Helper Method detect post - comment from user - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm trying to create a helper method that will display {user.name} has no submitted posts." on the profile show view of user if they haven't yet submitted any posts and display the number posts they have . currently on my show view i have <%= render #user.posts %> which displays nothing when there are 0 posts submitted.
the partial for post is :
<div class="media">
<%= render partial: 'votes/voter', locals: { post: post } %>
<div class="media-body">
<h4 class="media-heading">
<%= link_to post.title, topic_post_path(post.topic, post) %>
<%= render partial: "labels/list", locals: { labels: post.labels } %>
</h4>
<small>
submitted <%= time_ago_in_words(post.created_at) %> ago by <%= post.user.name %> <br>
<%= post.comments.count %> Comments
</small>
</div>
</div>
ive tried :
def no_post_submitted?(user)
user.post.count(0)
"{user.name} has not submitted any posts yet."
end
on my user show view :
<%= if no_post_submitted?(#user) %>
<%= render #user.posts %>
which im more than sure is wrong but i have no idea how to implement this method .

Answer 1

Where you are using render #user.posts you can just add a simple conditional:
<% if #user.posts.empty? %>
<p><%= #user.name %> has no submitted posts</p>
<% else %>
<%= render #user.posts %>
<% end %>
There wouldn't be much point creating a helper for this unless you need to use it in multiple places.

Answer 2

Render collection returns nil if the collection is empty so you can use the || operator:
<%= render #user.posts || "{#user.name} has not submitted any posts yet." %>
Or if there is more code render another partial:
<%= render #user.posts || render 'no_posts' %>

Answer 3

In Ruby methods automatically return the last value so this method:
def no_post_submitted?(user)
user.post.count(0)
"{user.name} has not submitted any posts yet."
end
Will always return a string - if you use a string literal in a condition it will be evaluated as true with the warning warning: string literal in condition. Also that is not how you use count - passing 0 will cause it to query on column 0 or just error.
http://apidock.com/rails/ActiveRecord/Calculations/ClassMethods/count
So to fix the method you would do:
def no_post_submitted?(user)
user.posts.empty?
end
However that conditional is so simple that it does not really warrant a helper method. Instead you would just write:
<%= if user.post.any? %>
<%= render #user.posts %>
<% else %>
<%= "{user.name} has not submitted any posts yet." %>
<% end %>

Answer 4

There are a couple of problems with your solution. Remember, rails is more about convention over configuration.
Your method no_post_submitted? should actually return true/false since its a method ending with ?. Also it should be named no_posts_submitted? for clarity. It should look something like this:
def no_post_submitted?(user)
user.posts.count > 0
end
Then, there should be another helper method that will print your required message, Something like:
def no_posts_message(user)
"{user.name} has not submitted any posts yet."
end
And eventually you can all plug it in like this:
<% if no_posts_submitted?(user) %>
<%= no_posts_message(user) %>
<% else>
<%= render #user.posts %>
<% end %>

Answer 5

As per the docs:
In the event that the collection is empty, render will return nil, so it should be fairly simple to provide alternative content.
<h1>Products</h1>
<%= render(#products) || "There are no products available." %>
--
So...
<%= render(#user.posts) || "#{#user.name} has not submitted any posts yet." %>