In Rails, what are some good View-specific design patterns that make handling many states easier?

Question

The anti-pattern that I want to kill is:

- if !current_user
  # do something
- if !member
  # do something else
- if admin
  # blah blah blah
- else
  # Bored now.

I suspect the answer has something to do with view helpers and partials, but I'm wondering what some of the best practices and design patterns are. Thanks!

Answer 1

I do a lot from my controller:

before_filter :require_user

def require_user
  unless current_user
    store_location
    flash[:notice] = "You must be logged in to access this page"
    redirect_to login_url
    return false
  end
end

But depending on your role (admin, user, member ) you could perform the same task. That way, before the view is rendered, you're controller will take care of where they are to be directed.