Rails layouts per action?

Question

I use a different layout for some actions (mostly for the new action in most of the controllers).

I am wondering what the best way to specify the layout would be? (I am using 3 or more different layouts in the same controller)

I don't like using

render :layout => 'name'

I liked doing

layout 'name', :only => [:new]

But I can't use that to specify 2 or more different layouts.

For example:

When I call layout 2 times in the same controller, with different layout names and different only options, the first one gets ignored - those actions don't display in the layout I specified.

Note: I'm using Rails 2.

The Rails Guides documentation: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/layouts_and_rendering.html#finding-layouts — Kevin, Jun 03 '14 at 16:46
Good point. The documentation for Rails 2: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/v2.3.11/layouts_and_rendering.html#finding-layouts — Kevin, Jun 10 '14 at 18:22
(Also, I posted the guide to help future readers. I have no doubt you had your problem solved a long time ago ;-) — Kevin, Jun 10 '14 at 18:25

August Lilleaas · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-10T20:25:39.373

317

You can use a method to set the layout.

class MyController < ApplicationController
  layout :resolve_layout

  # ...

  private

  def resolve_layout
    case action_name
    when "new", "create"
      "some_layout"
    when "index"
      "other_layout"
    else
      "application"
    end
  end
end

edited Jun 10 '19 at 20:25

answered Jun 11 '10 at 19:58

August Lilleaas

54,010
13
102
111

23

Cool, thanks. And in case someone wants to do simpler things with one-liner the following is possible. Its easy to read and place in top of the controller. --- `layout Proc.new{ ['index', 'new', 'create'].include?(action_name) ? 'some_layout' : 'other_layout' }` – holli Aug 28 '11 at 21:13
1

Would this have a large effect on application performance if various layouts are using say several different css & js files respectively? – Noz Nov 08 '12 at 22:50
15

-1: Too complex. The comment below (https://stackoverflow.com/a/21203783/285154) is the best option. – dimitarvp Sep 11 '14 at 18:48
Thanks! This is still a problem in Rails 4.2, perhaps only if you are using inheriting controllers in many levels. I have used method before, but wasn't thinking of testing that when I had the problem now, thanks again. – 244an Oct 01 '15 at 15:07
@dimitko no it's not, I already referenced that solution in the question itself. It does not work if you want to use 3 or more different layouts (as is exactly my case). – mrbrdo Oct 06 '16 at 23:14
@LucaGuidi how is this not thread safe? The method / proc has no side effects. – GuyPaddock Sep 27 '17 at 13:26
See also [Choosing Layouts at Runtime in this Rails guide](https://guides.rubyonrails.org/layouts_and_rendering.html#choosing-layouts-at-runtime) – Nathan Hinchey Jun 26 '19 at 21:56
6 years later I must tell you @dimitarvp, although both answers solve the question, they're meant to work in a different way. – Karol Karol Dec 02 '20 at 16:56

score 219 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 27 '19 at 04:49

219

If you are only selecting between two layouts, you can use :only:

class ProductsController < ApplicationController
   layout "admin", only: [:new, :edit]
end

or

class ProductsController < ApplicationController
   layout "application", only: [:index]
end

edited Jun 27 '19 at 04:49

Nathan Hinchey

1,191
9
30

answered Jan 18 '14 at 12:00

axeltaglia

2,543
1
13
5

2

Well, the problem with this is that you cannot access objects such as current_user to conditionally determine the layout – Andrew K Dec 14 '14 at 05:25
@AndrewK Dynamically choosing a layout doesn't seem to be part of the question asked. – Nick Mar 25 '16 at 15:19
13

If any of you read the question you would know this is not the right answer, as I have already described this solution in the question itself and also why it does not work in my case (3 or more layouts). – mrbrdo Oct 06 '16 at 23:13
2

Like mrbrdo said, this is not the answer. His question specifically indicates `(I am using 3 or more different layouts in the same controller)`. This answer allows a layout and no layout, *not* different layouts. – Michael May 14 '17 at 14:19

score 55 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 20 '13 at 05:46

55

You can specify the layout for an individual action using respond_to:

  def foo
    @model = Bar.first
    respond_to do |format|
      format.html {render :layout => 'application'}
    end
  end

answered Jun 20 '13 at 05:46

Gavin Terrill

1,029
7
7

To me this is the more flexible answer. DRYing things out by applying `layout "[...]" to the controller class only allows one statement effectively. If you have more than two layouts to deal with (say, admin, generic_app, tailored_app), you will experience `Render and/or redirect were called multiple times in this action` errors; and you have no choice but to use this suggestion. – Jerome Nov 22 '14 at 10:15
1

This answer is the best, its simple and neat as opposed to using methods with switch or if statements inside. – kev Jul 07 '15 at 08:41
also it can specify the erb file and layout both: `format.html { render 'custom_index', layout: 'application' }` in the same way. – thatway_3 Mar 14 '16 at 02:57

score 17 · Answer 4 · edited May 24 '16 at 09:04

17

You can also specify the layout for action using render:

def foo
  render layout: "application"
end

edited May 24 '16 at 09:04

Tunaki

132,869
46
340
423

answered May 24 '16 at 09:02

yottanami

377
2
7

score 8 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 26 '13 at 23:45

8

There's a gem (layout_by_action) for that :)

layout_by_action [:new, :create] => "some_layout", :index => "other_layout"

https://github.com/barelyknown/layout_by_action

answered Aug 26 '13 at 23:45

barelyknown

5,510
3
34
46

score 8 · Answer 6 · answered May 17 '18 at 12:41

Precision :

A not really but working DRY way is what you see above, but with a precision : the layout need to be after your variables for working ("@some"). As :

def your_action
   @some = foo
   render layout: "your_layout"
end

And not :

def your_action
   render layout: "your_layout"
   @some = foo
   @foo = some
end

If you do a before_action... it's won't work also.

Hope it helps.

score 7 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 11 '17 at 06:57

Various ways to specify layout under controller:

In following code, application_1 layout is called under index and show action of Users controller and application layout(default layout) is called for other actions.
```
class UsersController < ApplicationController
  layout "application_1", only: [:index, :show]
end
```
In following code, application_1 layout is called for all action of Users controller.
```
class UsersController < ApplicationController
   layout "application_1"
end
```
In following code, application_1 layout is called for test action of Users controllers only and for all other action application layout(default) is called.
```
    class UsersController < ApplicationController
      def test
        render layout: "application_1"
      end
    end
```

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 25 '22 at 00:36

0

You can use it like my example:

def show
...
render layout: "empty",template: "admin/orders/print" if params.key?('print')
end

I specified the layout and the template html.erb if params print present.

answered Apr 25 '22 at 00:36

ramzieus

138
11

Rails layouts per action?

8 Answers8

Linked