Rails - Jan 2006 - Navigation Helper

I am attempting to integrate a main navigation section into my web
application. Naturally the easiest and DRY way to do this would be to
either include it in a layout, or as a partial. The only problem is
that I want the link for the current page to have its own css id
("current").  The only way I can think to accomplish this is to just
include the navigation in every page, but this is certianly not clean.
Any ideas?

Here is the navigation div (varied from List-O-Matic):

<div id="navcontainer">
   <ul id="navlist">
     <li><%= link_to ''desktop'',
 				 {:action => ''index'', :controller
=>''desktop''},
 				  :id => ''current'' %></li>
     <li><%= link_to ''events'',
 				 {:action => ''index'', :controller
=>''events''} %></li>
     <li><%= link_to ''financials'',
 				 {:action => ''index'', :controller
=>''financials''} %></li>
     <li><%= link_to ''records'',
 				 {:action => ''index'', :controller
=>''records''} %></li>
   </ul>
 </div>

And the nav css:

#navcontainer
{
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
height: 22px;
width: 100%;
list-style-type: none;
background: #fff;
}

 #navlist
 {
 margin: 5px 0px 0px 0px;
 padding: 0 0 20px 5px;
 border-bottom: 1px solid #333;
 }

 #navlist ul, #navlist li
 {
 margin: 0;
 padding: 0;
 display: inline;
 list-style-type: none;
 }

 #navlist a:link, #navlist a:visited
 {
 float: left;
 line-height: 14px;
 font-weight: bold;
 margin: 0 10px 4px 5px;
 text-decoration: none;
 color: #999;
 }

 #navlist a:link#current, #navlist a:visited#current, #navlist a:hover
 {
 border-bottom: 4px solid #333;
 padding-bottom: 2px;
 background: transparent;
 color: #333;
 }

Thanks, Dave
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
D''Andrew "Dave" Thompson
http://dathompson.blogspot.com

take a look at the description for ''link_to_unless_current''.

If necessary, you could over-ride this and have it use a different class 
or id for the link.

http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActionView/Helpers/UrlHelper.html#M000336

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Another method (one I used yesterday actually) is to create a helper. 
Have each template create a varable. <% @current_page = :name_of_page %>

In the layout replace your navbar with  <%= navigation_bar %>

create a helper method in application_helper.rb like this

def navigation_bar
    if @current_page == :home
      @home_link = ''<a href="/store/home"
class="normal"><img
src="/images/home.gif"></a>''
    else
      @home_link = ''<a href="/store/home/"
class="rollover"><img
src="/images/home.gif"</a>''
    end
    # do this if/else for each link and then combine them into one 
variable at the end.  This variable will be written when you call 
navigation_bar in your layout.

This method worked great for me.  I''m sure there is a better way, but I
asked this here about 3 days ago and got no response.



Kevin Olbrich wrote:
> take a look at the description for
''link_to_unless_current''.
> 
> If necessary, you could over-ride this and have it use a different class 
> or id for the link.
> 
>
http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActionView/Helpers/UrlHelper.html#M000336

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.