js.erb files not rendering partials due to a failure to pass them locals from multiple controllers

Question

I'm having trouble passing locals to a partial shared by three different views, each related to different actions in different controllers. The partial and the locals passed to it work without a problem when working with html requests, but I cannot get them to work when issuing xhr requests. Let me show you my code to explain myself better.

So, I have this partial

# app/views/shared/_vote_form.html.erb

  <div id="vote_form">
  <% if post.votes.find_by(user_id: current_user.id).nil? %>
    <%= render partial: "votes/vote", locals: { postv: post, 
                                                vote: post.votes.build } %>
  <% else %>
    <%= render partial: "votes/unvote", locals: { postu: post, 
                                                  vote: post.votes.find_by(user_id: current_user.id) } %>
  <% end %>
</div>

As you can see, this partial renders one of two partials depending on the outcome of an if statement:

# app/views/votes/_vote.html.erb

<%= form_for([postv, vote], remote: true) do |f| %>
  <%= hidden_field_tag 'vote[vote]', 1 %>      
  <%= f.submit "Vote", class: "btn" %>
<% end %>

# app/views/votes/_unvote.html.erb

<%= form_for([postu, vote], html: { method: :delete }, remote: true) do |f| %>
  <%= f.submit "Unvote", class: "btn btn-primary" %>
<% end %>

As I mentioned, this partials are shared by three different views associated to different actions in different controllers.

# app/views/posts/show.html.erb

<div class="post-vote-form">
  <%= render partial: "shared/vote_form", locals: { post: @post } %>
</div>

Which is associated to the following action in the following controller:

class PostsController < ApplicationController

  def show
    @post = Post.find(params[:id])
  end
end

Another view

# app/views/users/feed.html.erb

<% @feed_items.each do |f| %>
  <div class="vote-button">
    <%= render partial: "shared/vote_form", locals: { post: f } %>
  </div>
<% end %>

Associated to the following controller#action

class UsersController < ApplicationController

  def feed
    @user = User.find_by(id: current_user.id)
    @feed_items = @user.feed
  end
end

And finally

# app/views/categories/other.html.erb

<% @gal_items.each do |f| %>
  ...
  <%= render partial: "shared/vote_form", locals: { post: f } %>
<% end %>

Associated to controller#action

class CategoriesController < ApplicationController
  def other
    @other = Category.find(7)
    @gal_items = @other.posts
  end
end

As you can see, the forms send an xhr request to create/destroy an instance of Vote (I have routes for Vote nested in Post . That's why the form_for takes two arguments). These requests are handled by the following actions in the VotesController

class VotesController < ApplicationController

  def create
    @post = Post.find_by(id: params[:post_id])
    @vote = @post.votes.build(vote_params)
    @vote.user_id = current_user.id
    @vote.save
    respond_to do |format|
      format.html { redirect_to @post }
      format.js 
    end
  end

  def destroy
    @vote.destroy
    respond_to do |format|
      format.html { redirect_to @post }
      format.js
    end
  end
end

And these two js.erb files come into play:

# app/views/votes/create.js.erb

$("#vote_form").html("<%= escape_javascript(render :partial => 'votes/unvote', locals: { postu: @post,
                                                                                      vote: @post.votes.find_by(user_id: current_user.id)}) %>");

And

# app/views/votes/destroy.js.erb

$("#vote_form").html("<%= escape_javascript(render :partial => 'votes/vote', locals: { postv: @post.each,
                                                                                   vote: @post.votes.build }) %>");

The way I am presenting these last two js.erb files work for the view # app/views/posts/show.html.erb as the values for the locals are taken directly from the VotesController actions, but I have not been able to find a way to make it work for the other two views (which are @something.each do |f| ) that render these partials, as I cannot pass the appropriate values to the locals for the form_for arguments to work. I have tried with a helper to pass values to the locals depending on the url, but without success. It seems obvious that I cannot get these js.erb files to render the partials with appropriate values for the locals because I cannot retrieve the variables from their respective controllers.

So, bottomline, is there a way to make it work through these js.erb files, or will I have to sort this out using pure JQuery? Has anyone faced something like this? I am sorry that I cannot make a question that requires a more specific answer. Hope you guys can help.

Answer 1

Did you try this?

class UsersController < ApplicationController

  def feed
    @post = Post.find(params[:id])
    @user = User.find_by(id: current_user.id)
    @feed_items = @user.feed
  end
end

class CategoriesController < ApplicationController
  def other
    @post = Post.find(params[:id])
    @other = Category.find(7)
    @gal_items = @other.posts
  end
end