We''re putting together a searchable online help site in Rails, and
I''m
using FastRI to full-text index some existing Rails view pages to do
it.
I don''t want to use Sphinx or some other solution, just because
it''s
way overkill for the 15-20 .html.erb partials I am looking to index.
So... I need to violate MVC (flog me now)... trying to write a Ruby
class that renders each of these pages as a string, and feeds the
rendered text as a string into FastRI for indexing.
I''ve seen plenty of links, most of which have about the same
approach.
Here are a few of the approaches I have seen:
http://railsforum.com/viewtopic.php?id=16885
http://www.compulsivoco.com/2008/10/rendering-rails-partials-in-a-model-or-background-task/
http://ethilien.net/archives/render-rails-templates-anywhere-even-in-a-model/
http://www.swombat.com/rails-rendering-templates-outside-of-a-contro
All seem to work until I try to render a page with a link_to helper
with a restful route (games_path) or a hash representing the path.
As best I can tell, I think I need a controller and some kind of mock
request.
Using a slight derivation from the more recent blog post:
def render_anywhere(partial, assigns={})
view = ActionView::Base.new(Rails::Configuration.new.view_path,
assigns)
ActionView::Base.included_modules.each { |helper| view.extend
helper }
view.extend ApplicationHelper
view.render(partial)
end
render_anywhere(:file => "/full/path/to/app/views/helps/
_send_credentials.html.erb")
gives me this:
ActionView::TemplateError (You have a nil object when you didn''t
expect it!
The error occurred while evaluating nil.url_for) on line #6 of app/
views/helps/_send_credentials.html.erb:
actionpack (2.3.4) lib/action_view/helpers/url_helper.rb:85:in `send''
actionpack (2.3.4) lib/action_view/helpers/url_helper.rb:85:in
`url_for''
app/views/helps/_send_credentials.html.erb:6
As best I can tell, I''m missing a controller and possibly a request
object in there somewhere, since it seems to be barfing on:
@controller.send(:url_for, options)
I''ve tried assigning a mock controller in there, and then it looks
like the controller needs a request object. I''ve tried following the
rabbit down the hole, and I just keep getting "nil object when you
didn''t expect it" errors of various flavors.
I''m lost, any ideas?
Thanks in advance--
Jeff Wigal
--
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-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
rubyonrails-talk+unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en.
jeff_wigal wrote:> We''re putting together a searchable online help site in Rails, and I''m > using FastRI to full-text index some existing Rails view pages to do > it. > > I don''t want to use Sphinx or some other solution, just because it''s > way overkill for the 15-20 .html.erb partials I am looking to index. > > So... I need to violate MVC (flog me now)... trying to write a Ruby > class that renders each of these pages as a string, and feeds the > rendered text as a string into FastRI for indexing.[...] If you need to do this, then you probably have a design problem which you should correct. It seems to me that you''d only be using ERb for your help text for one of two reasons: 1. The help text is written right in the ERb file, and Ruby is only used for things like navbars which aren''t part of the help text itself. 2. The help text is not written in the ERb file, but rather comes from a database or something. In neither case do you need to render the ERb to index the information. For case 1, just index the literal ERb (perhaps with all <%...%> removed for security). For case 2, use a database query. If neither of these is your use case, please explain further. Best, -- Marnen Laibow-Koser http://www.marnen.org marnen-sbuyVjPbboAdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org -- 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-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk+unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en.
