Module: ActionView::Helpers::UrlHelper

Includes:
JavaScriptHelper
Included in:
ActionView::Helpers
Defined in:
lib/action_view/helpers/url_helper.rb

Overview

Provides a set of methods for making links and getting URLs that depend on the routing subsystem (see ActionController::Routing). This allows you to use the same format for links in views and controllers.

Constant Summary

Constants included from JavaScriptHelper

JavaScriptHelper::JAVASCRIPT_PATH, JavaScriptHelper::JS_ESCAPE_MAP

Constants included from PrototypeHelper

PrototypeHelper::AJAX_OPTIONS, PrototypeHelper::CALLBACKS

Instance Method Summary collapse

Methods included from JavaScriptHelper

#button_to_function, #escape_javascript, #javascript_cdata_section, #javascript_tag, #link_to_function

Methods included from PrototypeHelper

#button_to_remote, #evaluate_remote_response, #form_remote_tag, #link_to_remote, #observe_field, #observe_form, #periodically_call_remote, #remote_form_for, #remote_function, #submit_to_remote, #update_page, #update_page_tag

Instance Method Details

#button_to(name, options = {}, html_options = {}) ⇒ Object

Generates a form containing a single button that submits to the URL created by the set of options. This is the safest method to ensure links that cause changes to your data are not triggered by search bots or accelerators. If the HTML button does not work with your layout, you can also consider using the link_to method with the :method modifier as described in the link_to documentation.

The generated FORM element has a class name of button-to to allow styling of the form itself and its children. You can control the form submission and input element behavior using html_options. This method accepts the :method and :confirm modifiers described in the link_to documentation. If no :method modifier is given, it will default to performing a POST operation. You can also disable the button by passing :disabled => true in html_options. If you are using RESTful routes, you can pass the :method to change the HTTP verb used to submit the form.

Options

The options hash accepts the same options at url_for.

There are a few special html_options:

  • :method - Specifies the anchor name to be appended to the path.

  • :disabled - Specifies the anchor name to be appended to the path.

  • :confirm - This will add a JavaScript confirm prompt with the question specified. If the user accepts, the link is processed normally, otherwise no action is taken.

Examples

<%= button_to "New", :action => "new" %>
# => "<form method="post" action="/controller/new" class="button-to">
#      <div><input value="New" type="submit" /></div>
#    </form>"

button_to "Delete Image", { :action => "delete", :id => @image.id },
          :confirm => "Are you sure?", :method => :delete
# => "<form method="post" action="/images/delete/1" class="button-to">
#      <div>
#        <input type="hidden" name="_method" value="delete" />
#        <input onclick="return confirm('Are you sure?');"
#              value="Delete" type="submit" />
#      </div>
#    </form>"



286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
 
# File 'lib/action_view/helpers/url_helper.rb', line 286

def button_to(name, options = {}, html_options = {})
  html_options = html_options.stringify_keys
  convert_boolean_attributes!(html_options, %w( disabled ))

  method_tag = ''
  if (method = html_options.delete('method')) && %w{put delete}.include?(method.to_s)
    method_tag = tag('input', :type => 'hidden', :name => '_method', :value => method.to_s)
  end

  form_method = method.to_s == 'get' ? 'get' : 'post'

  request_token_tag = ''
  if form_method == 'post' && protect_against_forgery?
    request_token_tag = tag(:input, :type => "hidden", :name => request_forgery_protection_token.to_s, :value => form_authenticity_token)
  end

  if confirm = html_options.delete("confirm")
    html_options["onclick"] = "return #{confirm_javascript_function(confirm)};"
  end

  url = options.is_a?(String) ? options : self.url_for(options)
  name ||= url

  html_options.merge!("type" => "submit", "value" => name)

  ("<form method=\"#{form_method}\" action=\"#{escape_once url}\" class=\"button-to\"><div>" +
    method_tag + tag("input", html_options) + request_token_tag + "</div></form>").html_safe
end

#current_page?(options) ⇒ Boolean

True if the current request URI was generated by the given options.

