Module: ActionView::Helpers::TextHelper

The preferred method of outputting text in your views is to use the <%= "text" %> eRuby syntax. The regular puts and print methods do not operate as expected in an eRuby code block. If you absolutely must output text within a non-output code block (i.e., <% %>), you can use the concat method.

Examples

<%
    concat "hello"
    # is the equivalent of <%= "hello" %>

    if logged_in
      concat "Logged in!"
    else
      concat link_to('login', :action => login)
    end
    # will either display "Logged in!" or a login link
%>

Returns the current cycle string after a cycle has been started. Useful for complex table highlighting or any other design need which requires the current cycle string in more than one place.

Example

# Alternate background colors
@items = [1,2,3,4]
<% @items.each do |item| %>
  <div style="background-color:<%= cycle("red","white","blue") %>">
    <span style="background-color:<%= current_cycle %>"><%= item %></span>
  </div>
<% end %>

Creates a Cycle object whose to_s method cycles through elements of an array every time it is called. This can be used for example, to alternate classes for table rows. You can use named cycles to allow nesting in loops. Passing a Hash as the last parameter with a :name key will create a named cycle. The default name for a cycle without a :name key is "default". You can manually reset a cycle by calling reset_cycle and passing the name of the cycle. The current cycle string can be obtained anytime using the current_cycle method.

Examples

 # Alternate CSS classes for even and odd numbers...
 @items = [1,2,3,4]
 <table>
 <% @items.each do |item| %>
   <tr class="<%= cycle("even", "odd") -%>">
     <td>item</td>
   </tr>
 <% end %>
 </table>

 # Cycle CSS classes for rows, and text colors for values within each row
 @items = x = [{:first => 'Robert', :middle => 'Daniel', :last => 'James'},
              {:first => 'Emily', :middle => 'Shannon', :maiden => 'Pike', :last => 'Hicks'},
             {:first => 'June', :middle => 'Dae', :last => 'Jones'}]
 <% @items.each do |item| %>
   <tr class="<%= cycle("odd", "even", :name => "row_class") -%>">
     <td>
       <% item.values.each do |value| %>
         <%# Create a named cycle "colors" %>
         <span style="color:<%= cycle("red", "green", "blue", :name => "colors") -%>">
           <%= value %>
         </span>
       <% end %>
       <% reset_cycle("colors") %>
     </td>
  </tr>
<% end %>

Extracts an excerpt from text that matches the first instance of phrase. The :radius option expands the excerpt on each side of the first occurrence of phrase by the number of characters defined in :radius (which defaults to 100). If the excerpt radius overflows the beginning or end of the text, then the :omission option (which defaults to "...") will be prepended/appended accordingly. The resulting string will be stripped in any case. If the phrase isn't found, nil is returned.

Examples

excerpt('This is an example', 'an', :radius => 5)
# => ...s is an exam...

excerpt('This is an example', 'is', :radius => 5)
# => This is a...

excerpt('This is an example', 'is')
# => This is an example

excerpt('This next thing is an example', 'ex', :radius => 2)
# => ...next...

excerpt('This is also an example', 'an', :radius => 8, :omission => '<chop> ')
# => <chop> is also an example

You can still use excerpt with the old API that accepts the radius as its optional third and the ellipsis as its optional forth parameter:

excerpt('This is an example', 'an', 5)                   # => ...s is an exam...
excerpt('This is also an example', 'an', 8, '<chop> ')   # => <chop> is also an example

Highlights one or more phrases everywhere in text by inserting it into a :highlighter string. The highlighter can be specialized by passing :highlighter as a single-quoted string with 1 where the phrase is to be inserted (defaults to '<strong class="highlight">1</strong>')

Examples

highlight('You searched for: rails', 'rails')
# => You searched for: <strong class="highlight">rails</strong>

highlight('You searched for: ruby, rails, dhh', 'actionpack')
# => You searched for: ruby, rails, dhh

highlight('You searched for: rails', ['for', 'rails'], :highlighter => '<em>\1</em>')
# => You searched <em>for</em>: <em>rails</em>

highlight('You searched for: rails', 'rails', :highlighter => '<a href="search?q=\1">\1</a>')
# => You searched for: <a href="search?q=rails">rails</a>

