I defined a helper abc() in annotations_helper.rb. What do I have to do such that I can use this method in annotations_controller.rb?
In general helpers are supposed to be "view helpers" and not called from controllers.
You probably want to put something like that in application_controller.rb
This is usually not a good practice to use a helper in your controllers. You should try to move the logic inside a model or if the logic is too generic, you should move that to lib/some_lib.rb and include that in your model to use.
However check out this blog post if you really want to do this. Don't forget to read the comments.
Related
If I have a methods that I want to use in several controllers, to keep my code DRY.
What is the rails way of doing this?
If you want to have your code reusable, I think application_controller is the best place to do so. Create any method you think it's reusable in multiple controllers in application_controller and call them in any controller you want.
Simple question about best-practice. I'm using Kohana... is it okay to use helpers in views? For example, to use URL::site(). I could pass it from controller, you know. I assume it's okay, because there are helpers like HTML that is meant to be used in views, right?
The way you're currently doing it is ok, altough the whole practice of having any logics in views is questionable, but it's how Kohana is currently recommending.
When you get to use ViewModel pattern (with Kostache?), you'll separate all logics from templates. Until then, it's ok to use methods that don't do anything that should be done in the controller / model (echo, conditions and loops are "considered allowed").
I try to be very good about keeping my view code and my controller code separate, but occasionally I run into situations where I need to use the same function in the controller and in the views. Where should I put this function so that I can access it from both the controller and the view?
You can put it in a controller and make it available as a helper. If you need it to be available between multiple controllers and their views put in the application controller or other inherited controller:
helper_method :shared_function
According to your situation, for example if the function return a standard Variable value that don't require any controls, you can call it directly from the view, on the contrary, if you have a function that return for example an array that requires controls it's judicious to call it from the the model before you show what you want on the view.
I actually think a module is the best way to share code amongst controllers. Helpers are good if you want to share code amongst views. Helpers are basically glorified modules, so if you don't need view level access, I suggest placing a module in your lib folder.
If the code is really a set of utilities that doesn't need access to object state, I would consider putting it in a module to be called separately.
If the code needs state and is used in a subset of all controllers that are not very closely related, put it in a module and include it in necessary controllers.
i want to overwrite a method of
symfony/lib/plugins/sfDoctrinePlugin/lib/form/sfFormDoctrine.class.php.
I think a good way could be writing again the method in the form class
where i need that method.
In that case if i need that method in other form class should i write
again the new method, so i would break the rule DRY...
So is there any better way?
Regards
Javi
You should be using BaseFormDoctrine if this is a Doctrine specific method or BaseForm if you want the method to apply to all forms. These form classes are provided specifically for this purpose.
Piggybacking on Colonel Sponz's answer, I've done this many times by extending the class I want to override. By extending the class, you don't have to duplicate anything. In the method(s) you want to customize, just add your customized code and then call parent::method_name() to execute the same method of the super class. You get all the benefits of both. Calls to methods that don't exist in the subclass will execute against the super class.
It should be noted that this strategy is basic OOP stuff and isn't limited to Symfony or even PHP.
You could create a new class that inherits from sfFormDoctrine that redeclares the methods you need and then use your new class in place of sfFormDoctrine wherever you need that method.
I know that if I want to call a helper of another controller, I can do something like:
helper :other_controllers
But I was wondering why I can't do something like OtherControllersHelper.method inside the view?
Due to the way that Rails loads your modules, you cannot do this without modification.
Rails includes the associated helper models into the ActionView::Base instance used to render a template. ActionController::Helpers#helper (used in the example above) adds more helper modules to the list of those to be included. The helper methods that are used in views are written as instance methods. Modules in Ruby do not provide any good ways of getting at instance methods without using a constructor. Which is one of the big things that separates modules from classes.
To access your helpers from another controller with just OtherControllersHelper.method, you will need to redefine method as a class method. However, redefining those methods as class methods would make them inaccessible from your views.
You could duplicate all instance methods in your helpers as class methods, but that's definitely not a better solution that adding helper :other_controllers. There are ways to define wrappers pragmatically, but again, it's not the best way to handle the situation.
If you've got a lot of helpers that are likely to be used in multiple controllers/views maybe you're better off putting them somewhere else. Somewhere like app/helpers/application_helper.rb. Or another helper module that could be loaded only in the controllers that need it.