How to render html + string in link_to anchor?

Question

In a Rails app I have helper methods that render html snippets, e.g. Twitter bootstrap fonts

def edit_icon
  content_tag(:i, "", :class=>'icon-edit')
end

I want to display this in a link anchor with additional text appended. e.g.

<%= link_to "#{edit_icon} Edit this Record", edit_record_path(@record) %>

This is currently rendering the content_tag as a string, not as HTML. How do I render it as HTML?

I experimented with <%= link_to "#{raw edit_icon} and <%= link_to "#{edit_icon.html_safe}, but these don't seem to be what I need in this case.

Thanks for any ideas.

Gabriel Yarra · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-03 14:44:05Z

5

The issue is Rails string interpolation transforms the HTML output of content_tag into a "safe" format. The fixes you tried both operate before string interpolation is applied, which won't work

Fixing the problem requires just a small change: move the method call outside of the string.

Do this:
    <%= link_to edit_icon + "Edit this Record", edit_record_path(@record) %>
Instead of:
     <%= link_to "#{edit_icon} Edit this Record", edit_record_path(@record) %>

answered Jun 3, 2012 at 14:44

Gabriel Yarra

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2 Comments

Andy Harvey Over a year ago

perfect! Can you suggest any good sources of information that explain this? Or, in other words, where should I have been looking to figure this out myself? Thanks once again!

Gabriel Yarra Over a year ago

Here's a pretty good explanation yehudakatz.com/2010/02/01/safebuffers-and-rails-3-0 I think I learned this from reading The Rails 3 Way, by Obie Fernandez, about a year ago.

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