Updated Example
I am using a Select Box as a nav. When I select an item, I would like to be redirected to that page.
= select (@organization, "tabs", @organization.tabs.collect { |t| t.title }, {} { :onchange => "escape_javascript(#{ render edit_organization_tab_path(@organization, this.value)})"} )
So this example does not work because I am not sure how to pass a Javascript variable to Ruby
Is it possible to do this entirely in Ruby? Or do I have to use jQuery?
You don't need jQuery, but you will need Javascript. Ultimately, you will either need to use (and possibly create) a helper that will create a navigation-ready select box (including the necessary Javascript code) or add event listeners to your select directly in your view (inline or in an included script).
If you're using jQuery, you can do it with something like this:
= select(@organization, "tabs", @organization.tabs.collect { |t| [ t.title, edit_organization_tab_url(t) ] }, { }, :onchange => "window.location.href=$(this).val()")
The value for each item in the select list should be the URL you want to redirect the person to.
I'm not sure what you meant by putting a Rails render call inside a JavaScript block.
Have you considered how this might degrade if the user does not have JavaScript enabled? Ideally the link elements would still be available as regular <a/> elements so a user could still visit a page without JS. Especially since your select box controls site navigation, I'd recommend a "progressive enhancement" solution and write the markup first without JS, then add in JS behavior on top of it. You may want some CSS and <div/> elements that resemble a select box but are not literally a select box, this way you have more control over the contents. Couple of other things, as tadman pointed out, redirecting the user in JavaScript boils down to setting window.location. If you are using jQuery, check the change event which you can attach to selection events in your combobox, and redirect the user as necessary. Finally, using CSS3 border-radius and other properties, you could create something that looks very similar to a select box, but has much more functionality. You could also find a component like this, googling turned up this example.