# Simple stuff in rails rhtml

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-stuff-in-rails-rhtml/98002>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [January 27, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-stuff-in-rails-rhtml/98002 "2006-01-27T19:29:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zaq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/f04885/32.png) [@zaq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zaq)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-stuff-in-rails-rhtml/98002/1 "2006-01-27T19:29:29Z")

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after playing with the DB interaction I’m moving on to doing some file  
IO. but I’m completly lost as to where to put the code and how to call  
it.

I’m trying to get a list of files in a directory and it’s not obvious to  
me how to do this in Rails via a controller method.

so ruby code is

Dir.entries(“testdir”).last

and html code is

\<%= Dir.entries(“testdir”).last %\>

or

\<% mylastfile= Dir.entries(“testdir”).last %\>  
\<%= mylastfile %\>

but how do I get this into the application controller  
(./app/controllers/application.rb) so I can say anywhere

\<%= mylastfile %\>

?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zaq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/f04885/32.png) [@zaq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zaq)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-stuff-in-rails-rhtml/98002/2 "2006-01-27T20:54:37Z")

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zac elston wrote:

> \<% mylastfile= Dir.entries(“testdir”).last %\>  
> \<%= mylastfile %\>
> 
> but how do I get this into the application controller  
> (./app/controllers/application.rb) so I can say anywhere
> 
> \<%= mylastfile %\>

class XController \< Application

def stuff  
@mylastfile= Dir.entries(“testdir”).last  
end

end

stuff.rhtml

\<%=mylastfile%\>

not testet…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zaq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/f04885/32.png) [@zaq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zaq)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-stuff-in-rails-rhtml/98002/3 "2006-01-27T21:11:16Z")

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On Jan 27, 2006, at 11:54 AM, Mikkel B. wrote:

> \<%=mylastfile%\>
> 
> not testet…

Or put it in a before filter in application.rb so it will be  
available everywhere;

class ApplicationController \< …

before\_filter :get\_last\_file  
attr\_reader :mylastfile  
protected

def get\_last\_file  
@mylastfile = Dir.entries(“testdir”).last  
end

end

Cheers-  
-Ezra Z.  
Yakima Herald-Republic  
WebMaster

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