Using the controller to manage render logic rather than view

Question

I'm not asking for code as an answer, rather, a resource or some general guidance.

I have an index page of users. For each user, I check the "friend status" of each user in respect to the current user. As you can imagine, it is a pretty lengthy if and elsif statements in the view page.. which is basically:

<% if current_user %>
    <% if current_user.friend_with? profile.user %>
        <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-user"></span>
    <% elsif current_user.invited_by? profile.user %>
        <%= link_to '.', friendship_path(profile.user), :method => "put", :class => "glyphicon glyphicon-check" %>
    <% elsif current_user.connected_with? profile.user %>
        <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-send" title="Pending approval"></span>
    <% elsif current_user == profile.user %>
        <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-user"></span>
    <% else %>
        <%= link_to '.', friendships_path(:user_id => profile), :method => "post", :class => "glyphicon glyphicon-plus" %>

I have this entire logic in the view page, and it is very cumbersome. I would like to clean it up a little and stash it away in the controller (if advisable).

Any guidance would be really appreciated. I imagine having a method to return the type of icon or to render some kind of html code and pass it into the view. Thanks!!

Also make sure you actually provide some kind of meaningful text inside those links for people who use screen readers. — max, May 28 '15 at 21:13
yea i understand to use helper, but any guidance on generating html code through a controller? — dubc15, May 28 '15 at 21:30

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered May 28 '15 at 21:16

0

Helper method is the answer..

Move it in some method in your helper like

def my_awesome_helper_method
- logic -
end

and in the view just call

<%=my_awesome_helper_method %>

much cleaner...!

answered May 28 '15 at 21:16

Manish Puri

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thank you - what language/syntax do we use to return html code from the generator? for example, within the helper method, i want to return
, how do i write that up in the controller? – dubc15 May 28 '15 at 21:33
you can either use content_tag or return it as string and use a htmlsafe – Manish Puri May 28 '15 at 21:41
also not in controller this should go in a helper class which is app/helpers folder – Manish Puri May 28 '15 at 21:42

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

0

You should look into https://stackoverflow.com/a/7860493/1657377, a presenter or decorator pattern might fit in here. But this logic definitely does not belong into the controller.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

Community

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answered May 28 '15 at 23:03

jethroo

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Using the controller to manage render logic rather than view

2 Answers2