The Rails framework provides a large number of helpers for working with
assets
, dates
, forms
,
numbers
and model objects, to name a few. These helpers are
available to all templates by default.
In addition to using the standard template helpers provided in the Rails
framework, creating custom helpers to extract complicated logic or reusable
functionality is strongly encouraged. By default, the controller will
include a helper whose name matches that of the controller, e.g.,
MyController
will automatically include MyHelper
.
Additional helpers can be specified using the helper
class
method in ActionController::Base
or any controller which
inherits from it.
The to_s
method from the Time class can be wrapped in a helper
method to display a custom message if the Time object is blank:
module FormattedTimeHelper def format_time(time, format=:long, blank_message=" ") time.blank? ? blank_message : time.to_s(format) end end
FormattedTimeHelper can now be included in a controller, using the
helper
class method:
class EventsController < ActionController::Base helper FormattedTimeHelper def index @events = Event.find(:all) end end
Then, in any view rendered by EventController
, the
format_time
method can be called:
<% @events.each do |event| -%> <p> <%= format_time(event.time, :short, "N/A") %> | <%= event.name %> </p> <% end -%>
Finally, assuming we have two event instances, one which has a time and one which does not, the output might look like this:
23 Aug 11:30 | Carolina Railhawks Soccer Match N/A | Carolina Railhaws Training Workshop