Examples

Let’s say we’re in the /shop/checkout?order=desc action.

current_page?(:action => 'process')
# => false

current_page?(:controller => 'shop', :action => 'checkout')
# => true

current_page?(:controller => 'shop', :action => 'checkout', :order => 'asc')
# => false

current_page?(:action => 'checkout')
# => true

current_page?(:controller => 'library', :action => 'checkout')
# => false

Let’s say we’re in the /shop/checkout?order=desc&page=1 action.

current_page?(:action => 'process')
# => false

current_page?(:controller => 'shop', :action => 'checkout')
# => true

current_page?(:controller => 'shop', :action => 'checkout', :order => 'desc', :page=>'1')
# => true

current_page?(:controller => 'shop', :action => 'checkout', :order => 'desc', :page=>'2')
# => false

current_page?(:controller => 'shop', :action => 'checkout', :order => 'desc')
# => false

current_page?(:action => 'checkout')
# => true

current_page?(:controller => 'library', :action => 'checkout')
# => false

Returns:

  • (Boolean) 


539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
 
# File 'lib/action_view/helpers/url_helper.rb', line 539

def current_page?(options)
  url_string = CGI.unescapeHTML(url_for(options))
  request = @controller.request
  # We ignore any extra parameters in the request_uri if the 
  # submitted url doesn't have any either.  This lets the function
  # work with things like ?order=asc 
  if url_string.index("?")
    request_uri = request.request_uri
  else
    request_uri = request.request_uri.split('?').first
  end
  if url_string =~ /^\w+:\/\//
    url_string == "#{request.protocol}#{request.host_with_port}#{request_uri}"
  else
    url_string == request_uri
  end
end

#link_to(*args, &block) ⇒ Object

Creates a link tag of the given name using a URL created by the set of options. See the valid options in the documentation for url_for. It’s also possible to pass a string instead of an options hash to get a link tag that uses the value of the string as the href for the link, or use :back to link to the referrer - a JavaScript back link will be used in place of a referrer if none exists. If nil is passed as a name, the link itself will become the name.

Signatures

link_to(name, options = {}, html_options = nil)
link_to(options = {}, html_options = nil) do
  # name
end

Options

  • :confirm => 'question?' - This will add a JavaScript confirm prompt with the question specified. If the user accepts, the link is processed normally, otherwise no action is taken.

  • :popup => true || array of window options - This will force the link to open in a popup window. By passing true, a default browser window will be opened with the URL. You can also specify an array of options that are passed-thru to JavaScripts window.open method.

  • :method => symbol of HTTP verb - This modifier will dynamically create an HTML form and immediately submit the form for processing using the HTTP verb specified. Useful for having links perform a POST operation in dangerous actions like deleting a record (which search bots can follow while spidering your site). Supported verbs are :post, :delete and :put. Note that if the user has JavaScript disabled, the request will fall back to using GET. If you are relying on the POST behavior, you should check for it in your controller’s action by using the request object’s methods for post?, delete? or put?.

  • The html_options will accept a hash of html attributes for the link tag.

Note that if the user has JavaScript disabled, the request will fall back to using GET. If :href => '#' is used and the user has JavaScript disabled clicking the link will have no effect. If you are relying on the POST behavior, your should check for it in your controller’s action by using the request object’s methods for post?, delete? or put?.

You can mix and match the html_options with the exception of :popup and :method which will raise an ActionView::ActionViewError exception.

Examples

Because it relies on url_for, link_to supports both older-style controller/action/id arguments and newer RESTful routes. Current Rails style favors RESTful routes whenever possible, so base your application on resources and use

link_to "Profile", profile_path(@profile)
# => <a href="/profiles/1">Profile</a>

or the even pithier

link_to "Profile", @profile
# => <a href="/profiles/1">Profile</a>

in place of the older more verbose, non-resource-oriented

link_to "Profile", :controller => "profiles", :action => "show", :id => @profile
# => <a href="/profiles/show/1">Profile</a>

Similarly,

link_to "Profiles", profiles_path
# => <a href="/profiles">Profiles</a>

is better than

link_to "Profiles", :controller => "profiles"
# => <a href="/profiles">Profiles</a>

You can use a block as well if your link target is hard to fit into the name parameter. ERb example:

<% link_to(@profile) do %>
  <strong><%= @profile.name %></strong> -- <span>Check it out!!</span>
<% end %>
# => <a href="/profiles/1"><strong>David</strong> -- <span>Check it out!!</span></a>

Classes and ids for CSS are easy to produce:

link_to "Articles", articles_path, :id => "news", :class => "article"
# => <a href="/articles" class="article" id="news">Articles</a>

Be careful when using the older argument style, as an extra literal hash is needed:

link_to "Articles", { :controller => "articles" }, :id => "news", :class => "article"
# => <a href="/articles" class="article" id="news">Articles</a>

