Category Archives: Ruby

ActionView Standalone

require 'action_view'
require 'action_controller/mime' # for Rails 2

render :file=>'foo.html.erb', :locals=>{:user=>User.first}
render :file=>'lib/data_feed.xml.builder', :type=>:rxml, :locals=>{:user=>User.first)

def render(options)
  klass = Class.new(ActionView::Base)
  klass.class_eval{ def url_for(x);x;end } # to be able to use link_to
  klass.new.render(options)
end

Quick Markdown Preview For Github Readme

I write my Readme in marddown, and often it gets messed up and then I have to commit & push until its finally right, so I wrote a small script to get a preview (using githubs markdown library)!

Usage

markdown README.markdown
... chrome pops up with the html preview

Install
gem install redcarpet

Put this into e.g. ~/bin/markdown and do a chmod +x on it

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
raise "gime a file!!" unless ARGV[0]
exec "redcarpet #{ARGV[0]} > /tmp/markdown.html && chromium-browser /tmp/markdown.html"

Alternatively: Interactive Live Preview<

Array.to_ordered_hash replacement for Rails 2.3 ActiveSupport::OrderedHash.new

The simple

ActiveSupport::OrderedHash.new [[1,2]]

does no longer work in Rails 2.3, so I built a small patch for array that make OrderedHash creation simple again.

Code

class Array
  def to_ordered_hash
    ActiveSupport::OrderedHash[self]
  end
end

Usage

hash = [[:key, 'value'], [:key2, :value2], [1, 2]].to_ordered_hash
hash == {:key=>'value', :key2=>:value2, :1=>2}

a more complete but longer/harder version

All ActionView Helpers on Strings

Insert all the helpers you want and “go!”.strip_tags.auto_link.truncate(25)

# ActionView text helpers
# https://grosser.it/2009/05/30/all-actionview-helpers-on-strings/
class String
  %w[auto_link excerpt highlight sanitize simple_format strip_tags word_wrap].each do |method|
    define_method method do |*args|
      ActionController::Base.helpers.send method, self, *args
    end
  end

  # called with a number or with :length=>10
  def truncate(*args)
    if args.first.is_a?(Hash)
      ActionController::Base.helpers.truncate(self, *args)
    else
      ActionController::Base.helpers.truncate(self, :length=>args[0])
    end
  end
end