Rails 3 - possible to render a view into a string (inside a model or controller)?

Rails
1

In Rails 2 I could do this to get the view as a string (i.e. to save it
to a
file):

av = ActionView::Base.new(Rails::Configuration.new.view_path)
html = av.render(
    :partial => "comparisons/display",
    :locals => { :comparison => self, :format_html => nil,

:print_view
=> print_view, :fully_qualified_url_prefix =>
fully_qualified_url_prefix,
:user => user }
)

In Rails 3 it seemingly does not work anymore. In reference to
#3471 ActionView#assigns lost its usefulness - Ruby on Rails - rails,
Yehuda K.'s comment (in reference to passing necessary parameters to
ActionView::Base.new) is “This was modified in order to improve
performance
and reduce the number of instance variable assigns we need to do in
cases
with many renders inside a single view.”

So… is there a way to do this anyone knows of in Rails 3? Even if I
can do
so inside a controller I guess that would also be ok (I will try this
next),
but would prefer to leave things as they are.

Thanks,

David

2

David K. wrote in post #957895:

In Rails 2 I could do this to get the view as a string (i.e. to save it
to a
file):

av = ActionView::Base.new(Rails::Configuration.new.view_path)
html = av.render(
    :partial => "comparisons/display",
    :locals => { :comparison => self, :format_html => nil,

:print_view
=> print_view, :fully_qualified_url_prefix =>
fully_qualified_url_prefix,
:user => user }
)

In Rails 3 it seemingly does not work anymore.

Did you perchance want render_to_string (which also exists in Rails 2)?

Best,

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

3

On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 4:30 PM, Marnen Laibow-Koser
[email protected]wrote:

=> print_view, :fully_qualified_url_prefix =>
fully_qualified_url_prefix,
:user => user }
)

In Rails 3 it seemingly does not work anymore.

Did you perchance want render_to_string (which also exists in Rails 2)?

Hmmm… yup, that works, thanks. Would rather do that in the model but
I
can pass it in and step aside from this mess. I must have been hankering
for
punishment in doing it the way I did it in the first place.

4

On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 4:38 PM, David K.
[email protected]wrote:

av = ActionView::Base.new(Rails::Configuration.new.view_path)

Did you perchance want render_to_string (which also exists in Rails 2)?

Hmmm… yup, that works, thanks. Would rather do that in the model but I
can pass it in and step aside from this mess. I must have been hankering for
punishment in doing it the way I did it in the first place.

Actually just discovered the reason I tried to do this in the model: I
need
to render this view to string from other controllers/models. Do you know
offhand if I can just instantiate this controller and still call one of
it’s
methods to string from a different controller or even better from a
model?
Just trying it right now and getting “NameError Exception:
uninitialized
constant InstallerController::ComparisonController” (foreign controller
name
is InstallerController).

5

On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 4:53 PM, Marnen Laibow-Koser
[email protected]wrote:

That should be all you need, just like plain old render. Does that not
work?

Ok, I am loosing my mind, yes, this works beautifully! I did not make
the
connection between render_to_string and the normal render action being
of
the same abilities.

6

David K. wrote in post #957906:

On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 4:38 PM, David K.
[email protected]wrote:

av = ActionView::Base.new(Rails::Configuration.new.view_path)

Did you perchance want render_to_string (which also exists in Rails 2)?

Hmmm… yup, that works, thanks. Would rather do that in the model but I
can pass it in and step aside from this mess. I must have been hankering for
punishment in doing it the way I did it in the first place.

Actually just discovered the reason I tried to do this in the model: I
need
to render this view to string from other controllers/models.

You should never be rendering anything from a model. Any rendering –
at all – is the responsibility of the controller and view.

Do you know
offhand if I can just instantiate this controller and still call one of
it’s
methods to string from a different controller or even better from a
model?

render_to_string :controller => ‘some_other_controller’, :action =>
‘export_file’

That should be all you need, just like plain old render. Does that not
work?

Best,

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