Rails - Nov 2005 - Falling through to default templates

Hi,

I am using the following in one of my controller to change where it
looks for it''s template:

    self.template_root = File.join( RAILS_ROOT, ''themes'',
theme, ''templates'' )

as a way of introducing theme support.  However I would really like
the ability to have a "defaults" folder i.e. have the controller look
for templates/partials in the theme and, if it doesn''t find them, in a
default location, e.g. something like:

  ** imaginary **
    self.template_roots = [
        File.join( RAILS_ROOT, ''themes'', theme,
''templates'' ),
        File.join( RAILS_ROOT, ''themes'',
''default'', ''templates'' )
    ]

I''m just checking to see if anyone knows some way of achieving this
end (perhaps by some other means) right now?  And if not if anyone
knows how feasible it will be to modify the controller code
accordingly?

Thanks,

Matt

--
Matt Mower :: http://matt.blogs.it/

The Engines plugin does something similar to this, but you''ve got to
''patch'' ActionView directly at runtime. Here''s the
relevant code,
modified slightly to suit what you''re after(see the original here:
https://opensvn.csie.org/rails_engines/plugins/engines/lib/action_view_extensions.rb):

module ::ActionView
  class Base
    private
      def full_template_path(template_path, extension)

        # Lets assume that AllThemes is an array of directories, which would be
        # equivalent to the app/views folder in the normal
application, but with the theme
        # specific templates in there.
        #
        # check in the themes to see if the template can be found there.
        AllThemes.each do |theme_dir|
          theme_specific_path = File.join(theme_dir,
template_path.to_s + ''.'' + extension.to_s)
          return theme_specific_path if File.exist?(theme_specific_path)
        end

        # If it cannot be found anywhere, return the default path, where the
        # user *should* have put it.
        return "#{@base_path}/#{template_path}.#{extension}"
      end
  end
end


That should get you somewhere closer, hopefully.

- james

On 11/15/05, Matt Mower
<matt.mower-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am using the following in one of my controller to change where it
> looks for it''s template:
>
>     self.template_root = File.join( RAILS_ROOT, ''themes'',
theme, ''templates'' )
>
> as a way of introducing theme support.  However I would really like
> the ability to have a "defaults" folder i.e. have the controller
look
> for templates/partials in the theme and, if it doesn''t find them,
in a
> default location, e.g. something like:
>
>   ** imaginary **
>     self.template_roots = [
>         File.join( RAILS_ROOT, ''themes'', theme,
''templates'' ),
>         File.join( RAILS_ROOT, ''themes'',
''default'', ''templates'' )
>     ]
>
> I''m just checking to see if anyone knows some way of achieving
this
> end (perhaps by some other means) right now?  And if not if anyone
> knows how feasible it will be to modify the controller code
> accordingly?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Matt
>
> --
> Matt Mower :: http://matt.blogs.it/
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>

On 15/11/05, James Adam
<james.adam-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> The Engines plugin does something similar to this, but you''ve got
to
> ''patch'' ActionView directly at runtime. Here''s
the relevant code,
> modified slightly to suit what you''re after(see the original here:
>
https://opensvn.csie.org/rails_engines/plugins/engines/lib/action_view_extensions.rb):
>
James that''s a very useful starting point, many thanks for that.

Regards,

Matt

--
Matt Mower :: http://matt.blogs.it/

On 15-nov-2005, at 13:59, Matt Mower wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am using the following in one of my controller to change where it
> looks for it''s template:
>
>     self.template_root = File.join( RAILS_ROOT, ''themes'',
theme,
> ''templates'' )
>
> as a way of introducing theme support.  However I would really like
> the ability to have a "defaults" folder i.e. have the controller
look
> for templates/partials in the theme and, if it doesn''t find them,
in a
> default location, e.g. something like:
>
>   ** imaginary **
>     self.template_roots = [
>         File.join( RAILS_ROOT, ''themes'', theme,
''templates'' ),
>         File.join( RAILS_ROOT, ''themes'',
''default'', ''templates'' )
>     ]
>
> I''m just checking to see if anyone knows some way of achieving
this
> end (perhaps by some other means) right now?  And if not if anyone
> knows how feasible it will be to modify the controller code
> accordingly?
This was recently being discussed. I do just that (mainly because of  
partials).

module ActionView
   # Prefer controller-specific templates and partials if they exist.
   # Otherwise, use files in the layouts folder.
   class Base
     private
       def full_template_path(template_path, extension)
         # Prefer shared partial first (Rails default)
         shared_path = "#{@base_path}/#{template_path}.#{extension}"
         # Prefer the controller-specific (regular) partial second
         private_path = "#{@base_path}/#{template_path}.#{extension}"
         # Check to see if the partial exists in our "default" folder
last
         default_path = ("#{@base_path}/default/#{template_path.split 
("/")[1]}.#{extension}" rescue private_path)

         if File.exist?(shared_path)
           shared_path
         elsif File.exist?(private_path)
           private_path
         elsif File.exist?(default_path)
           default_path
         else
           # Even though the preferred file doesn''t exist, return it
           # so a reasonable error message can be given
           private_path
         end
       end
   end
end



-- 
Julian "Julik" Tarkhanov