rails create two views with one controller

Question

I am trying to create a photo upload function for a website, and there are two ways to upload. One is by specifying a remote url link, another is by uploading from local computer. So this requires me to write two partials. What's an efficient way to create a photo_upload view with two links to the two situations above, using the same controller for photo? I am stuck on how to pass the redirection information to the controller. Ideally I want to set a photocontroller variable called upload_source when I click on one of the links, but I don't know how to use link_to to pass such variable and where would be the best place to define this boolean variable.

Some code examples:

from the view:

  <h2>Upload a Photo: Step 1 of 3</h2>
    <br>
    <h3><strong>Where is your photo?</strong></h3>
    <br>
    <div class="button_border">
      <a href="add_photo_web">On the Web</a>
    </div>
    <div class="button_border">
      <%= link_to "On My Computer", new_photo_path%>
    </div>
  </div>

From photoController (not sure if this is the right thing to do):

  helper_method :get_source, :set_source

  private

  def set_source=(_source)
    @@source = _source
  end  

  def get_source
    @@source
  end

Helps are greatly appreciated!

Thank you all for very generous help! I am constantly amazed by the efficiency of stackoverflow.

chrispanda · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-03 07:53:44Z

2

If I understand you correctly, you could achieve what you want by having links defined like this:

link_to "On my computer", new_photo_path, :source => "local"
link_to "Remote source", new_photo_path, :source => "remote"

and then in the controller you could have something like:

def new
 if params[:source] == "local"
   render :partial => 'local'
 else
   render :partial => 'remote'
 end
end

edited Nov 3, 2011 at 7:53

answered Nov 3, 2011 at 6:27

chrispanda

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5 Comments

John Jiang Over a year ago

You advanced my understanding of the params table by quite a bit. By the way is there a good place to gain a thorough understanding of what kind of things can be put in the params table?

chrispanda Over a year ago

Think of it as the params hash, and I would start with the api apidock.com/rails/ActionView/Helpers/UrlHelper/link_to

John Jiang Over a year ago

Thanks for the link, it definitely cleared up a few things. I am currently lost about how to use the controller together with :source hash to determine which view to use. Can you give some hint on that?

John Jiang Over a year ago

So here is what I tried: <% if Photo.params[:source] = "computer" %> <%=render "photos/form" %> <% end %> which I put in the photo/new view. But apparently it doesn't work. I basically would like to create two forms, one for the computer source and the other for web, both rendered as a partial under new view.

John Jiang Over a year ago

Oh I think I figured out what to do. I need to pass the params[:source] surrounded by a pair of parentheses after new_photo_path, since the origin view does not belong to the photo class (it belongs to the chaperone class).

Callmeed · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-03 06:29:57Z

1

I know you didn't ask for UX help, but I would consider dropping this first step and simply showing the new photo form with the field you expect to by most commonly used (either a file upload field or a text field for the URL).

Then have a link to switch to the other option ... but have that link just replace the current field via javascript.

Take a look at how Tumblr does photo uploads ... same principle.

answered Nov 3, 2011 at 6:29

Callmeed

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