How to change to view helper method?

Question

I am working on a app where you can add task etc. I know this is kind of weird but I just like to see how others would implement this. How would you change the following code into a helper method and use it?

The original code

<h2>My Tasks</h2>
<% task = @work.tasks %>
<% if task.empty? %>
  <%= link_to 'Create a new task', new_task_path %>
<% else %>
  <%= render :partial => 'notes/note', :locals => {:note => @note} %>
<% end %>

My way of doing a helper method

def task_check
  task = @work.tasks 
  if task.empty? 
    link_to 'Create a new task', new_task_path
  else 
    render :partial => 'notes/note', :locals => {:note => @note} 
  end 
end

In my view

<%= @work.task_check %>

Answer 1

Personally, I wouldn't extract this out at all, this is view logic and it belongs in the views. It definitely doesn't belong in a model, but it could arguably be extracted into a helper. I'd change it slightly:

<h2>My Tasks</h2>
<% if @work.tasks.blank? %>
  <%= link_to 'Create a new task', new_task_path %>
<% else %>
  <%= render :partial => 'notes/note', :locals => {:note => @note} %>
<% end %>

Calling blank? instead of empty? will work even if @work.tasks is nil

.

Answer 2

You can't define a helper in the model. It won't have access to render , link_to or any other controller or view methods. So just define your method almost exactly as is in a file in your helpers directory, maybe application_helpers.rb or work_helpers.rb :

def task_check(work, note)
  task = work.tasks 
  if task.empty? 
    link_to 'Create a new task', new_task_path
  else 
    render :partial => 'notes/note', :locals => {:note => note} 
  end 
end

And then call it in your view like so:

<%= task_check(work, note) %>