Leaving the hash off gives the wrong link:

link_to "WRONG!", :controller => "articles", :id => "news", :class => "article"
# => <a href="/articles/index/news?class=article">WRONG!</a>

link_to can also produce links with anchors or query strings:

link_to "Comment wall", profile_path(@profile, :anchor => "wall")
# => <a href="/profiles/1#wall">Comment wall</a>

link_to "Ruby on Rails search", :controller => "searches", :query => "ruby on rails"
# => <a href="/searches?query=ruby+on+rails">Ruby on Rails search</a>

link_to "Nonsense search", searches_path(:foo => "bar", :baz => "quux")
# => <a href="/searches?foo=bar&amp;baz=quux">Nonsense search</a>

The three options specific to link_to (:confirm, :popup, and :method) are used as follows:

link_to "Visit Other Site", "http://www.rubyonrails.org/", :confirm => "Are you sure?"
# => <a href="http://www.rubyonrails.org/" onclick="return confirm('Are you sure?');">Visit Other Site</a>

link_to "Help", { :action => "help" }, :popup => true
# => <a href="/testing/help/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">Help</a>

link_to "View Image", @image, :popup => ['new_window_name', 'height=300,width=600']
# => <a href="/images/9" onclick="window.open(this.href,'new_window_name','height=300,width=600');return false;">View Image</a>

link_to "Delete Image", @image, :confirm => "Are you sure?", :method => :delete
# => <a href="/images/9" onclick="if (confirm('Are you sure?')) { var f = document.createElement('form');
     f.style.display = 'none'; this.parentNode.appendChild(f); f.method = 'POST'; f.action = this.href;
     var m = document.createElement('input'); m.setAttribute('type', 'hidden'); m.setAttribute('name', '_method');
     m.setAttribute('value', 'delete'); f.appendChild(m);f.submit(); };return false;">Delete Image</a>



218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
 
# File 'lib/action_view/helpers/url_helper.rb', line 218

def link_to(*args, &block)
  if block_given?
    options      = args.first || {}
    html_options = args.second
    concat(link_to(capture(&block), options, html_options))
  else
    name         = args.first
    options      = args.second || {}
    html_options = args.third

    url = url_for(options)

    if html_options
      html_options = html_options.stringify_keys
      href = html_options['href']
      convert_options_to_javascript!(html_options, url)
      tag_options = tag_options(html_options)
    else
      tag_options = nil
    end

    href_attr = "href=\"#{url}\"" unless href
    "<a #{href_attr}#{tag_options}>#{name || url}</a>".html_safe
  end
end

#link_to_if(condition, name, options = {}, html_options = {}, &block) ⇒ Object

Creates a link tag of the given name using a URL created by the set of options if condition is true, in which case only the name is returned. To specialize the default behavior, you can pass a block that accepts the name or the full argument list for link_to_unless (see the examples in link_to_unless).

Examples

<%= link_to_if(@current_user.nil?, "Login", { :controller => "sessions", :action => "new" }) %>
# If the user isn't logged in...
# => <a href="/sessions/new/">Login</a>

<%=
   link_to_if(@current_user.nil?, "Login", { :controller => "sessions", :action => "new" }) do
     link_to(@current_user.login, { :controller => "accounts", :action => "show", :id => @current_user })
   end
%>
# If the user isn't logged in...
# => <a href="/sessions/new/">Login</a>
# If they are logged in...
# => <a href="/accounts/show/3">my_username</a>



410
411
412
 
# File 'lib/action_view/helpers/url_helper.rb', line 410

def link_to_if(condition, name, options = {}, html_options = {}, &block)
  link_to_unless !condition, name, options, html_options, &block
end

#link_to_unless(condition, name, options = {}, html_options = {}, &block) ⇒ Object

Creates a link tag of the given name using a URL created by the set of options unless condition is true, in which case only the name is returned. To specialize the default behavior (i.e., show a login link rather than just the plaintext link text), you can pass a block that accepts the name or the full argument list for link_to_unless.

Examples

<%= link_to_unless(@current_user.nil?, "Reply", { :action => "reply" }) %>
# If the user is logged in...
# => <a href="/controller/reply/">Reply</a>

<%=
   link_to_unless(@current_user.nil?, "Reply", { :action => "reply" }) do |name|
     link_to(name, { :controller => "accounts", :action => "signup" })
   end
%>
# If the user is logged in...
# => <a href="/controller/reply/">Reply</a>
# If not...
# => <a href="/accounts/signup">Reply</a>



378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
 
# File 'lib/action_view/helpers/url_helper.rb', line 378

def link_to_unless(condition, name, options = {}, html_options = {}, &block)
  if condition
    if block_given?
      block.arity <= 1 ? yield(name) : yield(name, options, html_options)
    else
      name
    end
  else
    link_to(name, options, html_options)
  end
end

#link_to_unless_current(name, options = {}, html_options = {}, &block) ⇒ Object

Creates a link tag of the given name using a URL created by the set of options unless the current request URI is the same as the links, in which case only the name is returned (or the given block is yielded, if one exists). You can give link_to_unless_current a block which will specialize the default behavior (e.g., show a “Start Here” link rather than the link’s text).

