Rails 3 - Referencing the URL to determine i f a Nav Item is class=“selected”

Rails
1

The app can have the following URLs:

  • /projects/
  • /projects/3
  • /projects/3/photos
  • /projects/3/photos/312

    • I’d like to know how in Rails 3 I can look at the current URL and know
    which of the lines above is currently active, so I can add a
    class=“selected”

    Additional exmaple…

    If the user’s browser is on: /projects

    And the Nav looks like

    Projects

    • Photos
    • Files

    Projects is Active

    but if the user’s browser is on: /files

    Projects is active

    and Files is active (they both apply).

    Ideas? thanks

    2

    I use this method:

    Give each li an id (i.e. app_nav_li_projects, app_nav_li_files)

    Set @li_to_select in your controller or controller method to the li id
    you
    want to select

    Use JQuery on the page to add the selected class to the li id of the
    @li_to_select

    My JQuery looks like this:

    Note that your JQuery has to be in the page so the @li_to_select is
    inserted
    correctly.

    On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 12:16 AM, nobosh [email protected] wrote:

    Projects is Active

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    3

    Joshua M. wrote:

    I use this method:

    Give each li an id (i.e. app_nav_li_projects, app_nav_li_files)

    Set @li_to_select in your controller or controller method to the li id
    you
    want to select

    Use JQuery on the page to add the selected class to the li id of the
    @li_to_select

    My JQuery looks like this:

    Terrible. As I’ve said numerous times on this forum, dynamic JS – and
    inline JS even more so – are problematic from a design standpoint and
    should always be avoided. What you should be doing here is using an
    external JS file to which you pass the ID by a method such as having it
    look in the DOM.

    But I’m not sure this is the right approach. Rails provides a bunch of
    helpers such as current_page? and link_to_if_current_page, so it seems
    to me that you should be able to do this on the server side.

    […]

    Joshua S. Martin

    Best,
    –Â
    Marnen Laibow-Koser
    http://www.marnen.org
    [email protected]

    Sent from my iPhone

    4

    Thanks all. I have no intention of wanting to do this client-side with
    JS… Only Server Side… Any suggestions? Seems like this is
    something every RAils app needs solved?

    5

    Please quote when replying.

    nobosh wrote:

    Thanks all. I have no intention of wanting to do this client-side with
    JS… Only Server Side… Any suggestions? Seems like this is
    something every RAils app needs solved?

    Yes. Read my previous post, where I explained how to do it server-side.

    Best,

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