# Sharing layouts between controllers

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sharing-layouts-between-controllers/109857>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 19, 2007, 5:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sharing-layouts-between-controllers/109857 "2007-07-19T17:59:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![licinius](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@licinius](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/licinius)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 5:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sharing-layouts-between-controllers/109857/1 "2007-07-19T17:59:22Z")

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I have several controllers for doing simple editing of some lists in my  
application (like roles, responsibilities, etc), but I want to use the  
same layout from my main ‘member’ controller for everything. How do I  
link em up?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![licinius](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@licinius](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/licinius)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 6:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sharing-layouts-between-controllers/109857/2 "2007-07-19T18:33:18Z")

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If you want every single page in the whole app to use the same layout,  
you  
can make one called “application.rhtml” and then you can remove all  
other  
layouts and every controller will use that layout by default.

Or you can specify a layout at the controller level

class MyController \< ApplicationController

layout “public”

end

Or per action

def list  
render :layout=\>“public”  
end

I use application.rhtml as my main layout and then override it in  
controllers when I want to change it.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![licinius](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@licinius](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/licinius)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 6:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sharing-layouts-between-controllers/109857/3 "2007-07-19T18:35:27Z")

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Brilliant! Thanks, I knew it couldn’t be too complicated.