Rails: Render view from outside controller

Question

I\'m trying to create an HTML string using a view. I would like to render this from a class that is not a controller. How can I use the rails rendering engine outside a co

Answer 1

"I'm trying to create an HTML string using a view." -- If you mean you're in the context of a view template, then just use a helper method or render a partial.

If you're in some other "Plain Old Ruby Object", then keep in mind you're free to use the ERB module directly:

erb = ERB.new("path/to/template")
result = erb.result(binding)

The trick is getting that 'binding' object that gives the context for the code in the template. ActionController and other Rails classes expose it for free, but I couldn't find a reference that explains where it comes from.

http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib-2.2.0/libdoc/erb/rdoc/ERB.html#method-i-result

Answer 2

For future reference, I ended up finding this handy gem that makes this a breeze:

https://github.com/yappbox/render_anywhere