be broken in Rails 3. Does anyone have any ideas how I can fix this
method or perhaps know of a better approach?

Based on your other emails it seems you want this file to be saved for
some 3rd-party use later on.

Why not just… curl ‘http://yourdomain.com/path/to/view’ > saved.html

If you’re going outside of Rails, make life easy and go all the way :slight_smile: