# How to call a controller from an app view? **URL:** \ **Category:** Engines\ **Created:** [April 7, 2006, 2:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-call-a-controller-from-an-app-view/57145 "2006-04-07T14:59:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/65b543/32.png) [@nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuno)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2006, 2:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-call-a-controller-from-an-app-view/57145/1 "2006-04-07T14:59:42Z")
Hello, I allready asked about embedding an engine view from an app view : using partials works fine. Now, my main app needs to ask my publish engine : give me a “news” block. This block of datas will be embedded in the site’s main page. What are the news, how to retrieve and how to format them is a job for the engine. Unfortunately I really don’t know how to achieve this. What I want to do is calling an engine controller (which retrieve the news, then render the view accordingly) from an app view. Embedding “black-boxed” datas from an engine in the app (or may be into another engine view) is certainly a common need for every engines users and I’m pretty sure there is an elegant solution I’m been missing. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/65b543/32.png) [@nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuno)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2006, 3:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-call-a-controller-from-an-app-view/57145/2 "2006-04-07T15:10:36Z")
To achieve this, your publish engine should supply a ‘news component’, which you can render in your views with ‘render\_component’. See the Rails docs on components for more information… - james On 4/7/06, Nuno [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > the view accordingly) from an app view. > > * * * > > engine-users mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rails-engines.org/listinfo.cgi/engine-users-rails-engines.org](http://lists.rails-engines.org/listinfo.cgi/engine-users-rails-engines.org) – - J \* ~ ---
**Author:** ![nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/65b543/32.png) [@nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuno)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-call-a-controller-from-an-app-view/57145/3 "2006-04-07T16:07:29Z")
Thanks James, valuable answer as allways 😉 And then comes the next (and last I hope) problem : mysite/app/controllers/site\_controller with action index -\> which render the view mysite/app/views/index.rhtml –\> which contains \<%= render\_component :controller =\> ArticlesController, :action =\> “newarticles” %\> —\> which calls controller (uses\_component\_template\_root) MYENGINE\_ROOT/app/controllers/articles\_controller with action newarticles ----\> which render MYENGINE\_ROOT/app/controllers/newarticles.rhtml !!! \<-- GOTCHA HERE ### Why does it tries to find the view in this directory instead of views directory ? I had to use render “…/views/newsarticles” Any idea ? Am I doing something wrong ? ---
**Author:** ![nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/65b543/32.png) [@nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuno)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2006, 4:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-call-a-controller-from-an-app-view/57145/4 "2006-04-07T16:18:16Z")
Can you submit this as a ticket? I need to add some tests to ensure that components are being rendered from Engines properly. - james On 4/7/06, Nuno [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > newarticles > > – > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). > > * * * > > engine-users mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rails-engines.org/listinfo.cgi/engine-users-rails-engines.org](http://lists.rails-engines.org/listinfo.cgi/engine-users-rails-engines.org) – - J \* ~ ---
**Author:** ![nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/65b543/32.png) [@nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuno)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 4:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-call-a-controller-from-an-app-view/57145/5 "2006-04-08T16:02:56Z")
My guess would be is that you are passing it a Model and not a string. Try this: render\_component :controller =\> ‘articles\_controller’, :view =\> ‘newarticles’ -Nb On 4/7/06 7:07 AM, “Nuno” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > newarticles > ----\> which render MYENGINE\_ROOT/app/controllers/newarticles.rhtml !!! > ← GOTCHA HERE ### > > Why does it tries to find the view in this directory instead of views > directory ? > > I had to use > render “…/views/newsarticles” > > Any idea ? Am I doing something wrong ? ```auto Nathaniel S. H. Brown http://nshb.net ``` ---
**Author:** ![nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/65b543/32.png) [@nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuno)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-call-a-controller-from-an-app-view/57145/6 "2006-04-08T18:19:47Z")
Nathaniel B. wrote: > My guess would be is that you are passing it a Model and not a string. > > Try this: > > render\_component :controller =\> ‘articles\_controller’, :view =\> > ‘newarticles’ Got different behaviours today - I can use several parameters : render\_component :controller =\> ArticlesController, :action =\> “newarticles” render\_component :controller =\> “Articles”, :action =\> “newarticles” And in articles\_controller.rb no matter if I render “newsarticles” or render “…/views/newsarticles” I’ve restarted webrick between each change just in case… But I can’t use render\_component :controller =\> ‘articles\_controller’, :action =\> “newarticles” Which produce an uninitialized constant ArticlesControllerController Is opening a ticket still needed or these behaviours are the right ones ?