You can still use highlight with the old API that accepts the highlighter as its optional third parameter:

highlight('You searched for: rails', 'rails', '<a href="search?q=\1">\1</a>')     # => You searched for: <a href="search?q=rails">rails</a>

Attempts to pluralize the singular word unless count is 1. If plural is supplied, it will use that when count is > 1, otherwise it will use the Inflector to determine the plural form

Examples

pluralize(1, 'person')
# => 1 person

pluralize(2, 'person')
# => 2 people

pluralize(3, 'person', 'users')
# => 3 users

pluralize(0, 'person')
# => 0 people

Resets a cycle so that it starts from the first element the next time it is called. Pass in name to reset a named cycle.

Example

# Alternate CSS classes for even and odd numbers...
@items = [[1,2,3,4], [5,6,3], [3,4,5,6,7,4]]
<table>
<% @items.each do |item| %>
  <tr class="<%= cycle("even", "odd") -%>">
      <% item.each do |value| %>
        <span style="color:<%= cycle("#333", "#666", "#999", :name => "colors") -%>">
          <%= value %>
        </span>
      <% end %>

      <% reset_cycle("colors") %>
  </tr>
<% end %>
</table>

Returns text transformed into HTML using simple formatting rules. Two or more consecutive newlines(\n\n) are considered as a paragraph and wrapped in <p> tags. One newline (\n) is considered as a linebreak and a <br /> tag is appended. This method does not remove the newlines from the text.

You can pass any HTML attributes into html_options. These will be added to all created paragraphs.

Examples

my_text = "Here is some basic text...\n...with a line break."

simple_format(my_text)
# => "<p>Here is some basic text...\n<br />...with a line break.</p>"

more_text = "We want to put a paragraph...\n\n...right there."

simple_format(more_text)
# => "<p>We want to put a paragraph...</p>\n\n<p>...right there.</p>"

simple_format("Look ma! A class!", :class => 'description')
# => "<p class='description'>Look ma! A class!</p>"

Truncates a given text after a given :length if text is longer than :length (defaults to 30). The last characters will be replaced with the :omission (defaults to "...") for a total length not exceeding :length.

Pass a :separator to truncate text at a natural break.

The result is not marked as HTML-safe, so will be subject to the default escaping when used in views, unless wrapped by raw(). Care should be taken if text contains HTML tags or entities, because truncation may produce invalid HTML (such as unbalanced or incomplete tags).

Examples

truncate("Once upon a time in a world far far away")
# => "Once upon a time in a world..."

truncate("Once upon a time in a world far far away", :length => 17)
# => "Once upon a ti..."

truncate("Once upon a time in a world far far away", :length => 17, :separator => ' ')
# => "Once upon a..."

truncate("And they found that many people were sleeping better.", :length => 25, :omission => '... (continued)')
# => "And they f... (continued)"

truncate("<p>Once upon a time in a world far far away</p>")
# => "<p>Once upon a time in a wo..."

Wraps the text into lines no longer than line_width width. This method breaks on the first whitespace character that does not exceed line_width (which is 80 by default).

Examples

word_wrap('Once upon a time')
# => Once upon a time

word_wrap('Once upon a time, in a kingdom called Far Far Away, a king fell ill, and finding a successor to the throne turned out to be more trouble than anyone could have imagined...')
# => Once upon a time, in a kingdom called Far Far Away, a king fell ill, and finding\n a successor to the throne turned out to be more trouble than anyone could have\n imagined...

word_wrap('Once upon a time', :line_width => 8)
# => Once upon\na time

word_wrap('Once upon a time', :line_width => 1)
# => Once\nupon\na\ntime

You can still use word_wrap with the old API that accepts the line_width as its optional second parameter:

word_wrap('Once upon a time', 8)     # => Once upon\na time