I''m brand new to Ruby and Rails, but I''ve read a lot of the requisite tutorials and feel pretty comfortable with most of it. I''ve been developing sites in PHP for the better part of a decade, so please bear in mind that I''m still trying to break myself out of "thinking" in PHP. ;) The last remaining problem I can''t seem to find any answer to -- maybe I''m just not searching correctly -- is how to control the template system. Let me give you an example of what I want to do. For this site, we will be accepting clients with their own domain name. All of these domain names will be pointed to the same directory on our server, where the client application lives. I need to be able to use all the same logic -- the controllers, right? -- but load a different template for each domain, so that each looks like its own site. I have already determined how to get the domain name being accessed, and can look up which theme the site is using in my database. My confusion comes in what to do next, and how to organize this. In PHP, I would have a /themes/ directory with a bunch of different subdirectories, each containing a set of templates. When the client''s site first loads, I would do a query to find out which theme path they are supposed to be using. Let''s say it''s /themes/silver. I would set that as a session variable and use it whenever loading a template file. How should I approach this in RoR? Thanks for your patience and help! Remember, I haven''t actually implemented anything in RoR yet, so speak slowly. :) -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
On Mar 12, 2007, at 11:42 AM, Matthew wrote:> The last remaining problem I can''t seem to find any answer to -- maybe > I''m just not searching correctly -- is how to control the template > system. Let me give you an example of what I want to do. > > For this site, we will be accepting clients with their own domain > name. > All of these domain names will be pointed to the same directory on our > server, where the client application lives. I need to be able to > use all > the same logic -- the controllers, right? -- but load a different > template for each domain, so that each looks like its own site. I have > already determined how to get the domain name being accessed, and can > look up which theme the site is using in my database. My confusion > comes > in what to do next, and how to organize this. > > In PHP, I would have a /themes/ directory with a bunch of different > subdirectories, each containing a set of templates. When the client''s > site first loads, I would do a query to find out which theme path they > are supposed to be using. Let''s say it''s /themes/silver. I would set > that as a session variable and use it whenever loading a template > file. > How should I approach this in RoR?There would be at least a couple of options, depending on how you want to implement the themes and how much they should differ from one another. One would be to use the same views for the actions but have a different layout for each client. You could then use a method in your controller to select the appropriate layout: class MyController < ApplicationController layout :select_layout def my_action # Perform action here end private # Say we have a field in our table defining the layout for the client def select_layout @client = Client.find() // whatever your query is layout = @client.layout end end See the documentation for the layout method at: http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionController/Layout/ ClassMethods.html#M000129 Alternatively you could look at a theming engine like liquid: http:// home.leetsoft.com/liquid James. -- James Stewart Work: http://jystewart.net/process/ Play: http://james.anthropiccollective.org --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
> > For this site, we will be accepting clients with their own domain name. > All of these domain names will be pointed to the same directory on our > server, where the client application lives. I need to be able to use all > the same logic -- the controllers, right? -- but load a different > template for each domain, so that each looks like its own site. I have > already determined how to get the domain name being accessed, and can > look up which theme the site is using in my database. My confusion comes > in what to do next, and how to organize this. > > In PHP, I would have a /themes/ directory with a bunch of different > subdirectories, each containing a set of templates. When the client''s > site first loads, I would do a query to find out which theme path they > are supposed to be using. Let''s say it''s /themes/silver. I would set > that as a session variable and use it whenever loading a template file. > How should I approach this in RoR?My initial thought is using layouts: You can define the layout for a controller as a function, meaning you could do something like this def MyController < ApplicationController layout :themed_layout def themed_layout session[:layout] ||= Layout.find_by_domain(<code to find the domain name goes here>) end end What the above code does is call the themed_layout function whenever someone accesses an action in MyController. The function will use some code to find out which layout should be used (Here, I''m doing it via a call to a lookup table in an imaginary DB), and cache that into the session[:layout] variable.... meaning that the first time it is called, it pulls from the DB, and thereafter, it will simply use what''s stored in session[:layout]. If the session is somehow invalidated, it will re-make the DB call and restore it in the session. Is this kind of what you''re looking for? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
Thank you to both of you, I think that will get me somewhere. I think the rest of my task is to understand how RoR handles layouts. One additional piece of functionality I''d like is to be able to have one layout "fail back" to a default layout; that is, if the template file for the specified layout doesn''t exist, it will use a template file with that name in some default directory. That way, I can create themes that "inherit" from another theme, and only have the files that need to be changed in the new theme''s directory. -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
Matt, I''m going to be trying to do exactly what you describe in your post. I''m going to try to build one domain CMS type website that handles many different domains and changes not only the data but also the HTML code on each site that comes from a database record. Would it be ok if I asked you a few questions along the way? David dak AT itracker DOT com On Mar 12, 12:19 pm, Matthew Rogers <rails-mailing-l...-ARtvInVfO7ksV2N9l4h3zg@public.gmane.org> wrote:> Thank you to both of you, I think that will get me somewhere. I think > the rest of my task is to understand how RoR handles layouts. One > additional piece of functionality I''d like is to be able to have one > layout "fail back" to a default layout; that is, if the template file > for the specified layout doesn''t exist, it will use a template file with > that name in some default directory. That way, I can create themes that > "inherit" from another theme, and only have the files that need to be > changed in the new theme''s directory. > > -- > Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
BraveDave, You''ll notice that I just posted this thread yesterday, and I''ve never written anything in Rails. I don''t think I''m the right person to ask! However, once I do figure it out, I''ll make sure I write up a guide and come back here and post it. I''m still trying to figure out how to have the default fail-back method I talked about above. -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
You really need to read AWDWR (Agile Web Development With Rails... you can find it here: http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/rails)... it''s great, it teaches you how to do most everything you want to do with Rails, and will give you a good framework to build on to find the things it doesn''t teach... basically, it seems like what you need is a mixture of layouts, partials, and the ability to use File.exist? wisely... I would _definitely_ read that book, and quite probably also read Programming Ruby ( http://pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/ruby/index.html) for a good intro to the language Rails was written with, and that you will be using to customize your Rails app to fit your needs. On 3/13/07, Matthew Rogers <rails-mailing-list-ARtvInVfO7ksV2N9l4h3zg@public.gmane.org> wrote:> > > BraveDave, > > You''ll notice that I just posted this thread yesterday, and I''ve never > written anything in Rails. I don''t think I''m the right person to ask! > However, once I do figure it out, I''ll make sure I write up a guide and > come back here and post it. > > I''m still trying to figure out how to have the default fail-back method > I talked about above. > > -- > Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/. > > > >--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---