SubscribeUsing helpers in a controller: with_helpers
Although there is supposed to be a clear separation between views and controllers, often when it comes to helper functions, there is a small bit of overlap and there are situations where it’d be nice to simply use a few helpers from inside an action.
ActionController::Base.class_eval do def with_helpers(&block) template = ActionView::Base.new([],{},self) template.extend self.class.master_helper_module add_variables_to_assigns template.assigns = @assigns template.send(:assign_variables_from_controller) forget_variables_added_to_assigns template.instance_eval(&block) end end
Here is what it looks like in a controller. Although this is a non-sensical example, it shows off how you can use a helper (i.e. link_to) in an action. It also shows how the instance variables (i.e. @person) set in the action are available in the with_helpers block… the same way that instance variables are available in views.
class MyController < ApplicationController def my_action @person = Person.find(params[:id]) render :text => with_helpers { link_to(@person.full_name, person_path(@person)) } end end
Hey – looks neat.
I do this to achieve something similar. (think i first came across it here – http://www.johnyerhot.com/2008/01/10/rails-using-helpers-in-you-controller/)
class Helper
include Singleton
include ActionView::Helpers::UrlHelper
end
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
def helpers
Helper.instance
end
end
class MyController < ApplicationController
def my_action
@person = Person.find(params[:id])
render :text => helpers.link_to(@person.full_name, person_path(@person))
end
end
For this particular example, you could use render with :inline.
render :inline => "<%= link_to(@person.full_name, person_path(@person)) %>"