Dynamically Generating jQuery script in Rails 3 application

Question

I have following jQuery script in application.js for Rails 3 application. I like to make url parameter to be dynamically generated. For example id value in people controller needs to generated base on a parameter from the controller. The problem is that jQuery script in application.js is static so i'm not sure how to make a section of the code to be dynamic i.e. to accept parameters from the controller. please let me know if have some ideas and i greatly appreciated.

jQuery("#paactions").jqGrid({
    url: 'people/123456/pa.json',
    datatype: 'json',
    height: 'auto',
    pager: false,
    viewrecords: true,
    colNames: ['id', 'indexno', 'site', 'effective', 'processed', 'code', 'action',
               'officer', 'remarks'],
    colModel: [
        {name: 'id', index: 'key', width:50, key:true, hidden:true},
        {name: 'indexno', index: 'indexno', width:50, hidden:true},
        {name: 'site', index: 'site', width:4, hidden:false},
        {name: 'effective', index: 'effective', width:7},
        {name: 'processed', index: 'processed', width:7},
        {name: 'code', index: 'code', width:5, resizable: false, sortable:false},
        {name: 'action', index: 'action', width:15},
        {name: 'officer', index: 'officer', width:10},
        {name: 'remarks', index: 'remarks', width:50},
    ],
    caption: "Personnel Actions",
    autowidth: true,
    //width: 180,
    rowNum: 20
});

Could you include the example of the HTML page which loads and use the application.js? There are different ways do do this it would be interesting to know which one you use. You can use url: myurl. The problem is only where it is better for you to set the value of myurl variable. — Oleg
– Oleg, Commented Mar 30, 2011 at 22:12

ctide · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-30 23:24:44Z

1

In a partial called _variables.haml:

:javascript
  var user = '#{current_user.email}';
  var paactions_url = '#{@paactions_url}';

In your controller:

@paactions_url = paactions_url

In your view:

= render :partial => "variables"

In your javascript:

jQuery("#paactions").jqGrid({
    url: paactions_url,
    datatype: 'json',
    height: 'auto',
    pager: false,
    viewrecords: true,
    colNames: ['id', 'indexno', 'site', 'effective', 'processed', 'code', 'action',
               'officer', 'remarks'],
    colModel: [
        {name: 'id', index: 'key', width:50, key:true, hidden:true},
        {name: 'indexno', index: 'indexno', width:50, hidden:true},
        {name: 'site', index: 'site', width:4, hidden:false},
        {name: 'effective', index: 'effective', width:7},
        {name: 'processed', index: 'processed', width:7},
        {name: 'code', index: 'code', width:5, resizable: false, sortable:false},
        {name: 'action', index: 'action', width:15},
        {name: 'officer', index: 'officer', width:10},
        {name: 'remarks', index: 'remarks', width:50},
    ],
    caption: "Personnel Actions",
    autowidth: true,
    //width: 180,
    rowNum: 20
});

Or switch haml to erb, or whatever templating language you're using. I'd also recommending namespacing the javascript you add there, but I don't know what your javascript looks like.

edited Mar 30, 2011 at 23:24

answered Mar 30, 2011 at 22:14

ctide

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1 Comment

amj Over a year ago

Hi ctide, thank you for your comment. I would be really greatful if you could provide some code example as i'm not sure how to do this. many thanks,

Douglas F Shearer · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-30 22:21:51Z

1

Add a meta tag to your layout which can contain the URL, the grab this as part of your script.

In the layout:

<meta name="person-url" content="/people/<%= @person.id %>/pa.json"/>

Of course you only need to render this when the appropriate instance variables are present.

In your JS:

url: $("meta[name=person-url]").attr('content')

Is find this technique very useful when I want my JS to be as unobtrusive as possible.

answered Mar 30, 2011 at 22:21

Douglas F Shearer

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