Rails - Apr 2005 - Accessing render_partial from outside controller?

How can I access render_partial from a class that does not inherit from
ActionController? I tried using "include ActionView::Partials" in my
class
definition, but I still get "undefined method
''render_partial''". I''m sure
this is really simple, any suggestions?

Thanks,
Steve

>
> How can I access render_partial from a class that does not inherit from
> ActionController? I tried using "include ActionView::Partials" in
my class
> definition, but I still get "undefined method
''render_partial''". I''m sure
> this is really simple, any suggestions?
Anyone have any thoughts on this? I don''t understand why it
shouldn''t work,
but it doesn''t.

Steve

On Tuesday, April 19, 2005, 3:49:28 AM, Steve wrote:
>>
>> How can I access render_partial from a class that does not inherit from
>> ActionController? I tried using "include
ActionView::Partials" in my class
>> definition, but I still get "undefined method
''render_partial''". I''m sure
>> this is really simple, any suggestions?
> Anyone have any thoughts on this? I don''t understand why it
shouldn''t work,
> but it doesn''t.
My experience of this sort of thing is that it''s tricky.

For a start, the controller''s implementation of render_partial comes
from ActionController::Base, not ActionView::Partials.

Even then, though, those methods tend to rely on some context that you
can''t (easily) see, like instance variables.  Here''s some code
that
will give you an idea.

I wanted to use "link_to" from my own class, so I tried

  class FooHelperClass
    include ActionView::Helpers::UrlHelper
    
    def initialize(widget)
      @w = widget
    end
    def foo
      link_to "foo", :action => ''something''
    end
  end

Then I got an error when link_to was called.  I dug through the source
and found that it was because the variable @controller was not set.
(See what I mean about context?)  So I did changed this method:

    def initialize(widget, actionview)
      @w = widget
      @controller = actionview.controller
    end

and it worked.  This is a pretty ugly path to tread.  I''m going to see
if I can make it look respectable and reusable somehow.

Cheers,
Gavin