Examples

Let’s say you have a navigation menu…

<ul id="navbar">
  <li><%= link_to_unless_current("Home", { :action => "index" }) %></li>
  <li><%= link_to_unless_current("About Us", { :action => "about" }) %></li>
</ul>

If in the “about” action, it will render…

<ul id="navbar">
  <li><a href="/controller/index">Home</a></li>
  <li>About Us</li>
</ul>

…but if in the “index” action, it will render:

<ul id="navbar">
  <li>Home</li>
  <li><a href="/controller/about">About Us</a></li>
</ul>

The implicit block given to link_to_unless_current is evaluated if the current action is the action given. So, if we had a comments page and wanted to render a “Go Back” link instead of a link to the comments page, we could do something like this…

<%=
    link_to_unless_current("Comment", { :controller => 'comments', :action => 'new}) do
       link_to("Go back", { :controller => 'posts', :action => 'index' })
    end
 %>



354
355
356
 
# File 'lib/action_view/helpers/url_helper.rb', line 354

def link_to_unless_current(name, options = {}, html_options = {}, &block)
  link_to_unless current_page?(options), name, options, html_options, &block
end

#mail_to(email_address, name = nil, html_options = {}) ⇒ Object

Creates a mailto link tag to the specified email_address, which is also used as the name of the link unless name is specified. Additional HTML attributes for the link can be passed in html_options.

mail_to has several methods for hindering email harvesters and customizing the email itself by passing special keys to html_options.

Options

  • :encode - This key will accept the strings “javascript” or “hex”. Passing “javascript” will dynamically create and encode the mailto: link then eval it into the DOM of the page. This method will not show the link on the page if the user has JavaScript disabled. Passing “hex” will hex encode the email_address before outputting the mailto: link.

  • :replace_at - When the link name isn’t provided, the email_address is used for the link label. You can use this option to obfuscate the email_address by substituting the @ sign with the string given as the value.

  • :replace_dot - When the link name isn’t provided, the email_address is used for the link label. You can use this option to obfuscate the email_address by substituting the . in the email with the string given as the value.

  • :subject - Preset the subject line of the email.

  • :body - Preset the body of the email.

  • :cc - Carbon Copy addition recipients on the email.

  • :bcc - Blind Carbon Copy additional recipients on the email.

Examples

mail_to "[email protected]"
# => <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>

mail_to "[email protected]", "My email", :encode => "javascript"
# => <script type="text/javascript">eval(decodeURIComponent('%64%6f%63...%27%29%3b'))</script>

mail_to "[email protected]", "My email", :encode => "hex"
# => <a href="mailto:%6d%65@%64%6f%6d%61%69%6e.%63%6f%6d">My email</a>

mail_to "[email protected]", nil, :replace_at => "_at_", :replace_dot => "_dot_", :class => "email"
# => <a href="mailto:[email protected]" class="email">me_at_domain_dot_com</a>

mail_to "[email protected]", "My email", :cc => "[email protected]",
         :subject => "This is an example email"
# => <a href="mailto:[email protected][email protected]&subject=This%20is%20an%20example%20email">My email</a>



456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
 
# File 'lib/action_view/helpers/url_helper.rb', line 456

def mail_to(email_address, name = nil, html_options = {})
  html_options = html_options.stringify_keys
  encode = html_options.delete("encode").to_s
  cc, bcc, subject, body = html_options.delete("cc"), html_options.delete("bcc"), html_options.delete("subject"), html_options.delete("body")

  string = ''
  extras = ''
  extras << "cc=#{CGI.escape(cc).gsub("+", "%20")}&" unless cc.nil?
  extras << "bcc=#{CGI.escape(bcc).gsub("+", "%20")}&" unless bcc.nil?
  extras << "body=#{CGI.escape(body).gsub("+", "%20")}&" unless body.nil?
  extras << "subject=#{CGI.escape(subject).gsub("+", "%20")}&" unless subject.nil?
  extras = "?" << extras.gsub!(/&?$/,"") unless extras.empty?

