ansaurus

Question

Answer 1

+1 A:

If your /account route is bound to the account controller, you can always have a fullfeatured layout with conditional part like this

render :template => "/shared/sidebar" if controller.controller_name == "account"

(I have to admit that it does not please the eye though)

hellvinz 2010-10-06 17:53:10

Answer 2

+3 A:

Often you'll have the same situation for other parts of the site in which case it may make sense to use nested layouts.

mark 2010-10-06 17:58:05

Answer 3

A:

You can have more than one yield in a layout, simply give the additional ones a name:

<html>
<body>
  <div id="content">
    <%= yield :sidebar %>
    <%= yield %>
  </div>
</body>
</html>

You can add HTML for that yield by using the content_for method

<% content_for :sidebar do -%>
  <div id="sidebar"></div>
<% end -%>

But you'll have to add that to every view you want to have a sidebar. Instead, create views/layouts/application_with_sidebar.html.erb

<% content_for :sidebar do -%>
  <div id="sidebar"></div>
<% end -%>

<%= render :file => 'layouts/application' %>

If you'd prefer to keep the number of yields to a minimum, you can nest your layouts instead.

views/layouts/application.html.erb

<html>
<body>
  <div id="content">
    <%= yield(:with_sidebar) or yield %>
  </div>
</body>
</html>

views/layouts/application_with_sidebar.html.erb

<% content_for :with_sidebar do -%>
  <div id="sidebar"></div>
<% end -%>

<%= render :file => 'layouts/application' %>

controllers/accounts_controller.rb

class AccountsController < ApplicationController
  layout 'application_with_sidebar'
  ...
end

Adam Lassek 2010-10-06 18:17:31

Then I'm throwing variables into the main, global layout that don't apply to all sections of the site. Just doesn't feel right. Thanks for the idea.

Chad Johnson 2010-10-06 18:29:57

@Chad Nested Layouts like @mark suggested are probably the best alternative, then. It all depends on how often you need this markup to show up.

Adam Lassek 2010-10-06 19:26:03

Extending an existing layout in Rails