Navbar: what's the "Rails Way"?

Rails
1

Hi all.

I’ve the following navbar on my site:

<div id=“nav”>
   Â


    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
  • <%= link_to “Home”, home_url
    %>

    • Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
  • <%= link_to “Link 1”, link1_url %>

    • Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
  • <%= link_to “Link 2”, link2_url %>

    • Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
  • <%= link_to “Link 3”, link3_url %>

    • Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
  • <%= link_to “Link 4”, link4_url %>

    • Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
  • <%= link_to “Link 5”, link5_url %>

    • Â Â Â Â
       Â

My question is: what’s the best approach against id=“current”? I mean:
I want to my current controller to be the current “selected” item.

I was thinking about use something like my.url/?current=item_name and
an helper. So:

#app/helpers/home_helper.rb
def output_li(name, current, &content)
 output = “<li”
 output = (name.to_upper == current.to_upper) ? ’ id=“current”’ : ‘’
 output = “>”

 output = yield

 output = “”
end

#app/views/layouts

   Â
    Â Â Â Â <%= output_li "home", params[:current] { link_to "Home", home_url(:current="home") } %> Â Â Â Â <%= output_li "link1", params[:current] { link_to "Link 1", link1_url(:current="link1") } %> Â Â Â Â <%= output_li "link2", params[:current] { link_to "Link 2", link2_url(:current="link2") } %> Â Â Â Â <%= output_li "link3", params[:current] { link_to "Link 3", link3_url(:current="link3") } %> Â Â Â Â <%= output_li "link4", params[:current] { link_to "Link 4", link4_url(:current="link4") } %> Â Â Â Â <%= output_li "link5", params[:current] { link_to "Link 5", link5_url(:current="link5") } %> Â Â Â Â

What about my solution? I believe that there is an best approach than
it, since I unfamiliar with “view logic”.

Sorry for my poor English.

Best regards,

davi vidal

2

[email protected] wrote:

            <li><%= link_to "Link 5", link5_url %></li>
    </ul>

Start with link_to_unless_current. If you rewrite your solution using
it, most
of your logic might disappear inside.

Then, I’m going to nit-pick some common irritations in your solution, so
even if
you rewrite it we will all learn a little.

def output_li(name, current, &content)
output = “<li”
output = (name.to_upper == current.to_upper) ? ’ id=“current”’ : ‘’
output = “>”

output = yield

output = “”
end

If you must generate HTML, use content_tag (or Builder::XmlMarkup).

    <%= output_li "home", params[:current] { link_to "Home",

home_url(:current=“home”) } %>

params is visible inside your helper, so you don’t need to pass it in.
Next, the
{} block is passing to params[:current], which ignores it. You were
missing a comma.

Finally, your solution duplications “link1” etc. Roll such things up
into a loop.

Next, a chain of <%= x %><%= x %><%= x %> is really a single <%= x+x+x
%>, so if
you find yourself writing so many <%= %> next time you can often clean
them up, too.

Finally, don’t use an ‘id’ for a ‘class’. Some CSS tools do that (and
some CSS
tool users do it!). IDs must not duplicate in a page, and you are always
a
refactor away from that!

–
Phlip

3

Citando P. [email protected]:

            <li><%= link_to "Link 2", link2_url %></li>
            <li><%= link_to "Link 3", link3_url %></li>
            <li><%= link_to "Link 4", link4_url %></li>
            <li><%= link_to "Link 5", link5_url %></li>
    </ul>

Start with link_to_unless_current. If you rewrite your solution
using it, most
of your logic might disappear inside.

Thank you very much for your response, Phlip. And thank you very much
for the tip. It’s VERY useful.

output = “”
end

If you must generate HTML, use content_tag (or Builder::XmlMarkup).

Thanks again.

    <%= output_li "home", params[:current] { link_to "Home",

home_url(:current=“home”) } %>

params is visible inside your helper, so you don’t need to pass it
in. Next, the
{} block is passing to params[:current], which ignores it. You were
missing a comma.

Yeah. Typo. Sorry.

Finally, your solution duplications “link1” etc. Roll such things up
into a loop.

I was using “linkN” as sample.

So, here is what am I doing right now:

#app/views/layouts/post.html.erb

    <%= build_navbar %w(home, posts, articles, photos) %>

#app/helpers/home_helper.rb
module HomeHelper
def build_navbar(items)
items.each do |item|
content_tag :li, :class => is_current?(item) do
link_to_unless_current item.capitalize, item.singularize +
“_url”( :current => item )
end
end
end

def is_current?(item)
(item == params[:current]) ? “current” : nil
end
end

I know that, by convention, methods ending by ‘?’ returns true or
false. But I think that it will increase readbility, right?

Sorry for my very poor English.

Thanks,

davi vidal

4

OK. My problem is solved. Thank you very much.

What I’m doing, right now, is using an helper and content_tag.

#app/helpers/home_helper.rb
module HomeHelper
def build_navbar(items)
# If I reached the site right now, params[:current]
# is null.
params[:current] = “home” if params[:current].nil?

menu=""

items.each do |item|
  menu += content_tag :li, :class => is_current?(item) do
    link_to item, send( "#{item}_url", { :current => item } )
  end
end

return menu

end

Methods ending by ‘?’ returns either “true” or “false”

But using it here in “other” context increases

readbility.

def is_current?(item)
(item == params[:current]) ? “current” : nil
end
end

#app/views/layouts/post.html.erb
[…]

    <%= build_navbar %w(home posts articles photos) %>
[...]

Thank you very much.

Davi V.

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