Want to use a view helper (TextHelper) in a model class

Rails
1

I have a model that deals with HTML and I want to use the
text_helper.sanitize method to strip the HTML of Javascript.

However, it doesn’t appear that I can get easy access to the text_helper
methods from within a model.

Anyone have any suggestions for how to do this?

In general, I think that there are some ActionView helpers which are
generic enough to want to use in a model class. Anyone have any
comments on that?

Thanks,
Wes

2

You could include the TextHelper module in your model class to get
access to the methods, but my solution was to extend the String class so
that I could call some of the TextHelpers directly on a string:

“cool http://rubyonrails.com”.strip_tags.auto_link
=> “cool <a href="http://rubyonrails.com">http://rubyonrails.com”

I posted the implementation of this on my blog a few days ago:

http://www.csummers.org/index.php/2006/08/07/extend-string-to-use-actionviews-text-helpers/

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Curtis S.

3

http://www.csummers.org/index.php/2006/08/07/extend-string-to-use-actionviews-text-helpers/

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

If you look at the wrapper methods I’m constructing you’ll notice that I
just copied the default arguments from the TextHelper method definition
to the wrapper definitions. For example:

def highlight(phrase, highlighter = ‘\1’)
TextHelperSingleton.instance.highlight(self, phrase, highlighter)
end

This seems ugly, though, because I’d like not to have to copy the
defaults (DRY) in case they happen to change in TextHelper’s definition.
I tried making my argument defaults nil, but that doesn’t appear to
work.

Any suggestions?

Curtis S.

4

On 10 Aug 2006, at 06:48, Wes G. wrote:

generic enough to want to use in a model class. Anyone have any
comments on that?

They pertain more to String manipulation than to a model, if you ask
me. Curtis S.’ way of extending the String class is the best way
to do it.

Best regards

Peter De Berdt