Thanks for your response. I''m basically building static content within an existing rails application. I can just as easily do this with straight HTML, but since this is a static site for our online documentation. I''m using ERb because the individual help documents may link to each other, or link to other parts of the rails application. I''d prefer to use the link_to helper methods that tie into the routes, so that if a route changes, I''m not having to hunt down these changes in my static content. Our help text is written into the ERb files, and Ruby is used for some of the basic helper methods (link_to, maybe some of the other more common ones but nothing too exotic). We''d rather not put the help text into the database, since it''s a lot easier to maintain by editing the help files while we''re editing the application code. We have direct control over the help text, so arbitrary code execution is not a concern. My show.html.erb action looks something like this: <div id="help"> <h1><%= h @page.description%></h1> <%= render @page.file %> </div> <div class="clear"></div> @page.file returns a string representing the partial to be rendered, and we have about 15-25 ERb partials that represent our help text. Thanks-- On Jan 11, 9:44 pm, Marnen Laibow-Koser <li...-fsXkhYbjdPsEEoCn2XhGlw@public.gmane.org> wrote:> jeff_wigal wrote: > > We''re putting together a searchable online help site in Rails, and I''m > > using FastRI to full-text index some existing Rails view pages to do > > it. > > > I don''t want to use Sphinx or some other solution, just because it''s > > way overkill for the 15-20 .html.erb partials I am looking to index. > > > So... I need to violate MVC (flog me now)... trying to write a Ruby > > class that renders each of these pages as a string, and feeds the > > rendered text as a string into FastRI for indexing. > > [...] > > If you need to do this, then you probably have a design problem which > you should correct. It seems to me that you''d only be using ERb for > your help text for one of two reasons: > > 1. The help text is written right in the ERb file, and Ruby is only used > for things like navbars which aren''t part of the help text itself. > > 2. The help text is not written in the ERb file, but rather comes from a > database or something. > > In neither case do you need to render the ERb to index the information. > For case 1, just index the literal ERb (perhaps with all <%...%> removed > for security). For case 2, use a database query. > > If neither of these is your use case, please explain further. > > Best, > -- > Marnen Laibow-Koserhttp://www.marnen.org > mar...-sbuyVjPbboAdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org > -- > 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-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk+unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en.
Quoting jeff_wigal <jeff-iVP5o1a8NGIeZ1cX+HX059vLeJWuRmrY@public.gmane.org>:> We''re putting together a searchable online help site in Rails, and I''m > using FastRI to full-text index some existing Rails view pages to do > it. >As you have found, trying to fake a controller, request, etc. is a lot of work. One possibilty is to just throw the necessary methods into some applicable controller and call them as normal GET request: def render_anywhere return unless local_request? # DB access and/or instance variable assignment... page = render_to_string :action => ... OR :template => ... FastRI.whatever(page) end This only is safe if there are no untrusted users on the server host. HTH, Jeffrey -- 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-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk+unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en.
On Jan 11, 10:31 pm, jeff_wigal <j...-iVP5o1a8NGIeZ1cX+HX059vLeJWuRmrY@public.gmane.org> wrote:> Thanks for your response. > > I''m basically building static content within an existing rails > application. > > I can just as easily do this with straight HTML, but since this is a > static site for our online documentation. I''m using ERb because the > individual help documents may link to each other, or link to other > parts of the rails application. I''d prefer to use the link_to helper > methods that tie into the routes, so that if a route changes, I''m not > having to hunt down these changes in my static content. > > Our help text is written into the ERb files, and Ruby is used for some > of the basic helper methods (link_to, maybe some of the other more > common ones but nothing too exotic). We''d rather not put the help > text into the database, since it''s a lot easier to maintain by editing > the help files while we''re editing the application code. > > We have direct control over the help text, so arbitrary code execution > is not a concern. > > My show.html.erb action looks something like this: > > <div id="help"> > <h1><%= h @page.description%></h1> > <%= render @page.file %> > </div> > <div class="clear"></div> > > @page.file returns a string representing the partial to be rendered, > and we have about 15-25 ERb partials that represent our help text. > > Thanks-- > > On Jan 11, 9:44 pm, Marnen Laibow-Koser <li...-fsXkhYbjdPsEEoCn2XhGlw@public.gmane.org> wrote: > > > > > jeff_wigal wrote: > > > We''re putting together a searchable online help site in Rails, and I''m > > > using FastRI to full-text index some existing Rails view pages to do > > > it. > > > > I don''t want to use Sphinx or some other solution, just because it''s > > > way overkill for the 15-20 .html.erb partials I am looking to index. > > > > So... I need to violate MVC (flog me now)... trying to write a Ruby > > > class that renders each of these pages as a string, and feeds the > > > rendered text as a string into FastRI for indexing. > > > [...] > > > If you need to do this, then you probably have a design problem which > > you should correct. It seems to me that you''d only be using ERb for > > your help text for one of two reasons: > > > 1. The help text is written right in the ERb file, and Ruby is only used > > for things like navbars which aren''t part of the help text itself. > > > 2. The help text is not written in the ERb file, but rather comes from a > > database or something. > > > In neither case do you need to render the ERb to index the information. > > For case 1, just index the literal ERb (perhaps with all <%...%> removed > > for security). For case 2, use a database query. > > > If neither of these is your use case, please explain further. > > > Best, > > -- > > Marnen Laibow-Koserhttp://www.marnen.org > > mar...-sbuyVjPbboAdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org > > -- > > Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.Assuming I understand you, what *I* do whenever I want to use Rails'' routing helpers in a non-Controller/View is just "include ActionController::UrlWriter" in the class. link_to is in ActionView::UrlHelper... you get the idea. -- 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-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk+unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en.
