Nifty RubyOnRails Layout Method

So I find myself in many situations where different actions need different layouts, which is common in large multiuser systems. For example, in my system, when you are viewing a user index, it loads the layout ‘application’. When you’re viewing the edit action, it loads the layout ‘profile’, otherwise it loads the layout ‘user’. I hacked up a tiny method to toss in the application controller:

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# application controller
def find_layout(params, default = nil)
default ||= controller_name
layout params[action_name.to_sym] || default
end

# user controller
before_filter do |c|
c.find_layout({
:edit => 'profile',
:index => 'application'
})
end

As you can see, you simply pass a hash to the find_layout method with the actions and the layout to use. You can optionally do:

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before_filter do |c|
c.find_layout({
:edit => 'profile',
:index => 'application'
}, 'some_other_default_layout')
end

This will make the default layout ’some_other_default_layout’. I know this could probably be improved in many ways, but it’s simple, it works, and that’s what I like.

Related posts:

mrkris

Nifty RubyOnRails Layout Method