flash-like implementation

January 13th, 2008

Flash is a Ruby on Rails method to show (mainly warning/error) messages. Camping has no such method, so i implemented an approach for error messages. The thing is, after a post method in the controller, the redirect creates a new instance for the controller, loosing the class instance variables set before.
So, after talking a bit with Zimbatm at #camping, we setup what could be a good solution: to use the @state session variable.

@state.error = ‘The unit is still operational, Dave. But it will fail within seventy-two hours’

The variable is cleared on the View layout method. Flash means just it. Show and clear. The layout code includes:

div(:class => 'error') { p @state.error.to_s; @state.error = ''; } unless @state.error.blank?

and the CSS .error class wraps the message inside a lightred box with a nice solid red border (say RoR?).

posted by pedro mg at 7:56 pm & filed under ruby, camping |


4 Comments to “flash-like implementation”

  1. January 14th, 2008 at 11:38 am
    Dan Hoern said:

    Yes, That’s a good way to do it.
    I just did the same and included a small alert image inside the box. Good. Thank for the tip.

  2. January 14th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
    pedro said:

    Dan,

    nice. One could even move from the string to an Hash, and create different CSS styles for different messages. Like a background (image/color) for Warnings, one other for Errors, etc.

    Error = {
    1 => {:class => 'e_nullfields', :msg => 'Fill all the required fields'},
    2 => {:class => 'e_dataexists', :msg => 'Duplicate data'}
    }

    Then lets set an error:

    @state.err = 1

    Finally, the layout would take a:

    div(:class => Error[@state.err][:class]) { p Error[@state.err][:msg]; @state.err = ''; } unless @state.err.blank?

  3. January 14th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
    Andy Junior said:

    Hello,

    I’m getting an error using the @state.myerror variable:
    “NoMethodError undefined method ‘myerror’ for nil:NilClass:”

    Not using your last comment code, just the first one.

  4. January 14th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
    pedro said:

    Andy,

    did you include the Session module ? @state is the session variable, so you need to use the camping/session module. Something like this:


    require 'camping'
    require 'camping/session'

    Camping.goes :YourApp

    module YourApp
    include Camping::Session
    end

    From here, your Models, Controllers, Views, Helpers, etc in this file, or in separate files.

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