Thanks for the advice... I think I am going to pull this out of the model and make it a controller method (/help/reindex) since that will give me easier access to the stuff I need. On Jan 11, 11:37 pm, pharrington <xenogene...-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> wrote:> On Jan 11, 10:31 pm, jeff_wigal <j...-iVP5o1a8NGIeZ1cX+HX059vLeJWuRmrY@public.gmane.org> wrote: > > > > > Thanks for your response. > > > I''m basically building static content within an existing rails > > application. > > > I can just as easily do this with straight HTML, but since this is a > > static site for our online documentation. I''m using ERb because the > > individual help documents may link to each other, or link to other > > parts of the rails application. I''d prefer to use the link_to helper > > methods that tie into the routes, so that if a route changes, I''m not > > having to hunt down these changes in my static content. > > > Our help text is written into the ERb files, and Ruby is used for some > > of the basic helper methods (link_to, maybe some of the other more > > common ones but nothing too exotic). We''d rather not put the help > > text into the database, since it''s a lot easier to maintain by editing > > the help files while we''re editing the application code. > > > We have direct control over the help text, so arbitrary code execution > > is not a concern. > > > My show.html.erb action looks something like this: > > > <div id="help"> > > <h1><%= h @page.description%></h1> > > <%= render @page.file %> > > </div> > > <div class="clear"></div> > > > @page.file returns a string representing the partial to be rendered, > > and we have about 15-25 ERb partials that represent our help text. > > > Thanks-- > > > On Jan 11, 9:44 pm, Marnen Laibow-Koser <li...-fsXkhYbjdPsEEoCn2XhGlw@public.gmane.org> wrote: > > > > jeff_wigal wrote: > > > > We''re putting together a searchable online help site in Rails, and I''m > > > > using FastRI to full-text index some existing Rails view pages to do > > > > it. > > > > > I don''t want to use Sphinx or some other solution, just because it''s > > > > way overkill for the 15-20 .html.erb partials I am looking to index. > > > > > So... I need to violate MVC (flog me now)... trying to write a Ruby > > > > class that renders each of these pages as a string, and feeds the > > > > rendered text as a string into FastRI for indexing. > > > > [...] > > > > If you need to do this, then you probably have a design problem which > > > you should correct. It seems to me that you''d only be using ERb for > > > your help text for one of two reasons: > > > > 1. The help text is written right in the ERb file, and Ruby is only used > > > for things like navbars which aren''t part of the help text itself. > > > > 2. The help text is not written in the ERb file, but rather comes from a > > > database or something. > > > > In neither case do you need to render the ERb to index the information. > > > For case 1, just index the literal ERb (perhaps with all <%...%> removed > > > for security). For case 2, use a database query. > > > > If neither of these is your use case, please explain further. > > > > Best, > > > -- > > > Marnen Laibow-Koserhttp://www.marnen.org > > > mar...-sbuyVjPbboAdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org > > > -- > > > Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/. > > Assuming I understand you, what *I* do whenever I want to use Rails'' > routing helpers in a non-Controller/View is just "include > ActionController::UrlWriter" in the class. link_to is in > ActionView::UrlHelper... you get the idea.-- 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-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk+unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en.