Relate Rails function/method to html.erb

Question

I'm a newby in Rails, and trying to use methods in html.erb instead of writing the same query several times. I've started with "Hello, World"; but, I couldn't even manage to do this. What I do;

   def Say() 
  "Hello World" 
   end

in app/models/sample.rb (sample is the name of the page by the way) and

 <% Say   %>

in views/samples/index.html.erb. The problem is, obviously, I cannot see anything like "Hello World" on the page. What should I do?

Answer 1

There are a number of things here:

• Don't use brackets is method name.
• Model is only for managing database or accessing some data that needs database processing
• Adding a @say = 'Hello World' in a controller method def index and then calling in view <%= @say %> will also do the trick, but don't get used to this approach as it commonly leads to bad habits like overuse of controller instead of models and helpers
• For this thing you can use either model or helper (as I guess "say hello" is just a test)

Maybe the best is to start tutorials from scratch and see how it is handled in rails. There are a lots of resources in rails on website: http://railscasts.com .

Even the site hasn't been updated for quite some time, I think the best resource is to start from there, especially for newbies.

Answer 2

There is helpers directory. You can create your own modules there or use default one: ApplicationHelper, which should exists in this dir. Let's create your own module.

The following makes the Say helper method available to the view:

 module MyCustomHelper
  def say 
   "Hello World" 
  end
end

In a view:

<%= say %>

Add helper module in your controller like(Rails 3):

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  helper :my_custom
end

or

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
 helper_method :my_custom
end