How to build Help based on Markdown in Ruby on Rails 5? - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am willing to create Help manual pages using Markdown files within my Rails application. I am already using Markdown for limited elements in some pages, but I now want to create dynamic pages using MD files. Searching around, I found some tips, but no complete HowTo.
My main issue was generating the route to various pages based on the requested MarkDown file. I propose the solution below, which fits well for documenting my application, and also allows contributors to easily enrich or translate the documentation.

Answer 1

Writing this question, I found the solution.
Here is what I did:
1 - I created a hierarchy of folders in public for supporting several languages. Each folder contains a help_index.md file, which contains links to other MD files:
public
help-en
help-index.md
logging.md
user-ceation.md
help-fr
help-index.md
logging.md
etc.
2 - I created a route (routes.rb) to reach these pages based on the page name:
# get '/help',
get 'help/*page_name', :controller => 'help', :action => 'help', :as => :help
3 - I created a link from the application header (application.html.erb):
<%= link_to t('Help'), help_path("help_index") %>
4 - I created a template for the help pages:
<% provide(:title, t('Help')) %>
<h1>Help pages</h1>
<p>
<%= displayHelp %>
</p>
5 - I created a controller (help_controller.rb) for displaying the page:
class HelpController < ApplicationController
def help
end
end
6 - I created a helper (application_helper.rb) for interpreting Markdown based on Redcarpet gem:
module ApplicationHelper
def markdown
markdown = Redcarpet::Markdown.new(Redcarpet::Render::HTML, :autolink => true, :space_after_headers => true)
end
def displayHelp
filename = File.join(Rails.root, 'public', "help-#{I18n.locale.to_s}", "#{params[:page_name]}.md")
begin
file = File.open(filename, "rb")
markdown.render(file.read).html_safe
rescue Errno::ENOENT
render :file => "public/404.html", :status => 404
end
end
end
And it works fine!