Rails: How do I re-render a partial view on a page?

Question

I have a webpage with a partial view that has a button and displays some information. When the user clicks the button in this partial view, I need to be able to update that partial view from the controller within the action that gets called. Specifically, there is a string that I want to update. Here is my code so far, but it's not working..

partial view (_printLabel.rhtml)

<% if @printAsinEnabled %>
           <%= check_box_tag(:needPrint, :needPrint, false,
             :onchange => "if (this.checked) $('printLabelAction').show(); else $('printLabelAction').hide();") %>
             <%=_('Need to print label?')%><br /><br />
             <div id="printLabelAction" class="action" style="display:none;">
               <% onPrintLabelClick = generateAjaxRequest(
                   {:controller => @controller.controller_name,
                    :action => 'processPrintLabelRequest',
                    :creturnWipItemId => creturnWipItemId,
                    :barcode => collectedItemData.fnsku,
                    :title => asinInfo["title"]},
                   ["parameters: Form.serializeElements([$('printerAddress'),$('printerRemote_true'),$('printerRemote_false')])"]) %>
               <%=_('Printing')%>: <%= collectedItemData.fnsku %> <br /> <br />
             <%= radio_button_tag(:printerRemote, :false, !session[:printRemote]) %>
             <label for="printerRemote_false"><%=_('Local Printer')%></label> <br />
             <%= radio_button_tag(:printerRemote, :true, session[:printRemote]) %>
             <label for="printerRemote_true"><%=_('Remote Printer')%> - <%=_('Printer Address')%>:</label>
             <%= text_field_tag(:printerAddress, session[:printerAddress],
               :onchange => onPrintLabelClick,
               :onclick => "$('printerRemote_true').checked = true")%> <br />
             <div style="text-align:right;">
               <%= button_to_function(_("Print Label"), onPrintLabelClick) %>
             </div>
             <%=_('Error?')%>: <%= errorMessage %> <br /> <br />
           </div>

Here is the div where it gets rendered originally:

<div id="Block_asinSummary" class="block">
...
...
   <td height="200px" width ="70%">
     <%= link_to asinInfo["title"], asinInfo["link"], :target => "_blank" %><br/><br/>
     <% if !asinInfo["clothingSize"].nil? %>
       <b><%= _('Size')%>:&nbsp</b> <%= asinInfo["clothingSize"]%><br>
     <% end %>
     <font size='1'>
        <% sku = collectedItemData.displaySku %>
        <% if sku != collectedItemData.asin%>
          <b>SKU:</b> <%= sku %><br>
        <% else %>
          <b>ASIN:</b> <%= collectedItemData.asin %>
        <% end %>

        <%= render(:partial => 'printLabel', :locals => { :creturnWipItemId => creturnWipItemId, :collectedItemData => collectedItemData, :asinInfo => asinInfo, :errorMessage => "HI" })%>
     </font>         
   </td>
  </tr>
</table>
...
...
<% end %>

And here is the controller code that is supposed to update "errorMessage" with a new string when clicked:

render(:partial => 'printLabel', :layout => false, :locals => { :creturnWipItemId => creturnWipItemId, :collectedItemData => @collectedItemData, :asinInfo => asinInfo, :errorMessage => "Bye" })

I am not seeing any errors from this, but the errorMessage string is not updating from "HI" to "Bye".

Answer 1

You can't call render partial from your controller. Instead, render the template and pass a different error message to the partial using an instance variable.