Rails - Jul 2006 - Calling render_to_string from a view

I''m playing around with a list of todos, which I want to render as 
<ul>''s that can nest to an arbitrary level, so I wrote this as a
helper
method:

    def print_todo(t)
        str = "<ul>\n\t<li>"

        str += render_to_string(:partial => ''todo'', :object
=> t) + "\n"
        t.children.each { |c| str += print_todo(c) }

        str += "\n\t</li>\n</ul>"
        return str
    end

Unfortunately, I can''t call this from the view because of the 
render_to_string call. What''s the correct way to write this kind of 
functionality? I need the list elements to set up indentation, but I''ve
also got a clean little partial for the actual contents.

Thanks!
Austin

Austin McKinley wrote:
> I''m playing around with a list of todos, which I want to render as
> <ul>''s that can nest to an arbitrary level, so I wrote this
as a helper
> method:
> 
>     def print_todo(t)
>         str = "<ul>\n\t<li>"
> 
>         str += render_to_string(:partial => ''todo'',
:object => t) + "\n"
>         t.children.each { |c| str += print_todo(c) }
> 
>         str += "\n\t</li>\n</ul>"
>         return str
>     end
> 
> Unfortunately, I can''t call this from the view because of the
> render_to_string call. What''s the correct way to write this kind
of
> functionality? I need the list elements to set up indentation, but
I''ve
> also got a clean little partial for the actual contents.
> 
> Thanks!
> Austin
Interesting.  Would it not be possible to just nest the partials: this 
would be _todo_list.rhtml:

<ul>
<li>
<%= render :partial=>"todo", :object=>t
<% t.children.each do |child| -%>
<%= render: partial=>"todo_list", :object=>child %>
<% end -%>
</li></ul>

I just tested this recursion in a simple way - it definitely works in 
principle :)

Cheers,

Robert Jones

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

Robert Jones wrote:
> Interesting.  Would it not be possible to just nest the partials: this 
> would be _todo_list.rhtml:
> 
> <ul>
> <li>
> <%= render :partial=>"todo", :object=>t
> <% t.children.each do |child| -%>
> <%= render: partial=>"todo_list", :object=>child %>
> <% end -%>
> </li></ul>
> 
> I just tested this recursion in a simple way - it definitely works in 
> principle :)
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Robert Jones
Yep, that works perfectly! Nice solution :)

Thanks,
Austin

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

> > Interesting.  Would it not be possible to just nest the partials: this
> > would be _todo_list.rhtml:
> >
> > <ul>
> > <li>
> > <%= render :partial=>"todo", :object=>t
> > <% t.children.each do |child| -%>
> > <%= render: partial=>"todo_list", :object=>child
%>
> > <% end -%>
> > </li></ul>
> >
> > I just tested this recursion in a simple way - it definitely works in
> > principle :)
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Robert Jones
>
> Yep, that works perfectly! Nice solution :)
>
> Thanks,
> Austin
If you take a look at components I think you''ll find an even more
straightforward way of doing this that allows you to keep render calls
in the controller.

see the link below for the api docs about them, I think they''re neat.
http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActionController/Components.html

Cheers,
Chuck Vose