Rails: Create method available in all views and all models

ruby-on-rails

Solution

You could add some modules, and then have in the models that you want the method to work (on a specific attribute) something like this:

The modules (add this to the lib folder)

module hasFoo
  def self.included(base)
    base.extend ClassMethods
  end
end

module ClassMethods
  def has_foo(method)
     define_method foo do
       field = self.send(method.to_sym)
       field
     end
  end
end

Then in your model, just add

has_foo :name

Then you can just call model.foo

And I think that would do it...

Problem

I'd like to define a method that is available in both my views and my models Say I have a view helper: ``` def foo(s) "hello #{s}" end ``` A view might use the helper like this: ``` <div class="data"><%= foo(@user.name) %></div> ``` However, this `<div>` will be updated with a repeating ajax call. I'm using a `to_json` call in a controller returns data like so: ``` render :text => @item.to_json(:only => [...], :methods => [:foo]) ``` This means, that I have to have `foo` defined in my `Item` model as well: ``` class Item def foo "hello #{name}" end end ``` It'd be nice if I could have a DRY method that could be shared in both my views and my models. Usage might look like this: Helper ``` def say_hello(s) "hello #{s}" end ``` User.rb model ``` def foo say_hello(name) end ``` Item.rb model ``` def foo say_hello(label) end ``` View ``` <div class="data"><%= item.foo %></div> ``` Controller ``` def observe @items = item.find(...) render :text => @items.to_json(:only=>[...], :methods=>[:foo]) end ``` I don't know the best way to handle this, but I don't want to completely go against best-practices here. If you can think of a better way, I'm eager to learn!

Original source