  email_address_obfuscated = html_escape(email_address)
  email_address_obfuscated.gsub!(/@/, html_options.delete("replace_at")) if html_options.has_key?("replace_at")
  email_address_obfuscated.gsub!(/\./, html_options.delete("replace_dot")) if html_options.has_key?("replace_dot")

  if encode == "javascript"
    "document.write('#{content_tag("a", name || email_address_obfuscated.html_safe, html_options.merge({ "href" => "mailto:"+email_address+extras }))}');".each_byte do |c|
      string << sprintf("%%%x", c)
    end
    "<script type=\"#{Mime::JS}\">eval(decodeURIComponent('#{string}'))</script>"
  elsif encode == "hex"
    email_address_encoded = ''
    email_address_obfuscated.each_byte do |c|
      email_address_encoded << sprintf("&#%d;", c)
    end

    protocol = 'mailto:'
    protocol.each_byte { |c| string << sprintf("&#%d;", c) }

    email_address.each_byte do |c|
      char = c.chr
      string << (char =~ /\w/ ? sprintf("%%%x", c) : char)
    end
    content_tag "a", name || email_address_encoded.html_safe, html_options.merge({ "href" => "#{string}#{extras}" })
  else
    content_tag "a", name || email_address_obfuscated.html_safe, html_options.merge({ "href" => "mailto:#{email_address}#{extras}" })
  end
end

#url_for(options = {}) ⇒ Object

Returns the URL for the set of options provided. This takes the same options as url_for in Action Controller (see the documentation for ActionController::Base#url_for). Note that by default :only_path is true so you’ll get the relative /controller/action instead of the fully qualified URL like example.com/controller/action.

When called from a view, url_for returns an HTML escaped url. If you need an unescaped url, pass :escape => false in the options.

Options

  • :anchor - Specifies the anchor name to be appended to the path.

  • :only_path - If true, returns the relative URL (omitting the protocol, host name, and port) (true by default unless :host is specified).

  • :trailing_slash - If true, adds a trailing slash, as in “/archive/2005/”. Note that this is currently not recommended since it breaks caching.

  • :host - Overrides the default (current) host if provided.

  • :protocol - Overrides the default (current) protocol if provided.

  • :user - Inline HTTP authentication (only plucked out if :password is also present).

  • :password - Inline HTTP authentication (only plucked out if :user is also present).

  • :escape - Determines whether the returned URL will be HTML escaped or not (true by default).

Relying on named routes

If you instead of a hash pass a record (like an Active Record or Active Resource) as the options parameter, you’ll trigger the named route for that record. The lookup will happen on the name of the class. So passing a Workshop object will attempt to use the workshop_path route. If you have a nested route, such as admin_workshop_path you’ll have to call that explicitly (it’s impossible for url_for to guess that route).

Examples

<%= url_for(:action => 'index') %>
# => /blog/

<%= url_for(:action => 'find', :controller => 'books') %>
# => /books/find

<%= url_for(:action => 'login', :controller => 'members', :only_path => false, :protocol => 'https') %>
# => https://www.railsapplication.com/members/login/

<%= url_for(:action => 'play', :anchor => 'player') %>
# => /messages/play/#player

<%= url_for(:action => 'checkout', :anchor => 'tax&ship') %>
# => /testing/jump/#tax&amp;ship

<%= url_for(:action => 'checkout', :anchor => 'tax&ship', :escape => false) %>
# => /testing/jump/#tax&ship

<%= url_for(Workshop.new) %>
# relies on Workshop answering a new_record? call (and in this case returning true)
# => /workshops

<%= url_for(@workshop) %>
# calls @workshop.to_s
# => /workshops/5

<%= url_for("http://www.example.com") %>
# => http://www.example.com

<%= url_for(:back) %>
# if request.env["HTTP_REFERER"] is set to "http://www.example.com"
# => http://www.example.com

<%= url_for(:back) %>
# if request.env["HTTP_REFERER"] is not set or is blank
# => javascript:history.back()



76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
 
# File 'lib/action_view/helpers/url_helper.rb', line 76

def url_for(options = {})
  options ||= {}
  url = case options
  when String
    escape = true
    options
  when Hash
    options = { :only_path => options[:host].nil? }.update(options.symbolize_keys)
    escape  = options.key?(:escape) ? options.delete(:escape) : true
    @controller.send(:url_for, options)
  when :back
    escape = false
    @controller.request.env["HTTP_REFERER"] || 'javascript:history.back()'
  else
    escape = false
    polymorphic_path(options)
  end

  escape ? escape_once(url).html_safe : url
end