DRYing link_to with a symbol

[Geoff B]

Hi, I just put in a patch that allows you to DRY up this:

<%= link_to @company.name, @company %>

to this:

<%= link_to :name, @company %>

The symbol indicates the method to be called on the object passed in
the link_to options.

http://dev.rubyonrails.org/ticket/8789

[Mislav Marohnić]

On 6/28/07, Geoff B <gbue...@gmail.com> wrote:

<%= link_to :name, @company %>

Totally awesome!
+1

[Brandon Keepers]

Nice, but IMHO, this would be more useful:

class Company < AR::Base
def to_s
name
end
end

<%= link_to @company %>

That's the pattern I've been using, but my link_to's look like this:

<%= link_to @company, @company %>

[Steven A Bristol]

link_to already accepts a symbol as the first param and converts it into a string. This change would break the existing api.

[Damian Janowski]

On 6/28/07, Brandon Keepers <bkee...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Nice, but IMHO, this would be more useful:
>
> class Company < AR::Base
> def to_s
> name
> end
> end

+1!

I'm using the same pattern too.

Shouldn't this be encouraged? It's a way of saying: you should provide
a human-readable representation of your object (yeah, usually just
alias name).

I do find link_to @company.name, @company very unDRY... and even more
when it gets duplicated all over the place...

[Josh Peek]

Yes! Something who's been thinking alike.

http://svn.joshpeek.com/projects/plugins/stringgable_shortcuts/

[Geoff B]

I like the leveraging of the #to_s. The syntax of <%= link_to
@company, @company %> isn't as DRY as it could be, so I put in a patch
that allows you to do this:

<%= link_to @person %>
<%= link_to [@company, @person] %>

The link text is the #to_s of the object, or if an Array is passed,
the #to_s of the last object in the array.

It would be nice if ActiveRecord objects had a readable default #to_s
-- even if it were something like "Person 12". Or, if the object
responded to :title or :name, one of those could be used.

On Jun 28, 6:16 am, Brandon Keepers <bkeep...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Geoff B]

Forgot to post the link -- patch is here: http://dev.rubyonrails.org/ticket/8794

[Josh Peek]

Which patch are you for? #8789 or #8794

[Mislav Marohnić]

On 6/28/07, Geoff B <gbue...@gmail.com> wrote:

It would be nice if ActiveRecord objects had a readable default #to_s

http://pastie.caboo.se/74412

[Pratik]

I've uploaded a new patch with some minor modification to the existing
patch. I gyess it makes more sense to join .to_s values of @company,
@perso in case of <%= link_to [@company, @person] %>

Thanks,
Pratik

On 6/28/07, Geoff B <gbue...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>

--
rm -rf / 2>/dev/null - http://null.in

Dont judge those who try and fail, judge those who fail to try..

[Josh Peek]

Everyone jump onto #rails-contrib, ya'll seem to be online right now.

[Mislav Marohnić]

On 6/28/07, Josh Peek <josh...@gmail.com> wrote:

Which patch are you for? #8789 or #8794

My vote is for the latter. The former breaks backwards compatibility (like Steven already noticed), and on common models there is rarely more than one attribute ready for link text output. Hacking to_s makes much more sense. (See my pastie)

[Josh Peek]

On Jun 28, 10:26 am, "Mislav Marohnić" <mislav.maroh...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> On 6/28/07, Geoff B <gbues...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > It would be nice if ActiveRecord objects had a readable default #to_s
>
> http://pastie.caboo.se/74412

I've had that in my plugin, but I like your defaults to name and title
better :)

http://svn.joshpeek.com/projects/plugins/stringgable_shortcuts/

[Obie Fernandez]

My2c...

You might consider the syntax <%= link_to &:name, @company %> instead
of just a symbol, since it fits with existing idioms and wouldn't
break backwards compatibility.

On 6/28/07, Josh Peek <josh...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

[Geoff B]

Thanks, Mislav!

I created a pastie of the to_s-oriented patch, so that others could
test out the DRY-ed link_to syntax: http://pastie.caboo.se/74452

With both of these pasties applied, I've been refactoring my link_to
calls -- ex: <%= link_to @post %> links to the resource, with the
@post.title as the link text -- very nice.

On Jun 28, 10:26 am, "Mislav Marohnić" <mislav.maroh...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Marcel Molina Jr.]

On Thu, Jun 28, 2007 at 11:37:58AM -0400, Obie Fernandez wrote:
> You might consider the syntax <%= link_to &:name, @company %> instead
> of just a symbol, since it fits with existing idioms and wouldn't
> break backwards compatibility.

That isn't valid Ruby syntax.

marcel
--
Marcel Molina Jr. <mar...@vernix.org>

[Courtenay]

On 6/28/07, Geoff B <gbue...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

> Thanks, Mislav!
>
> I created a pastie of the to_s-oriented patch, so that others could
> test out the DRY-ed link_to syntax: http://pastie.caboo.se/74452
>
> With both of these pasties applied, I've been refactoring my link_to
> calls -- ex: <%= link_to @post %> links to the resource, with the
> @post.title as the link text -- very nice.
>

Don't you all mean

<%= link_to h(@company.name), ... %>

Where's the escaping?!

[Geoff B]

Good catch on the html escaping.

I updated the patch so that html escaping happens automatically when
the first argument passed in is not a string.

So, with <%= link_to @company %> the link text will be automatically
escaped.

With the standard syntax, you'd need to explicitly escape, as before: <
%= link_to h(@company.name), @company %>

http://dev.rubyonrails.org/ticket/8794

On Jun 28, 2:48 pm, Courtenay <court3...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Geoff B]

... or rather, link text is escaped *only if* first argument is an
ActiveRecord object, so as not to break any existing behavior.

Patch updated, and pastie updated: http://pastie.caboo.se/74543

[Pratik]

Hi,

I've converted this functionality into a quick plugin and also added
some method_missing magic to enable form like
link_to_nice_name(@person) ( which uses @person.nice_name ).

Grab it from http://linktomagic.googlecode.com/svn/link_to_magic/

Thanks,
Pratik

On 6/28/07, Geoff B <gbue...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

--
http://m.onkey.org

[Courtenay]

ack! more method missing! this means more functions people can't look
up in the API.

Why not name it something else that is searchable, and use a symbol or something

link_to_method(:nice_name, @person)

[Pratik]

$ find . | grep \.rb$ | xargs grep -s 'method_missing' | wc -l
59

:-P

--
http://m.onkey.org

[Evan]

> ack! more method missing! this means more functions people can't look
> up in the API.

Agree.