Method: PublicActivity::Renderable#render

Defined in:
lib/public_activity/renderable.rb

#render(context, params = {}) ⇒ nil

Renders activity from views.

Renders activity to the given ActionView context with included AV::Helpers::RenderingHelper (most commonly just ActionView::Base)

The preferred way of rendering activities is to provide a template specifying how the rendering should be happening. However, one may choose using I18n based approach when developing an application that supports plenty of languages.

If partial view exists that matches the key attribute renders that partial with local variables set to contain both Activity and activity_parameters (hash with indifferent access)

Otherwise, it outputs the I18n translation to the context

Layouts

You can supply a layout that will be used for activity partials with :layout param. Keep in mind that layouts for partials are also partials.

Custom Layout Location

You can customize the layout directory by supplying :layout_root or by using an absolute path.

Creating a template

To use templates for formatting how the activity should render, create a template based on activity key, for example:

Given a key activity.article.create, create directory tree app/views/public_activity/article/ and create the create partial there

Note that if a key consists of more than three parts splitted by commas, your directory structure will have to be deeper, for example:

activity.article.comments.destroy => app/views/public_activity/articles/comments/_destroy.html.erb

Custom Directory

You can override the default ‘public_directory` template root with the :root parameter

Variables in templates

From within a template there are two variables at your disposal:

  • activity (aliased as a for a shortcut)

  • params (aliased as p) [converted into a HashWithIndifferentAccess]

Examples:

Render a list of all activities from a view (erb)

<ul>
  <% for activity in PublicActivity::Activity.all %>
   <li><%= render_activity(activity) %></li>
  <% end %>
</ul>

Supply a layout

# in views:
#   All examples look for a layout in app/views/layouts/_activity.erb
 render_activity @activity, :layout => "activity"
 render_activity @activity, :layout => "layouts/activity"
 render_activity @activity, :layout => :activity

# app/views/layouts/_activity.erb
<p><%= a.created_at %></p>
<%= yield %>

Declare custom layout location


# Both examples look for a layout in "app/views/custom/_layout.erb"

 render_activity @activity, :layout_root => "custom"
 render_activity @activity, :layout      => "/custom/layout"

Custom template root

# look for templates inside of /app/views/custom instead of /app/views/public_directory
render_activity @activity, :root => "custom"

Template for key: activity.article.create (erb)

<p>
  Article <strong><%= p[:name] %></strong>
  was written by <em><%= p["author"] %></em>
  <%= distance_of_time_in_words_to_now(a.created_at) %>
</p>

Parameters:

  • context (ActionView::Base)

Returns:

  • (nil) —

    nil

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# File 'lib/public_activity/renderable.rb', line 99

def render(context, params = {})
  partial_root  = params.delete(:root)         || 'public_activity'
  partial_path  = nil
  layout_root   = params.delete(:layout_root)  || 'layouts'

  if params.has_key? :display
    if params[:display].to_sym == :"i18n"
      text = self.text(params)
      return context.render :text => text, :plain => text
    else
      partial_path = File.join(partial_root, params[:display].to_s)
    end
  end

  context.render(
    params.merge({
      :partial => prepare_partial(partial_root, partial_path),
      :layout  => prepare_layout(layout_root, params.delete(:layout)),
      :locals  => prepare_locals(params)
    })
  )
end