class ActionView::Base

Parent:
Object
Included modules:
ActionView::Helpers, ERB::Util, ActionView::Context

Action View Base

Action View templates can be written in several ways. If the template file has a .erb extension, then it uses the erubi template system which can embed Ruby into an HTML document. If the template file has a .builder extension, then Jim Weirich's Builder::XmlMarkup library is used.

You trigger ERB by using embeddings such as <% %>, <% -%>, and <%= %>. The <%= %> tag set is used when you want output. Consider the following loop for names:

<b>Names of all the people</b>
<% @people.each do |person| %>
  Name: <%= person.name %><br/>
<% end %>

The loop is setup in regular embedding tags <% %>, and the name is written using the output embedding tag <%= %>. Note that this is not just a usage suggestion. Regular output functions like print or puts won't work with ERB templates. So this would be wrong:

<%# WRONG %>
Hi, Mr. <% puts "Frodo" %>

If you absolutely must write from within a function use concat.

When on a line that only contains whitespaces except for the tag, <% %> suppresses leading and trailing whitespace, including the trailing newline. <% %> and <%- -%> are the same. Note however that <%= %> and <%= -%> are different: only the latter removes trailing whitespaces.

Using sub templates

Using sub templates allows you to sidestep tedious replication and extract common display structures in shared templates. The classic example is the use of a header and footer (even though the Action Pack-way would be to use Layouts):

<%= render "shared/header" %>
Something really specific and terrific
<%= render "shared/footer" %>

As you see, we use the output embeddings for the render methods. The render call itself will just return a string holding the result of the rendering. The output embedding writes it to the current template.

But you don't have to restrict yourself to static includes. Templates can share variables amongst themselves by using instance variables defined using the regular embedding tags. Like this:

<% @page_title = "A Wonderful Hello" %>
<%= render "shared/header" %>

Now the header can pick up on the @page_title variable and use it for outputting a title tag:

<title><%= @page_title %></title>

Passing local variables to sub templates

You can pass local variables to sub templates by using a hash with the variable names as keys and the objects as values:

<%= render "shared/header", { headline: "Welcome", person: person } %>

These can now be accessed in shared/header with:

Headline: <%= headline %>
First name: <%= person.first_name %>

The local variables passed to sub templates can be accessed as a hash using the local_assigns hash. This lets you access the variables as:

Headline: <%= local_assigns[:headline] %>

This is useful in cases where you aren't sure if the local variable has been assigned. Alternatively, you could also use defined? headline to first check if the variable has been assigned before using it.

Template caching

By default, Rails will compile each template to a method in order to render it. When you alter a template, Rails will check the file's modification time and recompile it in development mode.

Builder

Builder templates are a more programmatic alternative to ERB. They are especially useful for generating XML content. An XmlMarkup object named xml is automatically made available to templates with a .builder extension.

Here are some basic examples:

xml.em("emphasized")                                 # => <em>emphasized</em>
xml.em { xml.b("emph & bold") }                      # => <em><b>emph &amp; bold</b></em>
xml.a("A Link", "href" => "http://onestepback.org")  # => <a href="http://onestepback.org">A Link</a>
xml.target("name" => "compile", "option" => "fast")  # => <target option="fast" name="compile"\>
                                                     # NOTE: order of attributes is not specified.

Any method with a block will be treated as an XML markup tag with nested markup in the block. For example, the following:

xml.div do
  xml.h1(@person.name)
  xml.p(@person.bio)
end

would produce something like:

<div>
  <h1>David Heinemeier Hansson</h1>
  <p>A product of Danish Design during the Winter of '79...</p>
</div>

Here is a full-length RSS example actually used on Basecamp:

xml.rss("version" => "2.0", "xmlns:dc" => "http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/") do
  xml.channel do
    xml.title(@feed_title)
    xml.link(@url)
    xml.description "Basecamp: Recent items"
    xml.language "en-us"
    xml.ttl "40"

    @recent_items.each do |item|
      xml.item do
        xml.title(item_title(item))
        xml.description(item_description(item)) if item_description(item)
        xml.pubDate(item_pubDate(item))
        xml.guid(@person.firm.account.url + @recent_items.url(item))
        xml.link(@person.firm.account.url + @recent_items.url(item))

        xml.tag!("dc:creator", item.author_name) if item_has_creator?(item)
      end
    end
  end
end

For more information on Builder please consult the source code.

Attributes

lookup_context[R]
view_renderer[R]

Public Class Methods

cache_template_loading() Show source
# File actionview/lib/action_view/base.rb, line 172
def cache_template_loading
  ActionView::Resolver.caching?
end
cache_template_loading=(value) Show source
# File actionview/lib/action_view/base.rb, line 176
def cache_template_loading=(value)
  ActionView::Resolver.caching = value
end

Public Instance Methods

_run(method, template, locals, buffer, &block) Show source
# File actionview/lib/action_view/base.rb, line 270
def _run(method, template, locals, buffer, &block)
  _old_output_buffer, _old_virtual_path, _old_template = @output_buffer, @virtual_path, @current_template
  @current_template = template
  @output_buffer = buffer
  send(method, locals, buffer, &block)
ensure
  @output_buffer, @virtual_path, @current_template = _old_output_buffer, _old_virtual_path, _old_template
end
compiled_method_container() Show source
# File actionview/lib/action_view/base.rb, line 279
    def compiled_method_container
      if self.class == ActionView::Base
        ActiveSupport::Deprecation.warn <<~eowarn.squish
          ActionView::Base instances must implement `compiled_method_container`
          or use the class method `with_empty_template_cache` for constructing
          an ActionView::Base instances that has an empty cache.
        eowarn
      end

      self.class
    end
in_rendering_context(options) { |view_renderer| ... } Show source
# File actionview/lib/action_view/base.rb, line 291
def in_rendering_context(options)
  old_view_renderer  = @view_renderer
  old_lookup_context = @lookup_context

  if !lookup_context.html_fallback_for_js && options[:formats]
    formats = Array(options[:formats])
    if formats == [:js]
      formats << :html
    end
    @lookup_context = lookup_context.with_prepended_formats(formats)
    @view_renderer = ActionView::Renderer.new @lookup_context
  end

  yield @view_renderer
ensure
  @view_renderer = old_view_renderer
  @lookup_context = old_lookup_context
end

© 2004–2019 David Heinemeier Hansson
Licensed under the MIT License.