Rails 3: Two different layouts with the same controller and action? - ruby-on-rails

Question

Suppose you want a Blog with two different layouts. One layout should look like a conventional Blog with a header, a footer, a menu and so on. The other layout should only contain the blog posts and nothing more. How would you do that without losing the connection to the model, forcing the execution and rendering of only one action and prevent to repeat yourself (DRY)?
posts_controller.rb
class PostsController < ApplicationController
layout :choose_layout
# chooses the layout by action name
# problem: it forces us to use more than one action
def choose_layout
if action_name == 'diashow'
return 'diashow'
else
return 'application'
end
end
# the one and only action
def index
#posts = Post.all
#number_posts = Post.count
#timer_sec = 5
respond_to do |format|
format.html # index.html.erb
format.json { render json: #posts }
end
end
# the unwanted action
# it should execute and render the index action
def diashow
index # no sense cuz of no index-view rendering
#render :action => "index" # doesn't get the model information
end
[..]
end
Possibly I want to go the wrong way, but I can't find the right one.
Update:
My solution looks like this:
posts_controller.rb
class PostsController < ApplicationController
layout :choose_layout
def choose_layout
current_uri = request.env['PATH_INFO']
if current_uri.include?('diashow')
return 'diashow'
else
return 'application'
end
end
def index
#posts = Post.all
#number_posts = Post.count
#timer_sec = 5
respond_to do |format|
format.html # index.html.erb
format.json { render json: #posts }
end
end
[..]
end
config/routes.rb
Wpr::Application.routes.draw do
root :to => 'posts#index'
match 'diashow' => 'posts#index'
[..]
end
Two different routes are pointing at the same location (controller/action).
current_uri = request.env['PATH_INFO'] saves the url into a variable and the following if current_uri.include?('diashow') checks if it is the route we configured in our routes.rb.

Answer 1

You would select which layout to render depending on a certain condition. For example, a parameter in the URL, the device in which the page is being rendered etc.
Just use that condition in your choose_layout function, instead of deciding the layout on the basis of action_name. The diashow action is unnecessary.